Creating a Birch Bonsai Forest, Part 1 The Bonsai Zone, Oct 2019
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ต.ค. 2019
- I'm helping Jonathan create his Birch Bonsai Forest. We start with a bit of engineering to create a forest from his memories!
The trees used in this forest are Betula pendula, commonly known as silver birch, European white birch, or East Asian white birch.
The silver birch is Finland's national tree! - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
Thats my grandfather!!! So happy you got him on the show, can't wait for another feature! Great video
your grandad is a proper OG, a bonsai DAWG.
Congrats. By any chance, does your grandfather hail from brooklyn (originally)? What a nice, interesting, inventive man. Must be sweet to have a grandpa like this.
Hi Jonathan and Nigel... I’m in the thousand of course but we all know life is first... I’m just happy to be here.. what an experience!!! This is an excellent project... thanks for sharing!!!
What a pot and a great idea with the trellis work in the pot👍
Except after all the roots intertwine into it. That'll be fun untangling lol..
I love this planting so much! I really enjoy watching you work with others also. Thanks for taking the time to record, edit, and share what you do-it’s much appreciated!
I love the long video and watching a project from the very beginning. I started watching you 3 years ago and just now feel confident enough to get my first Bonsai. Wish me luck! lol
Good luck
Nothing brightens already darkening autumnal days than two man struggling with a lovely snow white bark birches! 😁🌳
I love that species. Here in Czech Republic these trees are almost everywhere. I have little seedlings unintentionally in every pot, just letting them grow and from time to time I'm adding them to my already grown forest group also planning it for the future composition as a resemblence to one of our backyard forest with other tree species and a rocky hill.
And do not much worry about dying back of branches. Although there are some fungal diseases of birches across the world, which would eventually and inevitably kill the tree, in general it's normal because these are not such hardy trees and just like for example willows they sometimes loose few branches due to frost, drought, etc. But in the other hand they are also very vigorous and it's fun to work with them.
I wish Jonathan's trees good health! 🙏
Send a photo?
Thanks so do I
This video was an AWESOME birthday present thaaanks Nigel !!!!!
Happy Birthday!
Basti V thank you !!! 🙏🏻
Love the long videos. The guests and guest plants are really fun too. I look forward to your videos more than any other kind of content. Im up too 175 trees, shrubs, and such now.
I have pot envy.......
This is amazing! I love birch trees, watching you put together a birch forest is about the best thing that could have happened right now. Good luck with the pruning and finishing, can't wait to see it!
Nigel, I am in love with your watering can. Great video as always, keep em coming!
Looking like a beautiful forest shaping up. When I was a kid, my parents bought a house with a huge paper birch in the front yard. Biggest one I've ever seen, with about a 3 foot (1 meter) diameter. When we played hide and seek, we used it as the goal, and you could hide behind it and the person who was 'it' couldn't see you.
Beautiful job gentlemen. n front of my subdivision has a role of burch trees with their barks peel off. They are lovely to look at.
Oh my goodness! I love Birch! I'm going to have to sell some of my aquariums to make room for trees LOL
Can't wait for part two!
I planted a small False Aralia forest a few months ago, but I just kind of went for it and didn't plan it out. Now I have a way that I can arrange and replant it in the spring. Thank you! Beautiful work as always.
Watched this while I ate lunch, Thank you Nigel!
Nice work. Lovely layout. Love the engineers approach 😊 Birch trees really look awesome as a forest planting in my opinion. Thanks for sharing.
Creating a Birch Bonsai forest has been an inspiring event. Focus, Patience and following natures many ways. Thanks so much.
Happy to watch this grand project from two bonsai experts. Eagerly waiting for the 2nd part.
Jonathan is right Birches are difficult. (Minutes 3-4). Here in Europe you can observe the dying of inner and lower branches also. The reason is that the Birches are concentrating their "power" on the higher and outer branches (with the most light). The same with bonsai-birches; so I would never try to maintain a birch forest in bonsai-style. If you can live with the throwing off of branches, then of course you can do it.
Such a cool project! Cant wait for part 2.
Love this Forest planting and Birch should be used more in Bonsai planting.
Another Great video Nigel! It was amazing to watch you two work together to create the birch forest. The final result is amazing!
Hello sir
Very informative video. Thanks for sharing.
I took my time to watch this video, unlike normally, I do it in the evening (not with the morning coffee). Birches and their varieties and the beautiful white bark are lovely, so I wanted to have my full concentration on this one. It really was worth it!
These are beautiful trees, I haven't seen this kind before. I love how Jonathan has thought this through and made the plans beforehand for the planting and how he explains his views for the trees. The pot is gorgeous! And this seems like teamwork at its best, two great minds.......
That being said, I'd like to collect a dwarf birch (Betula nana) from the fells in Finnish Lapland, but since they mostly seem to spread from the roots , I wouldn't want to disturb the environment they live in too much. Probably because of the frost in the ground for most part of the year, the root system is wide and it causes the trees to be hard to collect. Also, as I live in southern Finland, they (if I managed to collect one) would probably dislike the weather conditions. Perhaps being in a pot with sparse nutrition and so forth they might do well tho...
Cheers and waiting for the next part ^^,
Hi Aiji; From my experience trees from the wild seem to defy all odds, meaning the can adapt well. Your seasonal circumstances are more familiar to you than I. Remember, Plan plan plan then execute...Good luck
@@jonathanaristone2468 Thanks. Hopefully I will find a plant suitable enough to collect without disturbing the delicate nature up at the bare fells ^^,
What a beautiful planting. You and Johnathan must have been exhausted after all of that hard work. I can't wait to see part 2...
Hello there Nigel, I have been following you now since April 2015, showing and sharing information on Bonsai soil and been following you ever since, Thank you for sharing info about Bonsais I really enjoy your channel. A Big thumbs up
Very much enjoyed this video!
From Philippines with 💕. I hope we have that kind of tree specie here. What I had encountered is a black bark tree but a thin trunk. You both inspires me. Thank you😇
Wow! I really like this forest! It was interesting how the plans had to be changed slightly to fit it together.
What an enjoyable collab!
It was very nice having Jonathon down to make a video together, a fun day!
Wow tons of roots! Love the project.
This is a truly brilliant video on constructing a forest, and those birch trees are beautiful. I have my huge pot and extending bamboo frame ready and will be ordering some birch trees as soon as we move into spring.
AMAZING. Well done guys.
Thank you Phil!
The sap rices realy quick in sunny spring days, so when the temperature drops at night, they tend to freece. Thats why branches dies in spring. Some people here tap the sap like you do with maple. The roots are very sensytive, so I dont beleave they will like the life as bonzai, but it's a fun projekt! And I hope it will work!! In sweden we call birch björk. ("Bioark" is nearly how you proununce it.) Sorry for my crapy english! Love youre vids!! Very interesting. 😋
Your thought process makes sense. I will keep this in my thoughts and try to accommodate for freeze and thaws in the future. Thanks
Here in the UK we have found that any cut into the hard wood will have to be sealed; otherwise there will be considerable die back. You can pinch back the soft new shoots with no problem. Good luck with the forest.
Finally Birches! Thank you!
Cool & informative!
Thank you!
That was really cool and informative
Looking forward for part 2
omg JONATHAN just let Nigel do his MAGIC
What a terrific project to take on. It’s fun to see you guys working together as a team to tackle some tricky Bonsai crafting. The difficulty with wiring the trees to the grid shows that it can be hard to anticipate all the practical nuances when endeavoring to put new ideas and materials into use. Now you know not to wire the grid too tightly to the bottom of the pot.
That's awesome....
This is an amazing video can’t wait for part two thanks guys👍😊😊😊
I really enjoyed this one. Great project!
This is easily the most interesting bonsai video I’ve ever seen. Great job guys!
I have birch seedlings I have been growing in a pot next year I was planning to make a forest 🌳 out of them and they still not that thick trunk yet beautiful 🙏🏼
Birch trees live fast and die young. They are pioneer trees.
Just like rock and rollers!
The Engineers' thoughts and planning on Bonsai aesthetics are greatly appreciated.
Excellent video look forward for part two
Great work beautiful composition! You should have try to tie together the clump for getting the tree munch closer. In this situation I use a cotton or jute wire, it will keep the root together meanwhile the tree better establish in the new pot. But in 2 or 3 months this kind of wire will dissolve into the soil. I hate to used aluminum wire on the root because I always thought that if you forget to remove it, the wire will strangle the roots :(
I know this was 2019, I thoroughly enjoyed it
Inspired me to start a ficus forest from cuttings. The cutting are coming off a mature and pot bound tree which will also become a bonsai
Awesome Minnie, you'll have a good looking forest in no time!
Very Interesting project, looking forward to part two. Thank You.
I'll pot up a bonsai forest one day. For now I just need to keep my five trees alive.
I accidentally defoliated my lime tree after it set fruit. It's still in the nursery pot. It kept getting blown over, and I may have missed watering it. All but one leaf, and six of the ten limes dropped. I tied it down, watered it, and was lucky, it set new leaves.
Maybe
I loved climbing at Lions Head.
Very nice information sir
i have some monster forest plantings i use wire mesh the same way , but yea nice one good idea,
You Canadians sure love your pot, that's a big one.
Instead of stones try dowel rods. Can even purchase similar thicknesses as the trunks in the forest.
Nice
Wouldn’t the ultimate success of the project have a better chance of survival if done in the spring?
that was my thought
Autumn is pretty much like a second spring, some trees tend to grow after a hot summer, although less vigorously than they would in Spring.
My understanding was that these kind of activities should be performed in early spring. Are there no concerns the trees will not survive the procedure shortly before winter ?
I'm sure they'll go into a greenhouse, but I wouldn't have tried that unless they were dormant
As far as I know Nigel, I dont think they will have any problem surviving, Right Nigel?
All the sap would leak out of the birch trees in the spring, read up, they are similar to maples.
i want a white ( paper ) birch ! maybe someday ! 👍
If you're patience level is high enough, those sprouts around where tree meets the substrate, will add some _serious_ girth to the base of the trunk. The tree senses the growing weight of the limb and starts giving priority to the base beneath it, to support the future weight. Itjust takes a few years of looking _really_ annoying. It's like therapy if you ocd. Especially, when you finally prune it off and reap the reward of your patience with an overly exaggerated conical trunk base.
Thanks Walt, we''l keep this in mind when it comes time to prune!
Hmm. It's gonna be fun untangling roots from that bamboo grate in the future when a repot is due.. 😉
The bottom of the rootball gets cut completely off during a repot, so what's the issue?
@@ericbrown4761 No. Once the roots get thick enough you can't just hack them all off at the base.. You have to keep fibrous roots on the plant to have the best chance of survival
Should rot and degrade by then and just fall apart.
@@rhysbertrand8903 That was our thought on this, but nothing is impossible to figure out. Part of the journey in Bonsai.
@@TTime685 you remove thick roots and they will produce more and finer roots closer to the trunk, provided they use the right kind of soil. Lava does this extremely well
very inspiring. thanks
i live in Australia and ive never had a birch last more than 10 years..they do just drop dead for no reason,even ones in the garden
Hi As I indicated I first planted a tree from the wild in 1972, Those trees with care are still going strong today, so I hope m past experience will help me now with this planting.
A nice project. Too bad that the background at the end of the video is a bit unhappy.
Unfortunately you can not see the details of the design due to the tree in the background. Would be nice if you can show the design again on a different background.
Birch die back is usually caused by water flow being drawn to a dominant region. Be tough on the apex as birch are apically dominant and as such more leaves = More evaporation and more water flow to that region
Pruning should be done like all deciduous. Cut the elongating bud back to 2 nodes. Let those nodes elongate, cut back those new nodes to 2 again.
BE TOUGH ON THE APEX!!!!!
Thank you Rhys, we'll do that! Thank you for some great advice on Birch trees!
Thank Sir will keep this in mind.
Love forest bonsai... not a big fan of the makeshift bamboo riser just cause of the potential for mold and wood rot so close to the root structure. It will be interesting to see this in the future.
Any concerns with transplanting this time of year?
im 2:50 seconds in and hes descibed my first experience with Birch, my tree is now 10 years old
All my Birch trees got bugs. Something got in to the wood to feed. That killed to trees ability to transport water and nutrients. Cut open the dead wood and find holes and larvae
Awesomeness
I’m wondering if you could have used a small diamond drill to drill additional holes for tie down wires.
You probably could, but it might weaken the pots tolerance for freezing?
I really wish you would at least talk about the soil composition. Posting it in the description would be even better.
Could you use a white backdrop for filming as the composition blended into the trees behind? Thanks for an interesting theme.
Nigel, where on earth do you get your root rakes? I love the design with their more rounded prongs which are presumably a bit gentler than the vast majority that are available. I would love to know where you get yours!
I would venture to guess the brass rootrake wasn't quite so rounded when he firdt started using it. Brass is a soft metal and likely wore down over the years.
canoeguide ,, I think I remember him mentioning in an earlier video that it came with a children’s garden set.
👍👌
Curious, the clump of three grown close will they merge together as in become 1?
These are everywhere here in EU. The bark is used to start campfires, it burns better than paper.
I'll have to give that a try! Thanks Stepan!
Do you think this branch death may be because a tree rejects low energy-producing plants in favour of repurposing the materials elsewhere in the tree?
more likely that warm early winter causing sap flow then a freeze causing the sap to solidify in the small branches and that causing them to die.
Maybe a 2021 update?
i want to make a sugar maple forest my dads house has tons and tons of sugar maple saplings in it from our big maples
That would be really cool, sugar maples are great for bonsai!
Even with the video edits, I've noticed the energy and tension between the two on how much of the roots can be cut away. No?
I think sometimes the technique and design needs to be tailored to the individual who owns the tree. I am used to bare rooting a tree and hopefully giving it the proper aftercare required for this technique to work. This technique isn't suited for people who travel and can't baby their trees through the recovery process. Jonathon used a technique that works for him and this is important. I have to step back and realize that what I would do to the roots is not always the right technique for everyone!
Agreed
🌬️🍂🌦️🇩🇰👍👍
20:45 Looks like a burl at its very beginning. It'll uglify the tree I think
188th!
Are you worried about the bamboo molding under all that soil?
Not only that, it'll be a tangled mess in the future
@@TTime685 that's what I was thinking repotting is going to be a pain with roots curling around the bamboo.
location ?
That guy was a little annoying, you could tell Nigel wanted to tell him to shut up 😂
He's really nice, i can't wait to see the Birch forest once again!
I can’t wait to see it too
Foist!
Only 3 seconds away!
foist
Thoid!
engineers always be tooting their own horns.
Too much non-nigelian content -.-
looks like trash
Thank you Sir Earn, it's great to hear your comment, one man's trash is another man's treasure!
Is that Marty Lagina from Curse Of Oak Island?