Eric brings 6 European crabapples (Malus sylvestris) from his growing field to the garage to get a sense of whether to cut them back, repot them, or if their trunks are large enough to prepare to pot them down into bonsai containers. He plans to make shohin bonsai out of them. They’re a few years old and in 6-inch pond baskets, and one is Eric’s attempt at an exposed root Crab Apple. Was he successful? Give the video a watch to find out!
00:01:08 Rough clean up before Eric reviews the trees’ structure, includes cutting some big roots.
00:02:00 Sacrificing a basket to a get a tree out (with a SAW!!)
00:02:23 Attempt at an exposed root (more to come, watch on).
00:02:58 Removing long straight section from a tree that is not ready for potting down.
00:03:29 This tree began as a normal-looking seedling but now has some bumpiness on the branches, which indicates to Eric fungus of some sort.
00:04:39 Most interesting tree out of the six: Eric rakes away the soil at the base to check on the nebari situation.
00:05:10 Eric hasn’t figured how to make these bloom yet! Also: propagation by rooting cuttings (trees produce a lot of suckers).
00:06:28 Eric eliminates unwired or less interesting sections.
00:08:06 To get into a reasonable size container, Eric must remove most of the large roots – which are what he’s looking for in terms of propagation.
00:08:54 Second tree with big circling roots, which Eric removes (want an apple donut? Eric needs better jokes!) along with one big piece of wood. Eric explains why he will put this tree back out to grow in the fields for another year.
00:10:36 Third tree with vigorous growth – Eric removes the four foot long top and then rakes away the roots. Exposed root success? Eric doesn’t think the results are very interesting. What do you think?
00:12:26 Eric reviews the fourth tree below the soil. Quick clean-up and then back into the container for another year.
00:12:52 The fifth tree is not big enough to work on this year, so Eric doesn’t even remove it from the container.
00:13:13 Summary from Eric: he places all six trees back into the 6 pack holder after sealing any woods he created. This is a great example of incremental progress in early stages of bonsai development.
How long do you think it will take Eric’s crabapples to bloom? Let us know in the comments below. Thanks for watching! Please like and share, and subscribe to the channel for more great bonsai videos!
