Bonsai pruning decisions | olive bonsai part 2

[@BackGardenBonsai]

Cascading guy wiring is genius. Lol. I’ve never seen that before 👍👍

[@BlueSkyBonsai]

Cheers! Hahahaha it happened by accident then I thought of a name for it! 🍺🍺👍

[@BlueSkyBonsai]

Hi! In this video I mistakenly call 0.4mm a 1/8" wire. Terrible maths! I should have said 1/60th inch wire. Or guage 26 wire. Well despite this, I hope you enjoy the video! Thanks so much for watching!

[@judgetoogood1033]

I love your diagrams. This is the way to teach bonsai. Thank you. ❤❤❤

[@BlueSkyBonsai]

Thanks so much! Glad you like it. Maybe I should consider writing a book!!

[@watchnut5305]

I'm looking forward to seeing you carving this.

[@BlueSkyBonsai]

Thanks! I'll try not to disappoint! 🍺👍

[@marcirving1230]

Looking forward to part 3! 👊🏻

[@BlueSkyBonsai]

Me too!! Thanks 👍

[@BonsaiJCan]

That made a nice big difference to the tree after using those guy wires bringing the branches down. 👌👍 Not sure what kind of Caterpillar / worm that is but it sure looks like it enjoys green vegetation. 😬 That was really neat watching it make it's cocoon though. 👍 I really enjoyed the video and looking forward to the next one !

[@BlueSkyBonsai]

Thanks J, yes I often find with wiring branches, you don't need spiral wiring when all you want to do is to curve the wire downwards. Thanks for your comment and glad you enjoyed it!! 😊👍

[@dcads2290]

awesome video again. One think I like to know is how to get over the fear of cutting lol

[@BlueSkyBonsai]

Thanks! Fear not! Look at your bonsai each day and decide gradually over time which branches need to be pruned back, and to where. Do it when you're sure. There's no rush. Do the easy choices first, save the difficult decisions for another day. With bonsai, patience is key, and NOTHING is urgent... except for watering.

[@oliveambros9887]

I like the illustrations

[@BlueSkyBonsai]

Thanks! If you're interested, there are a couple of updates on this wild olive tree: kzbin.info/www/bejne/npewomCQfrR6qMU and kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y4mqlIlpqs6NgJo

[@BostonBonsaiIdiot]

My kid, who still can’t wipe himself, has been calling my name from the bathroom for about 15 minutes...but I need to finish this video so he’ll have to wait. I love this tree and it’s so fun and helpful to see the branch selection. Like someone already said, I can’t wait to see the carving! Will there be a part 3?

[@BlueSkyBonsai]

Omg I've gotta make my videos shorter or your kids gonna get a rash!! 😂 There will definitely be a part 3 but it will be in Dec or Jan because that's when I do the carving work for some reason. Damn the wind has blown off a small semi cascade pine and broken the pot. That's a bit shit. It's 8am just seen it now. And a juniper cascade too but luckily pot is ok. Wind is the worst enemy here.

[@BostonBonsaiIdiot]

Blue Sky Bonsai woa, intense about the wind, and bummer. Hopefully the “emergency repots” go well and the trees are unaffected. Is the Spanish wind always that intense or was there a storm? Can’t wait for pt3, but it’ll give my son some time to recoup before his next skin ailment.

[@BlueSkyBonsai]

@@BostonBonsaiIdiot Lol! The wind here is not always intense, but where we live in Madrid is pretty exposed, so we get it bad here. My juniper cascade pot also broke on the underside where it fell. I'm not cursing as much now as I was earlier. It's a good subject for a video! watch this space 🍻👍

[@danhip2442]

Hello.did you have a video of you removing dead wood from this tree?

[@BlueSkyBonsai]

Hi! Yes, it's this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/npewomCQfrR6qMU Then a year later I did this video, which features the same tree: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y4mqlIlpqs6NgJo

[@danhip2442]

@@BlueSkyBonsai ooo! many thanks to you

[@grobonsai]

Great video, very professional. What do you do for a living?

[@BlueSkyBonsai]

Thanks Darren! 😊 When I'm looking at YT comments it gives me boilerplate buttons to answer your question: "Everything". "Work". "I don't". All three answers to your question made me laugh! Anyway I work in product documentation. So maybe you can notice the perfectionist in me. I'm also interested in what you do for a living -?

[@grobonsai]

Blue Sky Bonsai interesting, I thought you would be in the media industry. I’m a software engineer

[@BlueSkyBonsai]

So, I work closely with sw development teams to translate their (your 😉) product functionality into online docs. I'll send you a PM.

[@BlueSkyBonsai]

@@grobonsai btw thanks again, I take that as a great compliment! 😊

[@mattdemoraes]

"My tree is an alien" ... that cracked me up

[@BlueSkyBonsai]

Matt, thanks! I give you a prize for being the first to notice that 👽🌳

[@criszf]

Otro vídeo impresionante, Dave. Muchísimas gracias por compartir! Tengo varios acebuches y olivos, me encantan y se dan muy bien en Madrid, como ya sabes. De hecho tengo uno grande al que le quería hacer varios acodos, pero creo tal vez no sea buena época, qué me recomiendas? Gracias de nuevo!

[@BlueSkyBonsai]

Gracias Cris! Sí la verdad es que acebuches van muy bien aquí, y los olivos europeos tb. Ahora es el momento perfecto para hacer el acodo, ya que seguirán enraizando todo el verano. Si eres valiente podrías incluso quitar el acodo ya en septiembre u octubre. Alternativamente lo puedes dejar hasta la primavera q viene, protegiendo el acodo de heladas en invierno. Si es un arbol grande, porque no hacer dos acodos ahora, quitar uno en otoño y dejar el otro hasta primavera, para comparar?? 😉

[@criszf]

@@BlueSkyBonsai qué buena idea! Quitaré un en octubre y dejaré el otro para primavera. Gracias, Dave 🥰

[@askgbk]

I have many trees and plants, at what point will they be classed as bonsai? I see many plants being sold on amazon and other similar websites and it’s just any plant in a bonsai pot. does your own style affect whether it’s classed as a bonsai or not ? ✌️🖖 very enjoyable Video as always, thanks my guy

[@BlueSkyBonsai]

Cheers Mr. Bomb! 😁👍 really bonsai means a plant in a container so anything you have in a container that you are developing with the intention of becoming a miniature tree style, I think you could call a bonsai. But we have loads of house plants here that I would not call bonsai because there is no style at all, and my wife just wants them to grow massive leaves so there is more green around the house. In a lot of them, many little stems that would make it impossible to turn into a mini-tree. I think that's it for me: if it is in a pot and you're actively developing it to be a mini tree, in any style at all, then it's a bonsai. How many have you got???

[@askgbk]

Blue Sky Bonsai 100 plus plants and trees in and out of the house in all sizes of pots. There is little to no greenery here and no bees or birds, it’s all changed this past year. I do have some large and mature jade plants, I’d class them as bonsai since I’ve actively styled and pruned them. majority of my plants would be classed as young starter trees. They need to be a little more robust before I can work on them without braking them 😂😂

[@BlueSkyBonsai]

@@askgbk that's a lot! Do you have photos of them on a Flickr account or somewhere? I find Flickr is a great way to keep track of the progress of all my wee trees. I have an album for each tree that I'm tracking. It's free up to 1000 photos.

[@askgbk]

Blue Sky Bonsai I don’t have it, but I’ll check it out 😎

[@BlueSkyBonsai]

@@askgbk if you do set up on flickr send me your photos link so I can see your trees! My flickr link is www.flickr.com/photos/davidhseymour/albums

[@MrNutsHouseofLittleTreesBONSAI]

Love your videos , music and extras. Need to get the kids to help me look more professional......or I just keep being me. Lol

[@BlueSkyBonsai]

Thanks Mr Nuts! 😊👍 Definitely don't stop being you! Every one of your videos always makes me happy and I guess your other subscribers too, so that's gotta be worth keeping going with your personal style of videos!

[@MrNutsHouseofLittleTreesBONSAI]

@@BlueSkyBonsai thanks mate, you ve no idea how much you have made my day, God bless pal

[@BlueSkyBonsai]

@@MrNutsHouseofLittleTreesBONSAI said from the heart! 🙂👍 If you want your kids to help, you could ask them to make eye-catching thumbnails for your videos so the videos might get more exposure on youtube? There are some free software tools out there that can do good thumbnails. On the other hand if you're happy doing what you're doing then why change?? 🍺🍺👍

[@mattdemoraes]

How long do you think it will take for that new leader to grow in enough to form a believable next part of the trunk line? 2-3 growing seasons? I'm in the process of doing this with a similarly trunk chopped olive as it happens.

[@BlueSkyBonsai]

Yes I think your suggestion is a realistic estimate. 2 growing seasons if you are impatient, or 3 would have it looking more natural I think. Also in this video I mentioned I'm going to carve the top to give a more realistic looking taper. I will wait until summer now, or even next winter, because I've realised the new roots are probably not well enough establised to hold the tree solidly still in the pot while I do the difficult sawing. In my most recent trunk-chop video, you might have seen how much the tree moves around in the pot when I was sawing. So I want to give the roots time to grow stronger before I carve into this tree top. Now I've written that to you here, I might also mention that in my next video. Cheers!

[@mattdemoraes]

@@BlueSkyBonsai thanks for the detailed explanation- yea it takes so much effort to cut through the trunk that I did similarly to what you suggested and grew it in a deeper nursery container well buried for a year before attempting to saw

[@ftancisalgaba4966]

Me gustan mucho tus vídeos, podrías subtitularlos en español? Saludos desde Andalucía.

[@BlueSkyBonsai]

Gracias por tu comentario! Muchos de los vídeos ya están subtitulados en español, pero estos dos sobre olivos desgraciadamente no están traducidos todavía. Creo que todos mis vídeos de 2021 y este año ya tienen subtítulos. Espero que te gusten!

[@ftancisalgaba4966]

@@BlueSkyBonsai Hola, muchísimas gracias.Un saludo

[@mick681]

Hi great video but 0.4 mm isn't an eighth of an inch. 3mm is approximately one eighth of an inch. Nice tree.

[@BlueSkyBonsai]

Thanks Mick, you are 100% right. In fact after publishing it I realized my mistake and updated the description. Now I have just pinned it to the comments too. The other thing that has just occurred to me on rewatching this is, the video thumbnail is okay, but the tagline is crap! I will update the thumbnail soon, with something like "good pruning decisions" or "which branch to prune"... or similar. Thanks again for watching and commenting!

[@kino410]

Hi Which kind of wire (the thin wire) is ??

[@BlueSkyBonsai]

I used copper wire in this video. 0.4mm thin.

[@kino410]

Sir about my previous question It’s a copper wire 🙏

[@BlueSkyBonsai]

So, my opinion is that guy wires (like in this video) are best for long-term direction of branches, you can leave guy wires on for a year or more but it's only good for approximate direction; not exact. Copper wires are best for guy wiring. But if you want your branches to wiggle left/right/up/down then you should use aluminium wires spiralled around the branches so you can be much more exact with direction. But this has the problem of showing spiral wounds in the bark which make it obvious that you - the artist - have intentionally directed that branch. In other words spiralling the wire can look less natural, unless you remove the spiral wire in a short time, say 6 to 8 weeks. Hope that helps!

[@kino410]

@@BlueSkyBonsai Thanks a lots I appreciate your help Thanks 🙏

[@MrNutsHouseofLittleTreesBONSAI]

It does not matter what kind it is..as much as I love all things in nature,GET IT AWAY FROM YOUR TREES......lol

[@BlueSkyBonsai]

Yeah totally agree!! And I have to say it's all part of nature, feeding the birds hahahaha 😁👍

[@shaolinshadowsoldier]

"Human-made". Cringe....

[@BlueSkyBonsai]

Yeah, I know. Soon they will change the word from human to huperson! 😂Thanks for watching and commenting!

[@shaolinshadowsoldier]

@@BlueSkyBonsai Sorry! I'd just woken up in a mood. Excellent content. I just picked up twenty-odd "pond baskets" that I'll be moving a lot of my smaller trees into to thicken up a bit. Keep up the good work!

[@BlueSkyBonsai]

@@shaolinshadowsoldier great stuff! The pond baskets are dirt cheap and feather light so easy to manage. Just need to watch them in the wind... where are you in the world?

[@shaolinshadowsoldier]

@@BlueSkyBonsai Sunny (rainy) Norwich. I'm a sanicat pink man, I might mix in 20% compost but I seem to do very well using cat litter almost exclusively.

[@BlueSkyBonsai]

@@shaolinshadowsoldier Sanicat pink, yes it's excellent for everything (except Azalea and Camelia). I guess adding the small amount of organic helps with retaining fertilizer nutrients and supplying them to the roots. And you have the luxury of using uniform particle size! Are you on weetrees.co.uk?