Bonsai Zen: the Kowhai

January 13, 2007 at 12:14 pm · Filed under Bonsai

A few months back, Mom bought me a Bonsai kit from the MO Botanical Garden, and I started it last night. The kit includes the necessary tools to grow a New Zealand Kowhai: fertilizer, seeds, mini pot, plastic tubs. I’ve been putting it off because I want them to hopefully germinate around Spring.

Step One was to soak the seeds for 20 minutes and place them in the fridge for 4-6 weeks. Check! Though, I read the directions almost 10 different times to make sure I fully understood and was carrying them out appropriately.

The seeds came pre-planted in the soil, which is lame. I have no idea how many are in there or whether they got soaked. I’m a little concerned that they got soaked at all because the soil was packed really tight. Alternatively, the directions remind you not to give the seeds too much water, because then they could rot.

I’m going to keep them in the fridge for the full 6 weeks. I want the greatest chance of having every seed to sprout. This will give me the chance to possibly loose one and have others to fall back on. Til then, I just have to make sure that they have a little bit of water. Step Two will be to move them to a warm dark area.

Wikipedia says the Kowhai is a small woody legume tree. There are eight species. The ‘Sophora prostrata’ is sometimes called the “Little Baby” and is most typically uses as a Bonsai. The Kowhai is the national flower of New Zealand and is the Maori word for yellow.

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Green Green and the Tiger Paw

December 16, 2006 at 2:44 pm · Filed under Bonsai, Lifestyle

I ventured to Chinatown to pick up some Green Green. One 35mL bottle was only 75¢, but I wish I had a camera on me at the time. I wanted to take a picture of the wall of ‘lucky bamboo.’ It was humbling to be in the presence of so many sizes and varieties of healthy looking ‘lucky’. I’m pretty sure this is where my ‘lucky’ came from. I looked deep into many of the dishes to see how much water or what techniques they were using, but I didn’t learn much. None of them were using fertilizer, just water. A couple dishes were even dry. What gives? I’ll have to go back sometime when it’s not busy and try to pick the owner’s brains.

I meandered around the rest of the store. The shops are like a Goodwill/thrift store. You never know what cool things you’re going to find. I surveyed the plant dishes and vases, but nothing caught my eye. I went to the back and found some sandals. I thought, “I could really use some sandals come summertime,” but I moved on instead. Then, I saw them. The most sweet pair of kicks. They looked just like the oldskool low cut Converse, but they were “Tiger Paw’s”. I checked out the price, and they were only $5.99. Hell Yes. I had to dig deep in the pile to find some 10.5′s, since the majority of the shoes were 6-9. Silly Asians and their tiny feet.

So, I made my way back home and fed the ‘lucky’. I gave it a few extra drops of Green Green to get it back on track. I’m also wearing the kicks around the apartment to get them broken in.

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Bonsai Potato Project

December 15, 2006 at 12:52 pm · Filed under Bonsai

I laughed when I saw the title of this article. But after I read it through and saw the pictures, I thought that’s not half bad.

Starting with a nasty sprouted spud will make this activity all the more fun while you create your own bonsai potato. This is a perfect use for those recently rediscovered spuds that might be otherwise headed for the trash. All you need to do is plant it in a pot and with patience and careful pruning, you too can create a bonsai potato.

Plant the potato in the pot so it juts out of the dirt. Your potato should be at least half way in the dirt. Before planting your spud spend some time observing how the sprouts grow out of the potato. The sprouts become the branches so you’ll want to plant the tuber with these sprouts above the dirt. How you position the potato in the dirt has everything to do with the form that your bonsai will take after planting. Because every sprouted potato is different, every bonsai potato will be different. I like to imagine the potato is a rock and the sprouts are small trees growing from the rock.

~ Potato Bonsai Project

Bonsai isn’t a particular plant, but an art. It encompasses any small plant dwarfed by pruning for a desired shape. And I have to commend this person for the effort. I might even have to give it a try. There’s even a community of bonsai potato growers. www.bonsaipotato.com Who knew?

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No More Tea for the Bamboo

December 14, 2006 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Bonsai

I’ve put the kibosh on the tea leaf/bamboo experiment. After three more days of adding used tea leaves to the water, the plant certainly wasn’t looking better. The leaves began to look faded and grainy. So, I ended that quickly. I’m going to see what I can do, now, to get this baby looking healthy again.

Why did I imagine that adding used tea leaves to the water would help in the first place? Well, back when I received the bamboo, I also got a bottle of ‘Green Green’. The liquid content of GG is bright yellow, which made me think of tea. The ingredients are derived from Ammonium Nitrate, Ammonium Phosphate, Potassium Nitrate, Calcium Phosphates. I figured the tea leaves would breakdown and release some delicious Nitrates into the water. Apparently, not so. I dont know where my ‘Green Green’ bottle is so I’ll have to make a trip to Chinatown or chance it.

A few websites state that yellowing or brown leaf edges may be caused by fluoridated or chlorinated water. Well, poo. I’m not about to purchase bottled or filtered water for the bamboo. Sorry, little fella’. However, some cultivator sites recommend leaving tap water out over night. The chlorine will evaporate, but it won’t remove the fluoride. They also recommend changing the water every 3-7 days. That’s something I never do. Typically, I used to keep adding new water every few days, because it would evaporate or get used up. I’ll change it more routinely.

Lastly, it turns out lucky bamboo isn’t bamboo. It’s a dracaena or a ‘ribbon plant’. It’s native to Cameroon in tropical west Africa. One website says:

Depending on the temperature & humidity of your home, it can last from a couple weeks to over a year. There really isn’t much you can do if bamboo doesn’t like your home environment, so enjoy it while you can.

Well, thanks a lot for the encouragement, Buster Brown. I’ll just have to sleep with my plant at night and simulate a rain forest in my chilly apartment.

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Tea for the Plants

December 11, 2006 at 3:14 pm · Filed under Bonsai

The bamboo hasn’t been doing well over the last few years. A couple more leaves have turned yellow and died, though all the stalks are still green. Perhaps it’s time to donate it to science.

A while back, I read an article about a Tea Leaf Experiment. The author decided to use tea leaves as a fertilizer under the claim that they add acid to the soil to perk up the plant and it’s color. Her experiences were positive, and the only downside was some occasional molding of the leaves. I choose to try this with my bamboo water.

After I steeped a cup of tea, I threw the leftover leaves in the bamboo water. I did this over a four day period. The water has turned tea colored and kinda murky. A yucky film has also appeared on the water surface. But, the leaves look ‘perkier!’ I dont know about ‘greener.’

Actually, the water just looks gross…I’ll clean out the dish and try again.

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