@@mikeyokai I propagated them. I put them in a water bottle for awhile till they rooted, then put them in little training pots.

@@kizgintosbaga thank you!

@@BonsaiBoise no thank you, for sharing these tasteful beauties. i learned so much from you.

@@kizgintosbaga I appreciate that!

@@Tybold63 Thanks! I had never really noticed them much until I started doing bonsai. Now I spot them all over the place

Ah, that's a good observation. I'll look for that on these Amurs. Thanks!

Thank you! I remember watching bonsai videos when I was first starting off and see how much butchery they can take. Always made me wince a little. But now, I get it.

Thanks! Do you notice them growing in clusters and clumps a lot? I see it in nature and it seems to happen more on these than other maple species. Totally forgot to mention that in the video

@@BonsaiBoise Mine are only in the second year from seed so most of them are just growing straight up with very little branching. Early next year I will pick a few to plant into half seed trays. I like this method as you can spread the roots out in a radial pattern and this helps thicken the trunk near the base. And remember to keep pinching out the growing tips of the leader to force some lateral growth and start getting some lower branches to form. I have some Dawn redwoods and Japanese Elms that display the clusters and clumps from existing branches that you mention, so I always pinch out the new buds as they form. But as you showed in your video you can also use these to make new smaller new branches and remove the older thicker branches.

Thank you! What kind of maples are common down under? Silver maples I'm guessing? (That's totally I guess, I actually have no idea)

@@BonsaiBoise acer palmatum, Japanese maples and tridents.. they are the most common

@@WanderingBobAK I appreciate that! Funny to go back through older videos. Me and my trees looked so much younger.

@@BonsaiNorthwest thank you! I felt a little weird about it afterwards. Probably just because I hadn't planned on getting quite that brutal with the cuts. It was a bit spontaneous. And I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who experiences the touchiness with pruning Amurs. I haven't quite figured them out yet.

Ha, did I math it wrong?

Good to know. Luckily havent run into that much yet

Unfortunately this one died. But yeah I would I probably did

Not from this but when I went on vacation it didn't get watered for about 10 days. I blame my coworkers. Not saying it's their fault, just saying I blame them. 😜

@BonsaiBoise Sorry to hear brother, you've gained a new subscription, though, I've been doing Bonsai for about 3 years! I'm pretty into now, as you probably know, it can be addictive! Northwest Indiana native. Pretty much the same kind of climate as Idaho.

@@Kevs2tuff Thank you! I appreciate that. And yeah, my small little hobby turned into an obsession pretty quick. I love Indiana! I'm from Ohio originally, (neighbors I guess).

Hey Kevin, thanks! I usually put most my ficus in full sun. I have a few that are in partial shade because of space, but they seem to grow at or around the same rate as the others. Unfortunately that Natasja didn't survive. Bummer. The rest are doing great though! And glad to hear that yours is growing along too. And even has aerial roots?! That's awesome

@@BonsaiBoise Well, my 'natasjas' are getting little aerial roots. The regular Benjamina and Willow leaf ficus from you are doing well. The amur maple seedling died, which is a shame since it had a cool curve. If I can get a cutting of 'natasja' fully rooted this time, would you like to give it another try? They are better than 'too little leaf' in my opinion.

@@DeciduousSnurb Sure, I'd love that. And I found my bag of Amur Maple seeds too so I can send you back a bunch of those. They grow super easy from seed.

Sounds good. I just now clipped another piece of my Natasja and put in water. Once I see signs of rooting I'll put in soil. I will contact you when I think it's ready. ​@@BonsaiBoise

I like the idea of splitting them! I'm going to go binge on Nigel's page this week and see how he does it. Great idea, thanks!

I think got it narrowed down to a Black Willow

Oh that sounds cool! And yeah there are some really cool rocks once you get out of town. In town it's a lot of roundish rocks too. But there is a granite mountain about 2 hours from here that has millions of little granite pieces all over

@@BonsaiBoise The rock is the hard part. I'm always looking for rocks.

I'm hoping so! It's been about a year and a half now.

I'm thinking more and more about it.

Not a bad idea, I'll try it!

@@BonsaiBoise no problem, learned it on reddit its apparently how people encourage their ficus houseplants to branch particularly ones that are known to be difficult like the fiddle leaf fig, ficus Elastica, and ficus benghalensis.

@@deepanjanbanerjee3491 thank you! 1. I don't believe I have, but I'm sure if I needed more flow that would be the way to do it. 2. Yes. Each station has the 1/2 line feeding out to the trees with the 1/2 spray nozzles coming off of it. 3. Good question!? If I had to guess, probably 25-40ish per station? For what it's worth, I have turned on all 3 stations at once a few times and it's a little slow to build up pressure, (maybe 30 seconds or so), but ends up doing just as well as 1 station would. 4. Yeah, I have heard that and I think last year my elms might have been effected by it, (they were effected by something, not 100% sure what). I try to aim for the soil as much as possible but it's tricky to pull off. 5. Nope, not familiar with it actually? I'll do some googling and see if it's needed in my case or not. Thanks for the comments!

@@nikhileshkulkarni9786 Thank you! Just have to get through these awkward years first. Lol.

Thank you!

This thing is a beast!

That's a great idea! I actually completely forgot to mention what a hard time I had finding a pot that it would fit into. I think I'll end up making a cement pot this fall and then doing exactly like you mentioned.

Thank you!

Yes and no. It did survive everything I did to it. But it did not survive me taking a 10 day vacation and not getting watered. It was in my office and I either forgot to ask someone or they forgot to do it. Bummer because it was growing like crazy!

Thank you! And yes sorry, I always forget to add the link. It's in the description now!

@@BonsaiBoise Sweet, thank you!

Thank you! Everything is growing like crazy this year

@@mattygroves Funny you mention that because I've noticed the same thing. I just let it happen now. It gets cold after about 30 seconds or so, (at least on mine, a longer hose might take longer).

I've seen that, too. I'm not aware of any easy way to purge it without more automation or tools. Seems like most folks just set the timer to water before it heats up or after it cools down naturally. Don't want the hot water to scald any roots though!

Thank you! I've actually ran all 3 stations at once a few times and it's a little slow at first but it ends up putting the same amount of pressure to all of them as it would just one.

Thank you! I'm all about the hacks whenever I can find one 😜

Thank you!

Thank you! Still fine tuning here and there

Thank you! Just turned over last night. I opened it up and it was 10k right on the dot

Thank you! I hope it helps

Foist!

Yeah I'm thinking you're probably right. Kind of weird but so far it's not been too detrimental

@@kizgintosbaga thank you, I appreciate that! I also love the ficus Benjaminas. You can do so much with them.

@@BonsaiBoise exactly, you can do so much with them. the entire ficus species. and they can survive anything, except below 10 degrees, but thats not the point :D

Thank you!

@@vanish_dla_kovrov The long answer is ghat It depends. How deep is the pot, is it inside or outside, type of plant, all play key factors. The simple answer is, less often. Organic soil holds moisture more than bonsai soil so you can water them less often.

Thanks ​a lot @BonsaiBoise

The best way to thicken the trunk is to let them grow. Trimming back growth has other benefits even though it does slow the growth/trunk thickening. When you trim a branch, 2 mew branches will typically grow from there. That's how you get them to branch out and start to look like little trees instead of long sticks. So it's kind of a balance between the two.