maaliskuu 29, 2024, 09:44:06 ap

Uutiset:

Iloista kasvatuskautta !!


Bonchi questions

Aloittaja blarney, toukokuu 18, 2010, 19:49:32 ip

« edellinen - seuraava »

blarney

Hello all! Today I got my first bonsai pots and I'm looking forward planting my first bonchi soon. As I am a complete newbie on this, there are a couple of questions on my mind, I hope somebody could answer these.

1) On the Fatalii's bonchi guide, he seems to cut down the full sized plant to bonchi size and then put the plant on hydro system. What is this for? Is it possible to put the plant directly to the bonsai pot? If one wants to grow hardened tree-like roots, would it be best just cut down the stems and leave roots intact so the plant can recover more quickly?

2) Some of my chiles seem to have very Y-shaped structure, is it genetics or can I encourage the plant to grow lower stems somehow? If I made a bonchi of these plants, only the main trunk would be left and that would look bad.

3) What is good substitute for akadama soil? So far I have not found any shop that sells it.

4) Is the stone under the plant mandatory or just for decorating purposes?

That's all (for now), hopefully I didn't make too much of a fool of myself. :)

Fatalii

Only questions that won't be asked are stupid questions.

I and probably many people here are glad to help in any way possible! :)

Hmm.. I'm not sure what you mean by transferring cutted plant into hydro system? Did I do that too? (it's possible, hard to remember everything... :D
Still, I usually plant cutted plants to temporary small soil pots until I'm able to tell that they will continue their growth. After that I usually plant them into their final pots which are preferably, bonsai pots.

For growing many different plant shapes and structures, there a re many ways, cuttings being one of them.
Also, after cutting plant to very dull sharp I shape (a stick!) a new growth will begin and new stems will emerge soon.
With many varieties it doesn't take too long for the stems to get woody.
Wiring is important but not necessarily needed with every variety at that stage.

Good substitute for akadama is clay based cat sand. I might have even mentioned that on the bonchi article, not sure....

Hope it helps!
The best chile pepper seeds available here:
http://fataliiseeds.net

Join Fatalii FACEBOOK with over 75 000 chileheads all around the world!
http://fatalii.net/fb

Check the latest chile articles and pictures here:
http://fatalii.net/
Being updated all year around

blarney

Thanks for the answers. I guess this is a thing one learns best by doing.

I'm considering cutting my beloved Bird's Eye Baby to bonchi size. It has been under my hps-lights for 7 months and with very nice structure for bonchi but the trunk or the stems are not yet woody. Do you think I should wait more or does the cutting the plant to smaller make the trunk harden?

I have tried to make a few cuttings, but everytime the cuttings will grow to bush-like structure. It seems they like to grow horizontally than vertically. So not a very good bonchi material there. Maybe the cuttings should be made from the main trunk of a young plant rather than the stems. I hope that in the future I'm able to make some bonchis from the rare wild chiles, some of them seem to grow a wooden trunk very quickly.

This bonchi stuff sure is very addictive!

blarney

I took a couple of pictures which hopefully illustrate the problem I'm having with my cuttings. Here is C. Galapagoense grown from the cutting, about 4 months old.





It is just a one big mess, very hard to make a bonchi from that one.  :)

Fatalii

Hmm... hard to tell how the stem portion looks from those pics but I'm sure that one will make a great bonchi. :)

Just remember to "dig up" the root system to make it look more dramatic.
Just cut off the smallest roots which are below the surface.
The best chile pepper seeds available here:
http://fataliiseeds.net

Join Fatalii FACEBOOK with over 75 000 chileheads all around the world!
http://fatalii.net/fb

Check the latest chile articles and pictures here:
http://fatalii.net/
Being updated all year around

tesuji05

Hi, first post!  ;D

Any insights into how to 'fuse' chilli plants together?

I've currently got three ring of fire chilli plants growing together in one pot and I've carefully 'braided' them over the course of a few months.

However; it would be better if their stems would fuse together. They're all one species and as they grow the braid is getting tighter; is there a way I can encourage fusing? I thought about tying rubber bands around the stems, would that work?

Juhoman

About this fusing thing:
Is it possible to fuse different kinds of chilies together?
I had this crazy idea to put all of my plants that would otherwise be thrown away due to lack of space on one big pot and strap them tight with zipties or metal wire(after i cut them down of course). I would put one little bigger stem at the middle and some smaller around that. Will there be problems with stems choking if the stem is not "free" for the first 20cm from the ground.

Will it be neccesery to expose cambium layer to ensure fusion?

I was thinking to put a Starfish (C. Baccatum) on the middle due to its faster growth. Other chilis would be Baccatums like Aji cristal and Lemon Drop and Chinenses like few kins of Habanero and Naga Morich. Or should i just stay with Baccatums or Chinenses to avoid complications or "incompatibilities"?

If anyone has any experience with this kind of thing any tips or warnings are warmly welcome.

I know its crazy and i apologise for messy, hugely questonized post.

Fatalii

It is possible to fuse different species together, even different plants. But I must warn you, it will take some time! :)
For bonchi fusing, you don't have to expose the cambium layer for fusing.

Your idea sounds possible, at least with some wild chiles it might succeed!

Also keep in mind that many varieties won't fuse at all.
The best chile pepper seeds available here:
http://fataliiseeds.net

Join Fatalii FACEBOOK with over 75 000 chileheads all around the world!
http://fatalii.net/fb

Check the latest chile articles and pictures here:
http://fatalii.net/
Being updated all year around

Legoinsinööri

joulukuu 12, 2010, 20:21:52 ip #8 Viimeisin muokkaus: joulukuu 13, 2010, 18:24:06 ip käyttäjältä Legoinsinööri
I'd like to ask where have bonchists (especially finnish ones) bought their bonsai pots? The only one I found in Finland is http://www.raisiobonsai.com/ but would be interested if there's better suggestions.

Edit: and now that I started looking for the instructions again I noticed the link already being there  :D

chilicorncarnekalle

Halloy! Im growing my own chilies now, seeds from a chili from the shop and "Chili De Arbol" seeds, I have about 5 of each now, and I wonder is this is good chilis to grow? Should I just wait for them to grow big and then cut them? Do you have any tip of wich chilis i should plant?

How long would it approximently take before I cut them down?

Lots of question.

Regards

wille

Lainaus käyttäjältä: chilicorncarnekalle - helmikuu 12, 2012, 15:29:07 ip
Halloy! Im growing my own chilies now, seeds from a chili from the shop and "Chili De Arbol" seeds, I have about 5 of each now, and I wonder is this is good chilis to grow? Should I just wait for them to grow big and then cut them? Do you have any tip of wich chilis i should plant?

How long would it approximently take before I cut them down?

Lots of question.

Regards


Hi! I'd suggest that you grow your chiles quite large before you cut them down. Fuyou'll get the ideall season in greenhouse should do it. For bonchi purposes I would grow some varieties with small pods. Bird's Eye, Tepin, Bolivian Rainbow etc. Also all the "exotic looking" chiles are also highly recommended. Pimenta de Neyde or Goat's Weed for example. And wild chiles of course.

Check out these marvellous bonchis and you'll get the idea! Here's a nice instruction for creating your own bonchis!

Good luck and have fun with your chiles!
Uniformu ukkosesta
Prässit sirkkelin teristä
Kiehuvaa pikeä poletit

Edymnion

Growing bonchi directly in bonsai pots is definitely not recommended, not from me anyway.  You want to grow them in real soil outside so they can get as big as they possibly can before you cut them back.  The pepper trunk will virtually stop growing completely once you cut it back and put it in the bonsai pot, and it will never get really thick being grown in one from scratch.  The reason is the trunk gets thicker to deal with having to support a lot of weight above it.  That means to get the thickest, most tree-like trunks you can, you need to let the plant grow very tall and bushy so the trunk has a lot to support.  If you keep it small and in the bonsai pot from the start, the stem will have no reason to get thicker.

Chili peppers naturally grow in Y shapes, its just the nature of the plant.  However, you can train them to be straighter trunked by pruning off the lower branches as it grows.  If it doesn't have a pair of strong leads, it'll just keep growing straight.  Usually this isn't worth doing though, as you'll only need a straight piece of trunk at most a foot (1/3 meter) high for the bigger bonchi's.  However, I have seen pictures of a guy that did this to an extreme and made an honest to god pepper tree.  He said it was about 7 years old, and he had just been wintering it each season as a single straight stem, and it looked just like a fruit tree you'd buy from a nursery, it had to be over 6 feet (2 meters) tall.

Toby

I have few questions myself.

1. Do the bonchis have to grow in a hydro system? Or is it OK if to grow a bonchi in soil?

2. How old should the chili be before cutting into a bonchi?

3. Is there any perfect THE chili? The best choice into growing a bonchi?

Thanks!
Hoidan & kasvatan chiliä apinan raivolla.

Edymnion

Lainaus käyttäjältä: Toby - kesäkuu 21, 2012, 10:18:28 ap
1. Do the bonchis have to grow in a hydro system? Or is it OK if to grow a bonchi in soil?
I don't grow in hydro, all of my peppers are grown in actual dirt, either in the ground in my garden or in large containers with potting soil.
Lainaus2. How old should the chili be before cutting into a bonchi?
As old as possible.  Plant them as early in Spring as you can get away with without fear of them being killed by frost, grow 'em all summer long, and cut 'em down just before the first winter frost becomes a danger.  The older they are, the bigger and gnarlier they will be, the better bonchi they will make.
Lainaus3. Is there any perfect THE chili? The best choice into growing a bonchi?
Well, there's two main types.

Regular peppers like jalapenos, bell peppers, etc.  Big peppers, meant for eating.  These are generally large plants to support the large fruit, so they make for good "classic" bonsai trees with really thick trunks.  The downside is that if you want your bonchi to have fruit, then you have to worry about it having really big pods on it.  Odds are it won't, and that the pods will be small and stunted, but its something to think about.

The other are the ornamental peppers.  These grow small to start with, so there is much less work involved in making them, and they're generally faster to make as well.  The big ones you have to grow out so they get real big, wait on them to grow some cool roots, none of that applies to ornamentals.  Once its the size you want, you prune it back and you're practically done.  You'll never get the really cool aged old tree look out of one though, because they're just not big enough for it, but they make for cute little lollipop style bonsais.

For a beginner, I would say... whatever pepper you like to eat will be best.

Seriously, just figure out what kind of peppers you like to eat, and grow one of those.  Grow it for the fruit.  Grow it all summer, pick the peppers off it, eat them, enjoy them.  At the end of the season where you'd normally just let winter kill it, dig it up and cut it back instead.  That way, if you screw it up, you still got all summer's worth of yummy peppers to eat.  And if you get it right, you'll have a little windowsill pepper tree that still gives you the kind of peppers you like to eat.