From the Root to the Fruit

From the Root to the Fruit

Yamingshan mountain is located in the north of Taipei.  The mountain is an old volcano dating back hundreds of years.  Being volcanic, the soil is rich and vegetation grows extremely well.
Escaping the busy streets of Taipei and venturing up in the mountain is a weekly routine for my girlfriend and I.  We were lucky enough to be given a small patch of dirt to experiment growing bonsai stock.

Humble beginnings

Waiting for the sun to work its magic

After buying 60 small juniper trees that were around 30 centimeters in length, I decided to plant them with the goal of thickening up the trunk.  Planting these junipers in the ground is the quickest way for them to grow thicker trunks and branches.  However, the trees will not develop intricate and fine branch tips.  This will only happen if the tree's growth is slowed down.  The slowing down of the growth happens once the tree is placed into a bonsai pot.  More on that later.  For now we want to experiment and see how quickly these small trees will grow .  At the moment it has just turned from Autumn into Winter.  I planted the trees in the last week of Autumn....on a cold and rainy day.

The idea is to plant them on an angle so there will be a first bend in the juniper's trunk.

You can see juvenile growth down the bottom where tree does not get as

 much sun compared to the top, healthy growth.

Attempting to wire a tree as it grows in the ground.

Apparently this is not the best thing to do as it inhibits the

rapid growth of the tree.

So far so good!

Healthy new scale like growth at the upper most tip of the tree. The chop sticks are used to stabilize the tree during strong winds.  The roots do not like being moved around at all!