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Hello folks welcome to Ma-Ke Bonsai.
This is Mark D'Cruz.
Today, I have Adriana with me
and we're going to pot this Fuji Cherry
which make beautiful bonsais.
This particular picture is of a tree at Kew
and you can see it has this beautiful weeping habit
which we will try and replicate over the next few years of training.
Adriana got this for 8 pounds from the garden centre.
She's going to take it out of the pot and work on the nebari.
You start working on the nebari from the top and move down.
Move away soil with a chopstick and then
gently cut away the roots that have been exposed.
Brush the trunk and the nebari to remove
any soil and moss that may have collected on the trunk.
The trunk is the oldest part of the tree
and by exposing it properly,
you will show off the age of the bonsai as you are creating it.
She's working on removing some
of the bigger roots at the moment.
Tapering the root ball
so that it has a slope to the centre of the tree.
Adriana carefully measures the depth of the pot
and the width of the pot to ensure
that she has the root ball to the right size.
She would mark out the areas
that she needs to cut away although keeping in mind
that there is one centimetre space
between the root ball and the pot surface.
She uses little tags to mark where she's going to cut to.
Because this is a peat based potting mix
from the garden centre, it's actually quite easily done.
But with normal bonsai soils,
it's a little bit more tedious but nevertheless,
the same instructions have to be followed.
What about that Mark? Is that too high?
I would go down one centimetre,
one and a half centimetre because
you've got to put soil in it.
And then that height is more or less what you want it to be.
I'm going to open it a bit more here, as it grows.
That pot is absolutely perfect for it.
Adriana adds a thin layer of soil at the base of the pot
and then makes a little mound in the centre.
She places the root ball in it, jiggles it and fills it up with soil.
And then ties the tie wires that we've had in the pot.
She first hand ties it and cuts away the excess
and then ties it with the jin plier to make sure
that there is no slack in the tree.
However, this is a relatively tall tree in the pot
and it will need additional support while the roots extend
into the new soil after which it will be fine.
Towards the end of the video,
you will see how we provide the additional support.
Adriana is using the jin pliers now to tighten the wire
and remove any slack between the soil and the wire.
Adriana is topping up the surface with some fresh soil.
The soil will provide a new area
for fresh roots at the top to grow.
After a quick dunking,
she is adding a thin layer of sphagnum moss onto the soil.
The sphagnum moss helps
with retaining moisture in the pot and also ensures
that the topsoil doesn't run away when you water it.
After the sphagnum moss has been done,
she will add green moss onto it at a later stage.
She now flattens it down with a spatula
to have a nice even gradient from the top of the pot
to the top of the nebari, the rim of the pot.
And it takes a little bit of doing but the end result is
a very clean, freshly, nicely done pot.
And that's what we're looking for.
She's now tying the additional guide wires
to ensure that the bonsai is held firmly in the pot
so that there is no chance of even the slightest bit
of movement once it has settled into it.
Adriana is using jute twine to provide
the additional support for the tree
and this stage is quite essential.
Makes the tree much stronger.
If you do not add these guide wires on a tall tree like this,
the tree tends to move with the breeze and the watering
and its recovery can take much longer.
But there we are.
Here is the end result of the day's work.
It's a nice-looking tree and it will develop
into a weeping style as we go along.
The top branches will be curved down
and wired down or weighted down
depending on which approach Adriana takes.
Thank you for watching.
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and we hope to see you again soon.
Thank you for watching.
This is Mark D'Cruz signing out.
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