How to Care For a Itoigawa Juniper Bonsai Tree

Hello and welcome back to another Episode of notion Bonsai and today in This box is a new Itoigawa Juniper Bonsai tree This is what it looks like inside the Box inside is also a piece of wood let’s Get this out of the box as a bomb site Comes posted this one is packaged very Well whenever you receive a bomb site From a Bonsai Nursery and the post the Trees often cable tied to the bottom of The box so it can’t move around so I’m Just going to turn this sidewards I’m going to cut the cable ties here While it’s holding the tree on the Inside And there we go it has come loose and Now to get off all of the tape and Cardboard that is stuck at the bottom Here I’ll first separate the bottom Let me know in the comments have any of You guys ordered a tree from a Bonsai Nursery that came this well packed I Have to say this is in very good Condition and if not how was it packaged For you or maybe it was it packaged Differently than this I always find it Interesting to see how different people Post bonsai trees some cable tie them at The bottom of the pot some use string I would prefer the cable tie if I was Posting a tree Saw through that there All right and there it is I do quite Like the Moss that’s at the bottom of

This here quite a soft Moss I would just Like to point out that this tree is the First tree I’ve purchased from a Bonsai Nursery this specific genus of juniper Is an etoy gawa and it’s actually quite Difficult to find here in the UK in your Average Garden Center the reason why It’s desired and sought after for Bonsai Is because it grows this really fine Very green needle-like foliage and Because it grows quite densely it’s very Very good for making pads on Bonsai and Getting that sort of dense tree shape All of the Bonsai material that we have Worked on on the channel so far has been Garden Center material meaning it came From a garden center has been styled had Its first styling and then is on its way To becoming a great Bonsai but because This was purchased from a actual Bonsai Nursery this tree has already had its First styling it’s got a shape to it That was probably created from wire like We do on our garden center material so This history is now a few years ahead of The stuff that we would have been Working on originally now as much as I Would love to repot this tree into a Bigger pot and get it grown super Healthy it’s just not the right time of Year to repot this tree is going to be Repotted in Spring early spring next Year now it’s very interesting about the Itoigawa Juniper and all shimpako

Junipers is that it’s got two types of Foliage the first type of foliage is the Needle foliage also known as the Juvenile foliage and this is the foliage The tree produces before it closes up And you get that second type of foliage Which is the cord like foliage it’s a Lot softer to the touch and it’s not Spiky to work with now if a juniper Stressed or it’s been pruned quite a lot Or it’s just how to repot often times it Can revert back to this juvenile foliage And the reasoning for doing that is the Trees trying to catch more lights Obviously that creates more surface area And the tree can then capture more light And store more energy to get healthy Again so now that we’ve took it out of The box I’m going to be showing you a Few things that I’ll be doing into this Just to sort of set it up for next year Nothing major no Branch printing really Just sort of a tidy up so the first Thing that I’m going to do is clean up The Moss that’s just sort of starting to Grow up the trunk here and the tools That I’ll be using for that is a pair of Tweezers and a toothbrush I’m just going To go in and peel off the Moss with the Tweezers first now my reasoning for Doing this is first of all I don’t think It looks very nice and secondly if Moss Starts to grow up the trunk of your Bonsai it can provide too much moisture

To the trunk and this area here and it Can actually start to rot and eventually Kill the tree so it’s good to keep on Top of the Moss screwing up trunks I Noticed here there’s like a little bald Patch in the pot so I’m just taking the Moss that’s growing up the trunk and Just filling in in the areas that don’t Really have much moss on the outside of It so nice Moss isn’t really going to Waste We’re just replacing it somewhere else I Haven’t talked about moss in videos very Much but I do Moss my trees for example This is a little fuja that we worked on In a previous video there’ll be an Update on this tree coming next year so If you want to stay up to date in that Subscribe to the channel this is a Little starter Japanese maple got some Moss on it so perhaps if you want to see A video on Moss leave it in the comments So now that I’ve got the Moss worked Away from just around the bottom of the Tree here we can move on to using the Toothbrush just to get any of the pieces That we couldn’t really get with the Tweezers and as we work off the trunk The bark that’s sort of flaking off the Tree is coming off along with it as we Do this with the toothbrush and that’s Actually a really good thing you see in Bonsai trees like Pines we want to keep That nice old gnarly bark because it

Adds something to the tree but with Junipers the red color underneath is a Lot more desirable than the bark flaking Off because it’s got a lovely vibrant Color so with junipers the bark is Always removed and scraped off sometimes With a wire brush or a nylon brush and I Can see now the previous artist of this Tree Kept these little branches as Gins but The bark is still on them so I may peel That off let me see here if I grab a Pair of gin pliers and just crush the Bark of this I wonder if it will come Off easily Oh it does look at that okay great I’m Just gonna take my little blade here and Just cut around the bottom so it doesn’t Start running down the trunk when I pull It off I’m going to show you just how to go Around with the knife so I put it at the Best where I want it to sort of Stop peeling and I just push in and Rotate the knife around the branch I Actually like to just hold the tree at a Different angle so I can get a more Comfortable possession so the cut ends Up cleaner and I’ll do the other side Then whenever I crush this and just Twist It comes off nice and easily and it Doesn’t run down the trunk pulling all The other bark along with it

Foreign Foreign So that’s the bark nice and peeled on Each of the branches and now what I’m Going to do on a gin is create what is Known as just a little split at the top So it looks a lot more natural rather Than it just looking like it’s been cut By a tool It’s a lot easier to do this whenever You have some scissors or something to Slice into the branch with so I’m just Going to make a little cut At an angle You see here that splits the branch for Us I’m just going to roll that down And now that I’ve got the trunk somewhat Clean and all the flaky butts off of it I’m going to move on to using a brass Brush And gently scraping away more of the Trunk it just helps you get the pieces Of the trunk that are flaking off that The toothbrush isn’t really strong Enough to peel off All right so that’s all I’m going to do On working on the trunk for today There’s a lot more that I can peel off Of the top here but I’m not too worried I can leave that till spring it looks Quite nice here now with the flakiness Off you can see a lot more of the Natural color of the tree there’s just

One more thing I would like to do and I’m just going to whiten all these Little small Gins with some lime sulfur Thank you I would just like to give a little Disclaimer on using lime sulfur as it Says on the bottle use appropriately I’d Recommend if you need to wear eye Protection put on gloves as this stuff And its concentrated form if it gets on Your skin can leave Burns it can blind You if it gets in your eyes it’s not Stuffed to be messed around with so just A word of warning I would recommend that You take all the safety precautions Needed if you’re going to use this bear In mind that the brush you use to do This may get destroyed as the lime Sulfur can dissolve some bristles on Brushes I’m using a brush that has sort Of plastic bristles I think these are Used for watercolors and I’ve used this For lime sulfur before and it hasn’t Dissolved the bristles but it has Removed the coloring on this metal here That’s just something to keep in mind Don’t use a good brush so I’m just going To dip it in the lime sulfur And paste it On the little Gins here A lot of people wonder what lime sulfur Is and it’s mostly a mix of calcium Polysulfides and a stuff called Theosulfate plus byproduct of sulfide

And sulfate but to get lime sulfur it’s The chemistry Wise It’s formed by Reactant calcium hydroxide with Elemental sulfur I won’t get into the Chemistry too much but just know that in Bonsai it can be used for a variety of Things aside from whitening the dead Wood for example a dilute solution of This lime sulfur and a 20 to 1 ratio Sometimes tan to one if the trees don’t Have foliage it can be used as like a Fungicide and pesticide you really want To take your time as you use lime sulfur Too not many people talk about like how To apply it to a tree you don’t want to Load the brush out with lots because Then when you like sort of paste it on a Droplet of lime sulfur can go running Down the trunk and leave a white streak It doesn’t look very good in the end so Just take your time I like to put it on thin layers and Build it up that way oh yeah lime sulfur Also has a terrible smell smells like Rotten eggs as you would expect with Something with sulfur in it I remember Whenever I was in Iceland there was um Geezers geysers and they also had this Exact same smell so that’s all I’m going To do to this tree for now not going to Wire it I’m going to leave the wire and Re-poten until next spring I want to Sort of give the tree an adjustment Period to get used to the environment in

My garden now let’s give it a water Foreign And there you guys have it that’s just a Quick little video unboxing the itagawa Juniper and just doing some sort of Light maintenance I hope you enjoyed This video I’m really looking forward to Working on this tree in Spring and Sharing it with you guys if you did like This video please leave a like down Below it helps me out a lot and I would Just like to say notion bomb site as a YouTube channel has grown quite a lot in The short space of time that I’ve been Uploading videos and I would just like To say a massive thank you so much to Everyone who subscribed and comments on The videos and supports me and all the Great ways that you do if you haven’t Already check out my Instagram I post Stuff on there that’s sort of stuff that I do off camera like just the other day I was out in the forest as I find Forests quite a great inspiration for Bonsai as you can see how things grow Naturally in the wild I just sort of Shared my experience I seen like a Mushroom check out my Instagram but on That thank you so very much for watching Foreign