If there is one thing that stuck in my mind from the Yamadori-style juniper workshop that Jim Gremel provided for our April general meeting it’s this quote: “one experiment is worth a thousand opinions.”  Of course this is nothing new to many people; you can poll all the bonsai experts in the world and get little consensus on what the best way is to grow a bonsai, fertilize, collect, or water for that matter.  It can all be very confusing to a beginner; who’s advice to follow?  which plant to work on now and which to work on next month?

On some things in bonsai there is a consensus (I’m sure there are exceptions even to these): fertilizer is good, bonsai soil is loose and free draining, wind is bad, sun is great until it gets too hot.   But on so many other minutia there are the questions that we all ask at every meeting:  what kind of fertilizer do you use and how much?  When do you cut back and when do you pinch?  How long do I leave the wire on?  How do I control the new growth?   All of these questions are better answered by one’s own experimentation than by the opinions of others.  Lets take each question here and devise an experiment that will easily allow us to form our own opinion on what is best.

What kind of fertilizer do you use and how much? Well, this is a good question, but really, isn’t the answer so simple to work out?  Take some plants that are young and inexpensive; at least two of them of the same species and roughly the same condition, but better 6-10 or even 50.  Divide them into two groups: compare techniques by putting one kind or concentration of fertilizer on one group and a different kind or concentration on the other group.  If you’re trying to work out how much fertilizer you can safely use before burning a plant (keep in mind this is almost impossible to do with organic fertilizer) ramp up the dosage slowly on one of the groups until you start to see ill-effects.

When do you cut back and when do you pinch?  Again, let’s use some scientific method to figure out what works and what doesn’t.   If the goal is to eventually create a bonsai that is nice to look at then take a couple of plants that are roughly the same age and condition and start treating them differently.  If they’re Chinese Elms for example, try letting one consistently grow out to five leaves and then cut back to two.  At the same time try pinching the other one as soon as it grows enough to do so.  Then, after a year or two of treating the plants in consistently different ways take a look at the result and decide which one you like more.

How Long do I leave wire on? First, there are two reasons to remove wire: its cutting in or it’s done it’s job.  I’ll admit that it can sometimes be tricky to gauge when wire has started to cut in.  You look at the plant one day and don’t see any of the wire cutting in, it just looks tight.  Then a week later you look and you notice that there are a couple places where the wire is really biting on the underside of the branch.  Given that wire will bite faster if not applied properly, you should be checking more frequently if you are not confident that you did a good job applying it in the first place.  But, the purpose of the wiring is to position a branch, how long you are able to leave the wire on will determine how successfully you are able to place the branch.  Experiment by putting the wire on as well as you can; when you think it is time, remove only one piece from a branch and then check it a couple days later.  If the branch has sprung back to it’s original position then it needs to be rewired, if it stays where you placed it then you do not need to rewire, it’s that simple.

How do I control the new growth? The answer to this question is obviously different for each species or at least each genus.   If the method for controlling growth is not an established rule, as it is for many Japanese species that have been used for bonsai for centuries, then you will have to do some experimentation to determine how best to keep your tree confined to the silhouette that you want.  Coast live oaks are  a great example of a species that grows vigorously and needs to be controlled.  If left to do its own thing it will escape your design very quickly.  Some people advocate pinching the new growth, and in fall cutting leaves in half to reduce the vigor of the tree for the following spring.  Others advocate defoliating the trees right before they bud out in spring.  Which works better?  Well, a little experimentation will tell you.

The key to any experiment is careful observation of the results.   If you don’t remember which trees you fertilized with miracle grow and which you used pellets for then you wont be able to decide which is better.  The same goes for other situations.  Keep a written record if you need to, but at the very least examine the subjects of your experimentation on a regular basis so that you know how they are reacting the different treatments.  In this way you will be able to decide for yourself which advice to follow for the trees in your yard.

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