First Bonchi Attempt - Orange Hab w/photos

[justchil]

Greetings!

After spending many hours reading on Fatalii.net about bonchi's I started to make my own.  Unfortunately I can't locate many photo's from the "before" process but I did find two.

This was my first year gardening... I grew many things other than peppers... So don't be afraid to try!  It's easier than it seems!

Here is the plant several weeks before being cut down.  I slowly exposed roots by watering near the main stem and brushing away dirt.



Full plant (it was bigger when cut down).  It produced WAY more pods than I needed!



Here is the plant after being cut down the first time.





Next I spent some time cleaning dirt off the top/largest roots.







A week or so later....






And a few days later... I showed the photo's to Fatalii... He recommended it cut the plant down further and reduce the root size with a smaller pot.  After this I got very excited because it's finally starting to take form.

(before repot)




(after repot)




I will update as things progress... I wish I would have documented it better from the beginning

[Fatalii]

Great!

I'm sure you will still have plenty of chances to make documentations like this!

It nice that someone else is showing people that this isn't a hard at all!

Just easy and fun.

Oh and btw, nice to see you here too!

[Jiri]

Very nice work. Great pictures. Hope to see more soon :-)

[coco]

Very beautiful bonchi! Great pictures.. hope to see more pics! Did you cut the roots smaller?

[justchil]

Thanks!  Yes the first pot was 5 gallon.  The next one was smaller and now this one is even smaller.  My next pot will be a nice bonsai pot

Some new photos... a few new leaves.  I will do a lot of work to it this weekend

[Fatalii]

Damn it's progressing quickly!

Way to go!

Wasn't too hard afterall, eh?
Just something fun to work with!

[justchil]

New pot and some trimming... now it's really starting to shape up!

[Fatalii]

Yeah, that's a bonchi!

Now imagine it with a wide and low foliage.

The foliage will be thick enough to cover every cutted branch.
Just use artificial light, preferably plenty of it to keep the foliage dense, and keep cutting it to prevent any spindly stems.
Fluorescent tube very close (few centimeter) to top will work great.

Going great!!
Much easier than most people think.

[justchil]

I was wondering what to do about the ugly large branches that were cut

I will have another update soon!  The plant has wilted several times after being moved to the bonchi pot due to lack of water but other than that it's doing great!

[Fatalii]

Hmm... might be also because of the shock... just keep watering it.
Using material which absorbs some moisture helps a lot. Like Akadama.

About the ugly stems, you have a few options... one is to cut them off... one is to cut them shorter, perhaps by modifying them to look more natural by reshaping.
A foliage will cover the ugly cut marks soon. Just see how it will grow and deside what to cut later on...

[justchil]

Not much growth yet... but soon I hope!  I used Akadama in the soil to help it hold water

I will post back when more changes/growth happens

[justchil]

I think part of my problem was trying out "SuperThrive"  it caused the plant to grow a bunch flowers (well they didn't open but the buds were there).  So back to using biobizz only... I gave it a nice dose yesterday so it should really pick up soon