At our January meeting Jim Gremel of Deer Meadow bonsai in Occidental brought a field-grown European Hornbeam to talk about and use to demonstrate how to transfer the tree to a bonsai pot and begin training for refinement.

Field growing trees offer a chance to accelerate the growth of the trunk and develop a suitable thickness in a relatively short period of time. Jim’s tree was close to 3 inches in diameter and had been in the ground for twenty years. He originally acquired the tree from Dennis Makashima and replanted it in Occidental. When growing trees in the ground which will later need to fit in a bonsai pot it is important to keep track of the root growth and maintain lateral spreading roots that feed the tree. To this end Jim plants the tree on top of a flat board or plate with a diameter slightly beyond the diameter of the tree’s roots when spread out. This is placed in the ground and covered with a good mulch which holds water well. Jim waters these trees everyday as needed to insure that the surface roots stay viable. When the tree is removed from the ground it should have a strong radial root mass. Trees left in the ground for several years are removed annually to have the roots trimmed.

The in ground advantage is in the amount the tree can grow which is greater than in a pot. However, during this time overly large branches must be constantly pruned and the nebari itself must be thinned to prevent coarse oversized roots in proportion to the trunk. Trees grown this way have many scars which must be healed after the tree is potted in a bonsai pot. This is when the process of refinement begins. Jim’s Hornbeam had the stubs of oversized branches from which the finer, newer and smaller branches were beginning to emerge and eventually will replace their stubby, thick field-grown branches.

Jim went on to place the tree in a bonsai pot and talk about this transition as well as offer repotting tips which segues nicely into our February repotting club workshop.

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