The dream pot for my very first bonsai is hot off the printing press and Stephan has sent me a movie of the process!
I’m pruning the new growth on my Ficus microcarpa to keep the canopy growing evenly for the summer.
Bonsai Pots Near Me
Hi everyone nigel saunders here this is my very first bonsai tree and the pot on it is getting a little small so i wanted to find the perfect pot for this tree and stefan in germany reached out and said well i can 3d print the perfect pot for my tree [Music] stefan sent me an email saying that the 3d printing was done and he sent me a video showing the 3d printing process so let’s have a look at that now [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] one two three four five [Music] one two three four five seven seven eight nine two four two times [Applause] one two three seven eight nine the pot design was inspired by the giant cement vietnamese style bonsai pots and there’s a lot of finishing to go on the 3d printed pot to make it look like cement but i think in the end it’ll look like a miniaturized version of these giant pots they have in vietnam [Music] i did repot this tree over the winter so when i get the new 3d printed pot i’ll be basically kind of slip potting it into the new pot not disturbing the roots too much it should grow really well this summer it’s got a good canopy on it it’s got fresh soil in there it should really really do well this summer today i want to prune up the canopy it’s starting to get out of shape there’s a lot of shoots that are getting really long and vigorous towards the back and there’s a lot of new shoots that i can maybe prune some of these branches back to them so maybe you know refining the branch structure a bit too so that’s what i’ll be doing today i’ve got my spinning tree bonsai turntable outside now so we can rotate the tree around and have a look at it all so this one branch at the back that’s kind of it was intended to grow out this direction but it the that part of it died off and it took over this direction and dropped an aerial route and it’s kind of a funny branch but that’s the way the tree grew so yeah that part of the tree is really vigorous and taking off you can see all the shoots on it that needs to be kept in check otherwise this will become its own tree you can see how thick that root’s getting already so i got to keep that part of the tree in check and the rest is just kind of maintenance and trimming back to some of the new shoots so just kind of refining the branch structure i’m going to start up top here pruning back these really long shoots first so here i go and i’m pruning back to leaves that are facing outwards using directional pruning i’m trying to think i think i’ll go here like that i’ll start up here at the apex first and i’m keeping the profile in mind when i’m pruning i’m also looking for areas of congestion trying to thin them out so it’s kind of equally balanced the the amount of foliage on the tree i’ve got a branch going kind of the wrong direction it’s sticking straight out at the front i’ve got to redirect that or take it off so i think i’ll take it off there’s a better branch off here like that this branch here i’ve got a more horizontal one and then there’s one sticking straight up here i’ve kind of got two branches growing from one spot there i thought about taking it off totally it’s it’s going in nice direction it’s kind of coming out towards the front i think i’ll leave it for now i’ll just i’ll just cut back the top here so here i go like that so i’ve got my more horizontal shoot out here now and the other parts taken off if you look at pictures of full-sized ficus trees you’ll notice that that they have these huge massive umbrella canopies and then if you look at the trunk it doesn’t look very significant under the tree but the trunk still has all the details the aerial roots and everything so i’m not too concerned about how wide i get this canopy i can always prune it back later on so for now i’m going to get as much mass up top as i can because that’s all generating energy and starches and sugars for the tree and all that photosynthetic volume up there so the more i get the more vigorous the tree will grow and it’s still a in an early stage this tree it’s you know years and years away from becoming a really nice ficus i would say this tree is sort of in between developmental and refining the tree so a lot of this canopy structure has to be refined in the future but you know the basic form of the tree is there it’s just growing it refining it making it look better and better i’ll continue to work on the canopy now just tracing every branch up so here’s one that’s got one two three four growing tips on it and i’m going to keep my outwardly facing ones so the one going vertical here and the one growing towards the inside will get removed like that like that and i’ll trim the stub off that branch is pruned up i’m looking out front again i’ve still got some shoots sticking out of the canopy up here that’s looking a little better still some work to go i’m getting a lot more light into the lower branch structure here there are a lot of these shoots on the top that were overlapping all the other branches and shading them out so that’ll give the whole canopy kind of equal strength i’ve got most of the branches sorted out now getting them going in the right direction pruning off all the crisscrossing branches i’m just having a look at the overall shape of the canopy up front now i’m still a little heavy right here in the apex see if i can reduce that a bit and i’m still kind of heavy right here trying to get my umbrella shape here i think i’ve got to take a little more off the back here i’ll raise the camera up so you can see that so with the camera up higher you can see the part sticking out at the back here and that’s that vigorous branch that comes from an aerial root so i gotta take that back a bit that certainly helps i’m back down at regular height again i think i’m a little pointy on top right here i could flatten that a bit i think that’s helped a bit well i think it’s looking better now it’s getting closer i’m going to spin it around and give a final check to all the branches and the profiles and that might be it for today i think i might be done the pruning once again here’s a look at all the branches i took off the tree it always amazes me how fast these ficus trees grow and this was indoors i just put it out yesterday in the greenhouse and i may have to bring it in again if the weather gets cold but yeah once it’s outside it should really take off in growth and give me more choices in the future for pruning and that’s what i’m after i’m not after you know thickening it up and everything that’ll come but getting all those new shoots coming out and getting future choices for branch selection and that is what’s important continually refining the primary branch structure and the secondary branch structure and finally the tips and everything eventually yeah so i think that’s looking good i think it’s ready to go back in the greenhouse and grow again it is a beautiful day today and laura has the silkies outside there’s one back in the corner there hello how are you hi what you what you doing [Music] here comes the other silky hello are you thirsty are you thirsty did you want a drink or something hello where are you going girls going over there i can hardly wait to get the 3d printed pot from stefan see how the tree looks in it and develop the tree into the future it’s going to be really exciting and that’s all for today i’m nigel saunders thanks for joining me in the bonsai zone
