Month: October 2010

By following the general guidelines when choosing our rocks for our landscape bonsai, we will be able to find some decent rock material for the mountains and cliffs in our bonsai. However, unless we are very lucky, the rock material we find will not 100% seamlessly match with the plants, or the bonsai pot, or other elements we will use in our landscape bonsai. In such case, we need to shape the rock by ourselves.

Landscape Bonsai – Design Stage

After we have picked the rock we want to use for our landscape bonsai, we have to decide how we want to attach our tree to the rock  in our landscape bonsai. Do we want the trunk/roots of our little tree(s) to go along or within the cracks and holes of the rocks? Or do we want the roots of the tree to be wrapped around the rock instead? How about the height of the tree? Will it be too tall? Or is there somewhere on the rock that looks too wide which we rather have it chopped off? These are examples of some questions that we will ask ourselves during the design stage, before any action is taken.

Preparation

Before we work on the rock, mark our rock with a marker so we will know where to align the die while cutting/grinding.

Protect Ourselves

Put on goggles to keep our vision clear of the water and protect our eyes from any rock chips that may be thrown from the die grinder. If we want to keep our clothes clean, we better put on an apron (or use a large plastic bag with holes cut for our head and arms) to keep water from spraying on our clothes.

Shape the Rock for Our Landscape Bonsai

To avoid the metal die getting too hot while grinding, we keep a stream of water flowing across where the die touches the rock.

Clean Our Rock

After use, wash our rock. Be careful of any rock chip. Rock chips can be very sharp, so take care when handling them.

Recently, I found mealybugs on the cutting wound of the Fukien Tea bonsai tree. They were hiding right under the aluminum foil tape. I guess the delay of sealing the cutting wounds of my bonsai tree was probably a major factor of this peat problem. Due to a tight schedule, I had no choice but cut my bonsai tree on a rainy day (bad move…) and since the cutting wound was still wet, I didn’t seal the wound with bonsai pruning compound or aluminum foil tape once after I pruned the bonsai tree but only after a few days later.

When I first found mealybugs on my bonsai tree, I wasn’t sure if it’s a plant pest or a disease problem since I couldn’t find any movement in the white powdery clods on a cutting wound of my bonsai tree

What is Mealybug?

Mealybugs start as free-moving crawlers with the females becoming less mobile as they mature. While unlike many female scale insects, female mealybugs often retain leads and can move. Yet, nevertheless, the female mealybugs attach to a single spot and become less mobile.

While female mealybugs feed on plant sap and secrete a powdery wax layer to protect themselves (that’s how they begin to look more like some kind of growth than an insect), the male mealybugs do not feed at all as adults and only live to fertilize the females (hence, the male mealybugs are short-lived).

Get Rid of Mealybugs

The fastest and easiest way is to use pesticide, especially if there is a heavy infestation on our bonsai tree. Of course, this stuff is toxic and we must be careful during mixing and application. We will have to apply the pesticide again in 7-10 days as the mealybugs may have laid eggs on our bonsai tree. A few escaped mealybugs can repopulate a colony in just a few days.