Foreign What's going on everybody welcome to This week's live q a for the US audience It is Wednesday October 26 2022. hope You guys are doing well as you can see We've got Rafa Torres in the house Tonight hi hi everyone it's a bless her Raffles uh Rafa is visiting us from Spain right now uh I'm sure you guys Have seen him on the platform he did an Awesome video on olives earlier this Year for us so he's going to be joining Us for the live q a so feel free to Throw out any questions that you want in Regards to things like olives uh maybe Pinus sylvestress you know Scots Pines And of course like Sabina junipers for Example right or just anything about European or Spanish moonside in general So it looks like we've got quite a few People already filtering into the chat Here so feel free to go ahead and start Throwing some questions in there uh just To give you kind of an update on why Rafa is here we're actually going to be Having our open house event this coming Weekend on October 29th and 30th so Rafa Is going to be doing some workshops in The mornings uh both of those days the Workshops are totally full but in the Afternoon he's going to be doing some Demonstrations in the workshop so if you Want to come out check that out hang out We're going to have trees pots tools
Stands Scrolls all sorts of stuff for Sale at this open house it should be a Lot of fun I think we're going to have a Pretty good size group coming through For the weekend so yeah hope you're good Enjoy a lot yeah most definitely yeah I Think it's going to be fun we got a lot Of people in the chat tonight it's Fantastic so we're able to Overlay the Questions now on here which is great so Uh let's see we've got the very first Question here I'm gonna go ahead and put This on here this is from Vicky Vicky Says I acquired a large old dog fur this Summer it's extremely root bound and Weak I've been trying to get it to gain Enough strength so that it can be Transplanted this spring can you provide Some guidance on repotting uh yeah so uh You know Doug fur I'm assuming that this Is probably a yamadori if it's root Bound it's probably a yamador that's Been out of the ground for a significant Period of time my guess is it's probably Been repotted multiple times maybe you Could clarify you know a little bit Further down in the chat here but if it Has been repotted in the past and it's In say a good bow tie pot for example Um you know you more than likely the the Root system has been worked it's got a Lot of fibrous roots in there for Example and you don't really have like An old core of soil taking up a majority
Of the root system so you're not really Going to have to work that back now if I'm wrong about that and it is an oldie Yamadori that uh has been in a pot you Know just after collection like it's in A wooden box for example and has never Been fully transplanted you're going to Have to work the roots a bit more Carefully and be careful not to take out Too much of the coarse soil in general Though I would recommend that you don't Take off more than about 30 percent of The roots and no more than about say 40 To 50 percent of the total soil Mass on The tree when you repot it in the spring Hopefully the tree is strong enough uh You know you said you've been trying to Get it strong enough to to do the repot So hopefully it's looking pretty good if The buds are really fat and juicy that Are setting up right now it's usually Indicated the tree is pretty strong and Next year you should be able to repot it Without a problem but just keep that in Mind like no more than 40 fifty percent Of the total soil should come off the Tree and probably don't cut more than About 25 to 30 percent of the roots on The plant when you repot it All right next question here as from Detroit Jay he says I know Scott's pint Is a single flush Pine but are there any Characteristics that are specific to That species maybe you could talk a
Little bit about Scott's Pine like is There anything that's unique or Different about Scott's Pine say to like A black pine or a white pine or pine is This thing go flush but you can work Depends on the state of the tree Different ways uh in the first state I Think is a better growing a lot put a Lot of fertilizer underneath and one of The characteristics I think you need to Know is uh likes the cult in Winter we Have some in in Mallorca it's a Mediterranean limit and I think it's in The in the limit of the the cold in Winter because need to take a rest Because normally grow in the mountains Maybe until 1000 more or less meters Meters okay yeah and this is one of the The characteristics uh important I think Right yeah um so you know Rafa lives on Mallorca which is kind of it's an island Yeah uh so you know in the Mediterranean Climate it doesn't get super cold down In Palma where you live but up in the Mountains it gets pretty cold right yeah It's if you are close to the mountain is Enough but if you live for example in The South I don't know here but you need To know uh you need cult in Winters Right so you know this question is from Detroit Jay so I'm assuming Detroit J is In Detroit so it's definitely cold Enough uh in Detroit to have Scott's Pine we can have them down here in
Nashville no problem as a matter of fact Rafa has been styling a Scots pine all Day today at the nursery so they'll grow Just fine down here and we get plenty Cold in Tennessee for those Pines uh one Thing I'll say about Scott's Pine in Terms of development they back butt very Very easily so if you need a pluck if You wire the trees up create little Micro tears in the branches if you Fertilize them heavily you're almost Guaranteed to get back budding and even On relatively old wood now so the wood Is really really barked up probably not Going to back foot there but you know Out in the areas where you know it could Be an Old Branch but if it's not barked Up it is more than likely going to back Button right so how do you get back puts To form yes uh normally if uh we put out The the needles in summer because the Light go in and you have a proper Fertilizer on it on the tree you get Back about uh easily okay yeah so needle Burnett spring and okay and then you get More and more and more when you open the Branches and needle plucking in the Summer open the branches fertilizer and Then sometime either in that fall or the Next year you should get back buds all Over the tray All right let's see here next question Is from Victor Victor says uh this is For Rafa is the collection of ulastra
Regulated in Mallorca yeah you need a Special permission of course and you you Need to because in in tremontana is the Mountains in Mallorca uh you have a Prived and public places and if you uh Talk with the private place and you get Permission from the owner you can do it Without problems from the public and Government it's more difficult more Difficult yeah okay yeah and just to Clarify for everybody Ulastra is the the native Olive that you Find the wild all of this on Mallorca Which is very different than the olive That you find in Mainland Europe yeah It's different and also uh the from the Standard earlier you know because a lot Of people think If are in a colder Place cannot have uh Yesterday this is the Wild Olive but Growing normally in the mountain and in Half a very windy very cold Winters and And you you have a big range of uh Possibilities okay so if you if you Collect an olive in the mountains of Majorca it could survive in what's the Coldest it could survive like in Norway For example in Norway yeah And Tobias are from Norway and have uh Uh uyastresolas but Um while to live is different than Standard Olive right it's important I Think but they still have to protect us A little bit in the winter of course
Yeah what's the coldest temperature You're thinking minus something is not a Problem I think the problem is the rise In the in the leaves okay you know it's More problem than the colder yeah okay Gotcha all right All right uh this one is not a question Just a comment uh from uh Gordon he says Nice to see you Rafa and then he's got a Follow-up uh question here let me put This one in here give me one second here Guys All right so Gordon says this for Rapha He says I've never tried working with Olives before uh while selecting one to Train for Bonsai do you have any Recommendations what to look for also do You always look for trees with good Carving potential always for olives so Basically saying like when you go out And search for olives what what are the Characteristics that you're looking for Yeah the I think the most important Characteristics is uh is that the Deadwood the bark and if you can get a Wild is have a smaller leaves and for Bonsai is better for me and of course You get the standard layer you can get The fruit but for For Bonsai I prefer is my test small Leaves dead wood and nice bark because You can get very old and nice bark with Combination together it's a very nice Bonsai in my opinion and also you can
Call it and you get uh different types Different styles like bunjings Cascades Powerful you can you can get and you Want do you do a lot of carving on the Deadwood I prefer with G cells with hand Work okay I prefer them machines just I Use it for help but not for Drought not For the details not for the details okay Just for clean yeah actually next week I'm gonna go to Spain with Rafa we're Going to go to Rafa's nursery on Majorca I'll see if we can maybe film an episode A short episode from inside you on maybe Olive carving yeah that'd be pretty cool So we can work with a lot of different Types of Deadwood as well cool yeah so Put something like that together for you Gordon so you can check it out on the Platform All right next question here is from Christopher Christopher says can you see Junipers being cultivated in the field In Japan and if not why is that the case Uh yeah there are field grown junipers In Japan uh you know obviously mostly Itoigawa I've never actually visited Those fields where they're grown I have A feeling that a lot of those are Actually in the Nagoya area there are a Lot of field growing nurseries in that Area at least there were in the past so I think a lot of that material comes From that area and I haven't really had The opportunity to explore Nagoya very
Much I do know they grow a lot of Deciduous material in the ground in Nagoya as well so this is why I'm Assuming that a lot of the junipers are Grown in the ground there as well you Don't really see a lot of field grown Like big junipers they're usually if They are field grown they're dug up when They're kind of medium-sized plants Maybe a couple feet wide by a couple Feet tall at the absolute largest so You're not going to see you know massive You know five foot tall junipers being Dug up out of the ground so a lot of the The smaller junipers like showing size Universe are actually completely Container grown as well it's a lot Easier to control the growth when They're in the container than what the Trees eventually becoming show him you Don't want to get those out of control In terms of the growth so that might be Why you know it's not a not a common Thing that you see but yes they are Field grown in some areas and actually Like the best example of field grown Junipers that I've ever seen was not in Japan it was actually in Brazil in a Place called Bella Horizonte I was down There for a convention a few years ago And there was a guy down there who had Been growing juniperous formosana which Is the Taiwanese Juniper in the ground For like 25 years he was constantly
Twisting them up every single year and Those trees the trunks on them were like I don't know maybe a foot to a foot and A half in diameter crazy Twisted maybe Between like two feet and four feet tall Where all the twists were and then of Course they let the shoots grow to like 10 15 20 feet tall just to thicken the Trunks and of course those were grafted Back so it is absolutely possible to Field grow them especially if you want To try to get a much larger tree that's Usually a better approach when it comes To junipers Uh let's see here this one's from Larry What does that say Rafael Buenas Good afternoon good afternoon okay good Evening okay Excellent perfect Uh all right next question here is from Mac Mac says this is for Rafa uh have You ever worked with cork oak and what Can you tell us about them yeah I have Uh some Kirk uh and it's a Evergreen tree uh have a very nice bark And you can get uh easily like if you Can get from yamadori you get a very Very bark very nice one but also if you Grow from beginning from seeds you get Easily a new one because normally uh you Remove the the bark is the the cork you You remove the cork in 10 years you get Again you know It's come back again okay and you can
Work for example when you have a big Cuts you can clean and get again closer Fast okay and it's a very nice species For make Bonsai I can show you next week As well in Bonsai you want some of them And also we can explain something about The work on it if you want yeah can you Can you defoliate them too you can Defoliate without problem but you need To have a very hell And you can do partial deflation as well Without any problem okay also depends uh Where do you live right Okay when if you do defoliate them what Time of year uh is in in material for Example when uh when uh get mature the New foliage end of May or less Yeah basically after the first flush Hardens off yeah outside Mars if you Want you can uh when it start growing You can remove all leaves with no Problem some some of all interesting That's pretty cool All right uh let's see this is just a Follow-up from Vicki in regards to the Uh Doug fur that she mentioned she said It is in a bonsai pot for many years Yeah so in that case you know you can Get a little bit more aggressive Probably working with the the roots on The plant but I would still uh sort of Keep in that range that we talked about In terms of percentages uh just to make Sure that the tree stays nice and
Healthy All right next question here is from Jenny Jenny says are there any North American species that you wish you could Work on more often but are very rare in Spain yeah I I just arrived it now But I see very nice uh fine I like the Bunjin you have in the entrance ah yeah The the name uh we've got the it's the Short leaf pine yeah yeah it's very cool The Deadwood I love it it's very very Nice the the foliage is no bad I see Very very good like a similar Sylvester's and also one seat uh because Uh here you see very very nice trunks I Love it and I see the different types of Foliage we have Sabinas and different Types of juniper Sabinas and I think the Rocky mountain or not the one seat is Similar than phonithia is similar than One of the Mediterranean junipers and I Wish work on it in all ones I love it Yeah the the tree that Rafa's talking About the one seed Universe the foliage Is very similar to the yeah phenicia Yeah it looks very similar but the Phoenicia don't get that big no right Like no no one seeds are enormous trees And also normally have a dead wood Uh similar like uh Tosha you know it's More straight like a needle Junior yeah Yeah it's a uh here you see the years Very very like very very very nice yeah All right cool
So next up here I might have Accidentally archived two questions That's all right though Um okay so the next question here is uh For Rafa as well it's from Christopher Christopher says uh is it true that some People from the royal family in Spain Have interest in Bonsai and if it is True does it help increase the Popularity of bonsai in Spain No I think it's not the royalties the The No I think The politicians yeah the politician one Of the first Felipe Gonzalez uh 40 years Before uh made a lot of bonsai and get Popular on the people and start to do More and more Bonsai and now uh we have Some political as well uh doing Bonsai And famous people and the people getting More and more more popular I had heard It the king of Spain did well no that's Not true I didn't never okay never never I see it is not Spanish Rafa's major it Is different no I'm in Spanish But no never see the the king okay so Just politicians okay some of them yeah Yeah okay cool all right next question Here is from Brian Brian says I was Considering using the ebiara technique On a two to three year old pinky finger Thick Maple uh number one would that age Be too early to start the technique and Number two could you perhaps wire it uh
In rather than using a screw uh I would Say a two to three year old pinky finger Thick Maple is is actually a little bit Too small it's too early in the process Unless it was say like an air layer for Example and it already had a really nice Radial nabari you could probably start The process with it being that small but If it's like you know a cutting or a Seedling or something and it doesn't Really have a decent structure to start With you'd be better off thickening it Up a little bit more before you start That Um it may in that process of thickening Produce more side lateral roots or Roots Directly out of the trunk rather that Will lend themselves to becoming more of A radial nabari and if that doesn't Happen in the process of thickening the Tree what you can do is root graft onto The base of the plant but with the tree Being so small as it is you can't really Root graft onto it now because you're Probably going to weaken the tree so I Would thicken it up first you said you Know pinky thick I would get a minimum Of like thumb thick before you start Doing the ebi harda technique to it Do you do much every heart technique at Your Nursery yeah yeah yeah with the Roots yeah yeah we do some what but you Don't do it with like olives though Right no necessary normally yeah a leaf
When we call it we cut flat and you can Produce new Roots everywhere you can do Like similar Maple you know you can do Properly but also if you need it you can Do it without problem okay cool All right let me archive that one let's Go back up here we got another one here From Gordon Gordon says I read Donald Ritchie's book uh which is uh The uh track date on Japanese Aesthetics That's the book uh and he says I'm also About 200 pages into the tale of Genji And I'm really enjoying it you should Create a list of books on Japanese Aesthetics on the platform to read for Students I'm sure many students would Like that yeah that's actually a really Good idea the tale of Genji is a really Dense book and unless you're like really Interested in like uh you know 11th Century uh you know heyon which is like You know Kyoto City aristocracy uh you Know lifestyle and that kind of thing It's it's a really hard read it's a Really difficult book to read uh but it Can be very fascinating if you are Interested in that other books that I Would mention uh or recommend rather That you check out would be of course The track date on Japanese Aesthetics That you just mentioned Um what's another one Tanizaki's book called In Praise of Shadows excellent book very very short
Book but really interesting in terms of Sort of his take on Japanese Aesthetics And the use of Shadows and the interplay Of light uh and then another really good Book would be the sakutaki which is Apparently the world's first ever Written Garden manual uh It Was Written Around the year 1000 or 1100 somewhere In that range Um which is basically the same time Period as the tale of Genji and it Explains how The Gardens of Kyoto were Built at that time based on like Geomantic principles and divination sort Of like mysticism kind of uh but it's Very fascinating if you ever visit Kyoto You can see some Gardens that are sort Of remnants of that you can see sort of How they were designed based on on how The sakoteki was written it's also Somewhat of a dense book but it's it's An interesting read if you're interested In that kind of thing All right next question here this is From Gary Gary says uh for old evergreen Or coniferous Bonsai specifically an old Fujia occidentalis those one typically Want to remove bark to expose the live Veins Um or by removing bark uh sorry by Removing bark or does it really depend On various factors if so what are those Factors I would say in most cases I Would not remove the bark on those guys
I don't know how long it takes to Rebuild the bark but I would imagine it Takes a decent amount of time so to me Like the exfoliating bark on those guys And sort of the way that it intertwines On the live tissue is more interesting Than stripping it off and having it be Bright red in contrast with say the dead Wood on the tree So I would treat it much more like say Like a needle Juniper typically we don't Peel the bark off of those guys Um and you can still treat the dead wood With lime sulfur you can you know scrub It down you can paint it make it bright White and it should have enough contrast With the sort of brownish live vein that It's not necessary to take that bark off Of there but to me that's personal Preference I don't know if there would Be any Horticultural reason why you Might not remove the bark the reason I Mentioned needle junipers juniperous Rigida is because removing the bark on Those can weaken the plants I don't know If that's the case with you know Eastern White Cedar could be the case maybe it's Not but for aesthetic reasons I think That's enough you know to leave the bark On the plant I wouldn't take it off have You ever worked with uh I have female Garden but not four months yeah but the Foliage is good and yeah yeah personally The the bark is personal test uh you
Remove or not yes All right next question here is from Jenny Jenny says I love seeing the Amazing amadori that are in Spain are They difficult to collect can you tell Us uh what you do to care for trees After you collect them I think a lot of Us are very interested in that yeah I Think it depends of the species it's not The same Scott Pine uh Universe I go to permission for Junipero Sabina I call it uh maybe 80 and on the Mainland on the mainland yeah uh from The government and the process is uh you Call it maximum Roots small smaller Roots possible and Um you have two options remove all the Soil in the beginner or keep maximum as Possible but you need to water in a Different limit to have a greenhouse Called Greenhouse not very hot because Depends where you let uh you have Different types of temperatures and it's Important keep humidity and proper Temperature like 18 20 something not More because you can have uh easily Problems scope binds for example Need more humidity after collect Dan Sabina for example more humidity more Humidity because that's weird getting Dry easily for the roots evaporate Faster and you need more humidity than Junipers when you call it yeah Interesting yes because uh the the
Problem and Juniper Sabina is getting Fungus easily you don't have uh Aggregation you know but the the pine Needs more more humidity normally yeah As you can say yes usually it's very Different you know yeah yeah it's very Different I I don't know why but You keep a proper temperature proper Humidity and of course no wind is very Important because if you create the Stress on the tree after Colette because Have a lot of stress just move in for The mountain is important don't touch Too much and have some variation but Protect uh for the heart wind And the other is a lot of different Types of species olaya is easily you can Cut all in the base and you get a new Roots you can have no roots no roots no Branches yeah you can you can keep the Oldest ones but you need the new ones You can cut and you you get again new Ones yeah and you can do different uh Techniques like a black pack or a Greenhouse okay yeah we'll when I go to Mallorca next week we'll shoot some Videos on like the black bag technique And all that kind of stuff so you guys Can see exactly what Rapha is talking About Um with the Sabinas you know you said There's two ways to collect them you Either get a full root system with soil And you keep the soil and put it in
Maybe pumice for example Yeah I I depends where do you live for Example in Mallorca I think because Mediterranean Marco more warm I think It's better keep more soil more soil but If you live in a place like uh you have A lot of rain a lot of humidity You can remove a bigger part of the soil Can you take 100 off yeah You want yeah because half a good thing Is uh you see where are the roots and How many roots you have and because Sometimes when you call it You don't see everything and sometimes When you remove the soil you see just Have some roots not not very many roots No many roots and you can water in Different you can do something for you Can adjust yeah you can reduce okay Okay cool so uh yeah Jenny if you got uh More like detailed questions about the Collection process feel free to add that In a little bit further down in the chat All right next question here is uh from Gordon Gordon says uh Rafa can you talk About something with respect to Bonsai Very specific to Spain uh species Practices Aesthetics mindset so maybe The the let's focus on maybe like the Aesthetics yeah and the mindset in Spain Like how would you say it's different Than like Germany versus England versus You know Scotland yeah what would you Say I think uh have a big influence in
Spain from Japan Japanese guys in the Beginner and and I think I feel now Start to change a little and mix more Free from the Japanese Aesthetics but uh Also have uh a mix you know a big mix About and I think uh the good thing in Spain is that we have very good uh Yamadori you know Scott Pines uh Olea Wyatt Olive from Mallorca uh Juniper Sabina now the people start to graft in Uh also with uh with itoyawa I like the The foliage you work a lot of times It's nice foliage you work properly uh You can get very very very nice one and And we have a very cultural for a long Time maybe 40 now 50 years I start the Politician Felipe Gonzalez is a President And influence a lot of the population And and chains every decade change a Little and improve improve improve also Have uh good influence from people from Europe and we do a mix about yeah very Cool all right next question here is From Brendan Brendan says good evening Uh have you worked with Japanese Pomegranate the Twisted trunks are very Beautiful have you worked much with Pomegranate pomegranate the Michigan Mexico yeah we have also Mediterranean But nijikan for me is nicer because I Have the twist so the Japanese has the Natural twists from Spain doesn't from Spain is more straight okay it's more
Fruit typical tree But I work I work at and a half also I Have a client who uh grow for in the in The growth you know it's growing in the So in the field in the field okay and Makes very very fat uh in 15 years make Very nice and as you can you will see Next week and you can do as well because If you want to import from Japan Normally are expensive and yeah they're Relatively rare in Japan it's not a Super popular species to work with There's some amazing examples though Like the best one I've ever seen was Actually at uh Manson Nursery Mr Kato's Nursery up in the omia Bonsai Village I Don't think it's there now but they were Maintaining it for a client the trunk Was probably I don't know two feet Across the tree was only like three feet Tall so it was this short chunky like You know just fat fat little dude but an Amazing twists all of the tree and I Think that the tree had won the kokofoo Award at some point Um the the biggest issue with the Neji Con as they get older is if you kill off A branch on the tree it's like a juniper You can kill the vein all the way back Down to the base very easily same thing If you work the roots too hard in one Area versus another area you could kill The live Vein from the base of the tree Up to the branch and you end up with uh
Basically like a hollow in that side of The tree which uh you know in terms of Japanese Aesthetics and what's preferred There that's obviously not not a good Thing right you want to avoid that if at All possible so that's one issue you got To worry about when you're dealing with An educat Okay next up here is uh let's see here Also from Gordon Gordon says uh Rafa are You Japanese trained or someone from Spain slash Europe or self-trained uh if The latter do you see a need for Students or professionals to get a Traditional Japanese training Not me uh I work it with Bjorn he came Yeah I'm Rafa's teacher yes so sort of Sort of Japanese trains yes some of Japanese from Beyond also Beyond in my Opinion chains after Japanese yeah Japan And and also I have influence because I I work at the with different species but Beyond came two times a year from before Five years yeah a long time yeah And also I learned from from Beyond a Lot of course yeah so do you think that There's a need for people who want to Become professionals important to go to Japan to study I think it's a good thing Or necessary I think it's a good thing If you can go for me it's too late I Need to work and win money But you are young and you can do it of Course
You'll feel different and because you're Training with the best uh Professionals in the world in the world And also you are in other place and you Can you want to do different than Japan Uh you a student in Japan you have the Japanese uh static Japanese work the Japanese species and also you can get a Personal uh You are more complete yeah yeah more Well-rounded yeah yeah all right I think That's a good answer All right next up here is from Michael Michael says I just procured a Harlan Boxwood and I've read it is not Hardy Below 30 degrees Fahrenheit I do have Any experience with them I've got a Couple here at the nursery or I I had Several actually at the nursery that I Sold off over the summer but I have one Or two that are left here Um if you leave them outside below about 30 degrees Fahrenheit it's not Necessarily going to kill them but it Definitely will change their color and You might lose some branches here and There so in general I would try to keep Them you know at or around freezing Slightly higher than freezing in the Winter so you know Michael I know you're Over in Knoxville it gets relatively Cold there if you keep them in the Unheated garage for most of the winter You should be totally fine aside from
That you know they're relatively hearty Trees just got to be careful when it Gets too too cold Okay next question here is from uh Dennis in Alabama Dennis says I I have a Scots pine I am keeping for a friend What are the water requirements Oh the water requirements I think you Need to get a little Um not wet dry and keep them dry yeah But depends of course How uh Uh what type of soil you have uh doxian Inside is very important for the roots This is the one very very important Thing in my opinion uh you have very uh Like pumice depends of the state of Course you can put more ominous if you Want and and if you put you you can Water in more often but if you start to Put other one more softer than like a Karama or others you use here I don't Know uh broken and make a lessogen Inside you need to get dry a little Because if you have the proper Temperature humidity And always have the roots wet you will Get easily fungus and The Roots like Festans and normally after summer it's Easy you you get this one at the end of The end of summer going into fall yeah Yes keep them a little on the dry side Probably not as dry as like a Japanese White Pine on its own roof no no little Less dry a little less than that yeah
But not like a black pine where you can Constantly water and it should be okay I Would I would equate them in the U.S to Something similar to like a Virginia Pine Virginia Pines like to say a little Bit on the dry side and need a very Oxygen-rich soil so a very aerated soil Would be the best way to say it so uh Maybe a little more lava rock pumice Holds a lot of water so I wouldn't go Overkill with the pumice but definitely More pumice than akadama if you want More aeration so akadama is going to Hold the most water pumice will be Second and then lava rock will hold the Least so adding extra lava rock is Definitely a good idea when it comes to Scots pine All right next question here's from Gordon Gordon says this is for Rafa do You like working on deciduous Bonsai and Do you have a favorite species and why Yeah I love uh work with the serious uh Trees but normally I have a big amount Of Evergreen and junip and Tony first But I love of course uh deciduous Bonsai But my favorite species uh uh in uh Deciduous tree or in general in general In general uh Uh the ones because I have a lot is the White leaf from from especially from America yesterday yeah because have Everything uh movement bark uh smallies Uh and you can enjoy it because you can
Get a lot of types of styles of course But uh also like a lot the Scott Pines And universe yeah in general yeah the The ulasha the the native Olive on Mallorca if you see that sitting next to Like a European Olive they look Completely different they're not even on The same level like everybody on Mainland Europe wants the ulastra from Mallorca yeah everybody yeah it's such An amazing species yeah All right next up here uh it's just a Comment from Jenny she says sakuteiki is How you spell the book that Bjorn just Mentioned so yeah if you guys want to Look this up it was actually written by The I guess it would be the illegitimate Son of I think it was a member of the Fujiwada clan which was one of the big Uh sort of Clans in Kyoto that was tied In with the aristocracy uh so a very Interesting read and actually on our Japan tours that we take every year we Actually take the group to a place Called biotoin which is a temple complex In ujji which is kind of in on the Southeast side of Kyoto that building Was built in the year around the year 1000 I guess and that was actually I Think originally built by the father or Grandfather of the guy who eventually Wrote the sakutaki so it's the oldest Wooden building in Japan and I think the Oldest wooden building in the world it's
Still intact never been burned down Never fell down due to earthquakes or Anything so we take our groups there and By the way if you want to come on our Japan tour there's still a few places Open open available on the tour so Definitely check out that information on The membership platform or just on my Website under the Japan tours tab All right next question here is from Brian Brian says thanks for having an Open house I've been wanting to see your Nursery for some time do you mind Sharing some of the types or level of Development of plant material that will Be for sale during the open house yeah Absolutely so we're going to have Everything from Nursery stock on up to The most expensive tree you've ever seen In your life I'm just kidding we do have A very expensive material here as well But I'd say probably the cheapest Material we have here is in Uh it's probably around like the 50 Range I would say uh we've got some Really cool like Chinese quinces small Chinese Quince Nursery stocks that are Going to make really nice showheen trees Uh choji by available yamadori available Uh and everything kind of in between and Of course we've got you know very Finished Bonsai as well uh into the you Know higher end range in terms of price Too so and like I said we'll have pots
I've got tons of new pots in from Japan When I say new I mean new to me but They're actually very old pots we've got A lot of really nice old pots with good Patina to them uh antique Chinese pots We've got tools all sorts of stuff's Going to be for sale this weekend so uh Definitely come and check it out look Forward to having you out here Brian Uh all right next up we've got a Question here from uh boyteno he says uh What's the best time to do root work on A Hemlock all right so this is one Species that I am not really familiar With uh I don't work with them at all Here in Tennessee never did any work With them in Japan they're not really a Popular species in Japan and here in Tennessee we have all sorts of uh you Know pests diseases that affect hemlocks Differently so they don't really grow Very well in this area so I don't want To give you bad advice I would assume in A similar time to working on say like a Dog Furs or spruces sometime in March And I know I know uh Boitano's from kind Of the the Chattanooga area of a similar Climate to what we have here in Nashville very similar actually so Sometime in in like early to mid-march Would be my guess with that species but You might want to check with another Source just to confirm that that's Actually the case
Uh let's see here this one's from Gordon He says uh when you say something likes To stay on the dry side and something Likes to stay on the Wet Side how do you Come to know that uh are there any Visual indicators Um So Um when it comes to like figuring out What likes to be a little bit dry and What likes to be a little bit wet some Of that's from my training in Japan some Of that's from experience having my own Nursery here back in the States Um and really the visual cues when Something is being overly watered versus Underwater or over water versus Underwater usually the foliage on a Plant that is is underwater and say the Tree is drying out too much say it's a Pine for example the tips of the foliage Tend to turn brown or yellow and then it Sort of works its way back when it comes To over watering the plant usually the Whole plant or all of the needles in Unison will start to turn kind of a Yellowy color I didn't mention I think Was in last week's live q a maybe Somebody kind of asked what's the Difference between like or how do you Tell if something's over watered Underwatered under fertilized over Fertilized because the foliage ends up Looking somewhat similar across the
Board so I think the advice I gave last Week was if the tree is over watered Rather if the the tree is yellow across The board like the tree just sort of Yellows out it's either probably over Watered or it's under fertilized in Terms of micronutrients so I would back Off on the water and add more Micronutrients to it because you don't Know which is actually occurring to the Tree so hopefully that gives you kind of A good starting point with the visual Cues but those would be the things that I would look for when it comes to over Watering versus underwatering All right next question here is from Christopher he says I have a big Scots Pine and on some needles there is a kind Of white residue maybe dried resin is This normal with Scots pine at first I Thought it was mealybugs but it's not Have you noticed this on White Pines at This time of year that on the needles You get like white white sap or resin or Anything is that normal no it's uh Normal you don't get nothing strange in The in the needles like or like uh this Is white it's not the problem maybe it's Excess of okay yeah I think on Scots Pines too at this time of year they're Setting the buds are setting up to go Into winter dormancy the buds will Actually get encrusted with white resin Basically and probably what you're
Seeing is excess resin on the needles if It's something like scale for example it Will be individual small little white Dots that you can easily Slough off when You Slough them off they'll retain their Shape if it's resin when you scrape it Or if it's actually a sap and you scrape It it'll turn the kind of powder as you Scrape it so my guess is that it's Probably it's probably excess resin or Sap on the needles at this time of year All right next question here is from Gary and this is for Rafa he says in Spain do you guys use akadama given the Difficulty in sourcing akadama is there Any movement in Spain to substitute Akadama for something else if so what Material is being used yeah normally we Use of course akadama and it's tough now Because it's difficult to get every time Normally I buy more than one thousand Bucks uh a thousand bags a thousand bags One thousand bucks that's a lot this is A lot and now just the last months I Just get 70 170 100 bucks and we need to Think about Others possibilities and is there any Idea is there do you have anything Difficult now to get uh similar because It's a is the this type of soil have Special characteristics and we don't Find yet similar you know and we use in This moment a little less we put maybe More we change a little the the mix we
Put more pumice in the bottom and we do The mix uh in the middle and just some Akarama in the top and before we use More akarama and You keep the drainage it's just because You have less but we don't find yet the The Substitute okay Excellent all right next question here Is from Ted Ted says I'm planning on Doing a root over rock using a Three-year-old Japanese black pine how Would you pot it uh use a deeper box to Sink most of it I use a regular size pot And cover where you want the roots to Grow I do plan on bringing the materials To your class uh yeah actually Ted if You want to check out on the Bonsai you Platform if you go to the Bonsai you Library and click on it should be under The Pines tab there's a video that I did In I think it was February or March of This year where I actually show you how To do a root over rock with a Japanese Black pine actually of all things so I Usually use Raffia to tie the roots onto The Rock and then the whole thing gets Buried in a deeper pot so I definitely Recommend that you check that video out We're going to do a follow-up on that Tree I've got it set aside in the Nursery so we can follow up on that at Some point probably not this next spring Really you need to let it go at least Two full years after you apply the tree
To the Rock before you start exposing That so it'll be a while file before we Do the follow-up but definitely check Out that video it'll answer your Question I think in relatively good Detail Okay next question here is from Big Mike Big Mike says I have a 50 year old Acer Paul Maiden with a nice nabari I have Removed the amount of moss growing on The soil in preparation for next Spring's repot at the outer edges of the Navari are muddy and stained any advice On how to clean you know typically with Japanese maples I'll just use water and A toothbrush or a nylon brush to get as Much of that Gunk off of there as Possible after you do that you might Want to treat the entire trunk of the Tree including the nabari with lime Sulfur and I would dilute it down to Like say 20 to maybe 30 lime sulfur and Then 70 to 80 percent water that'll Usually turn it kind of a nice grayish Color and this is actually something That we will do for exhibitions like at The Coca food we'll paint the whole Trunk out onto the branches all the way To the tips just leaving the red tips Unpainted with lime sulfur to brighten Them up so the combination of those two Things I think should take care of that Issue and give you a much cleaner Looking tree is there anything else you
Would do in terms of is Just waiting for the fall uh the leaves The fall and and clean everything with Brush and also water and and then I put Protection with a line sulfur okay cool Excellent all right next up here we've Got a question from Bob Bob says uh what Do you mean by micronutrients what Provides these two trees okay so uh Before I give you the explanation here The best thing to do as a multi-u member Is to go to the library click on the Horticulture Tab and there'll be a video On there about uh fertilization uh There's actually a couple videos on There if you watch those videos it Explains all about the the types of Micronutrients that you need to apply to Trees and where you can access those Micronutrients in terms of the products That you can use but micronutrients Would be well let's say we got Macronutrients which are going to be Your nitrogen your potassium your Phosphorus which is going to be that mpk That you see on any fertilizer bag and Then the micro nutrients are going to be Things like molybdenum copper zinc iron A whole bunch of other things and you Can get those in products like liquid Kelp or liquid fish for example so Definitely check out that fertilizer Video it'll explain in much more detail In terms of rate of application timing
Foliar feeding versus root drenching all Of that information is is in that video So definitely check that out All right next question here's from Christopher he says uh wow great cue for Resin versus scale mine is definitely Resin thank you so much awesome cool Yeah that's the best way to check just Scrape it if it pops off and retains its Shape as a little dot that's probably Scale if it rubs off as powder that's Probably going to be resin All right next up here we got one from Derek Derek says uh I let my ume grow Out this year to build Vigor the tree Has dropped all of its leaves uh in the Winter coming can I cut the tree back Now or wait until after flowering in Early spring if you want to enjoy more Flowers on the tree you could leave all Those elongating shoots on the plant Once it finishes flower you can cut it Back at that point if you wanted the Tree to look nice over the winter in Terms of you know overall silhouette and Shape and absolutely nothing wrong with Going ahead and cutting it back now that It's gone completely dormant so at Derek's way up further north up in Ohio So they're a little further along into Winter art freeze here just started Changing color not really dropping Leaves yet at least the Bonsai haven't Dropped leaves yet so I'm holding off on
Doing anything to our flowering apricots Or any of our deciduous trees till They've gone a little bit more dormant Um okay next question here is from Brian Brian says have either of you worked Much with firing apricots uh prunes mume As Bonsai are they difficult to work With as Bonsai I I've worked a lot with Flowering apricot particularly in Japan At Fuji costumes Nursery we had I'd say Probably a dozen of some of the best Flowering apricots in the entire country Um so we would do everything from Defoliation to wiring to you know basic Pruning of course uh grafting we would Always farm that out to other specialty Nurseries but it's a species that I'm Very familiar with done a lot of work With I'd say the biggest things with Flowering apricot would be disease you Got to be very careful with disease Also they don't necessarily like a lot Of heat in the summer if you ever have a Firing apricot and it gets very hot out In the summer the leaves will actually Curl up into kind of a a folded form Kind of a rounded folded form that's to Prevent over transpiration a lot of People think that's disease in the Summer but it's not Um so you just need to keep them Relatively moist keep them in a little Bit of shade it's okay okay if the Leaves curl up at night they'll open
Right back up we'll just keep that in Line so have you done much work with Firing apricot yeah I have some but not So much we have other similarities Bruno's Nice nice one but make just the white Flowers yeah yeah there's one prunist Mahalab that he has at his Nursery that I really really want this is a little Like two Heen kifu sized but is that What you call it oh yeah it's an amazing Tree unfortunately there's no way to Bring it back to the state so even if I Bought it it still has to stay right Yeah it's a great plant Uh all right cool it looks like the Chat's winding down so I want to thank You guys for joining us uh for this Week's uh live q a uh it was a pleasure To have Rafa here my pleasure yeah and Of course you know if you can come out To the uh the event this next week our Open house I would love to see you guys It's gonna be a lot of fun Demonstrations all weekend Um just hanging out trees pots Everything for sale so I think it's Gonna be a lot of fun yeah of course we Always enjoy it cool so thank you guys So much for joining us tonight and we Will see you guys next time around take Care Oh actually before we we head out my Wife said I got to remind you guys about
The tour one more time I heard her in The background make sure if you want to Join our tour sign up I go to the Japan Tours page at the top all the Information is on there hope to see you Guys on the tour okay is that is that Everything Okay that's it all right we'll see you Guys next time around take care
