Bonsai anyone?

[maddie]

Here are pictures of my little lemons and oranges .. I am so amazed that they even have fruits. The pomegranate unfortunately did not survive.

Here are the tiny oranges.. they are ready to ripen..

I still have them in normal containers.. they seem so happy and I didn't want to disturb them.

 

[ChanellG]

Great job, Maddie! You are an inspiration! Too bad about the pomegranate, maybe you can do some research and then give it another go. What plant do you have that dropped what looks like little red flower petals in that first photo?

 

[Tmann]

Maddie I have a kiwi and meyer lemon bush that gets real fruit on it. I have to bring them indoors during the winter but they go back out in spring.

 

[maddie]

Wow! it is such a lovely sight to see these little wonders producing fruits.. isn't it? I would love to have a kiwi bonsai tree.
My orange tree looks like it will break with the weight of those little oranges.. I have had to support them with bamboo sticks.
The lemon plants has at least about thirty little lemons on it apart from the two big ones It will soon be lemonade time

 

[ChanellG]

Maddie, saw this just now on Facebook (Grow Food Not Lawns) and thought of you. Seems a bit odd and cute at the same time.

I couldn't imagine waiting all that time for one flower to turn into one apple and then hoping the plant would produce another! You wouldn't want to eat the apple because it would be so special! That little bowl is so small, it hardly seems room enough for the tree to be able to produce an apple!

 

[ChanellG]

Maddie, just saw this on Facebook and immediately thought of you! It doesn't seem like the little bowl is large enough to support the tree, but isn't it amazing to think an apple could be grown this way?

 

[claudine]

Wow, it's amazing! It looks really unique.
I'm not sure if I'd want to grow a bonsai like this though...I can't help but think how hard it must have been for such a tiny tree to produce a normal-sized apple. Bonsai trees are so unnatural.

 

[ChanellG]

...I can't help but think how hard it must have been for such a tiny tree to produce a normal-sized apple. Bonsai trees are so unnatural.

Now there's a thought! I hadn't even considered that, Claudine. It must have taken quite a lot of the plants resources to produce that one lone apple. Maybe if you had a plant that produced smaller apples?

 

[maddie]

@ Chanell, thanks for the post!! That apple tree looks so lovely.

I have come to realize that these trees effortlessly produce almost normal sized fruits if they are fed well .. and almost regularly.. if not they go back to produce stunted fruits.
My lemon is giving me above average sized lemons.. but my oranges are rather tiny.. the fact that my orange plant had suffered more abuse for longer tells the tale.. but with love and care the fruits came almost instantly.
I have to mention here that bonsai's need a lot of attention.. the amount of work you have to put in is almost double compared to other plants. But it is worth it!

 

[ChanellG]

I can't wait for my Meyer lemon to mature enough to produce lemons! I have wanted a lemon bush for ages so I'm thrilled the reality is close. In the meantime, I'm watching my blueberry bush very carefully.

Oh, and that rose cutting I left in water has started sending out roots! Yippee!!!!!

 

[maddie]

I can't wait for my Meyer lemon to mature enough to produce lemons! I have wanted a lemon bush for ages so I'm thrilled the reality is close. In the meantime, I'm watching my blueberry bush very carefully.

Oh, and that rose cutting I left in water has started sending out roots! Yippee!!!!!

Congrats Channell! It is almost like becoming a mother -isn't it? It is always delightful to see things come to life.. and produce fruits.. I send you some positive thoughts wishing that your lemon bush will be filled with lemons and your blueberry bush will produce in abundance.. ah not to forget the roses.. Post pictures of your lemons,blueberries and roses when they are in bloom or have fruits.

 

[Gina145]

Now there's a thought! I hadn't even considered that, Claudine. It must have taken quite a lot of the plants resources to produce that one lone apple. Maybe if you had a plant that produced smaller apples?

That is one of the reasons that apple trees aren't usually used for bonsai. You can get the smaller apples you want on a bonsai by using the crab apple (malus) instead. I've got a young crab apple tree that I'm working at turning into a bonsai. It hasn't produced fruit yet, but I'm not worried about it at this stage. However I've seen photos of some really lovely crab apple bonsai and I can only hope that mine will come close to resembling one of those some day.

It's also wise to limit the amount of fruit one allows a bonsai tree to grow as too much fruit can put a small tree under severe strain.

 

[maddie]

That is one of the reasons that apple trees aren't usually used for bonsai. You can get the smaller apples you want on a bonsai by using the crab apple (malus) instead. I've got a young crab apple tree that I'm working at turning into a bonsai. It hasn't produced fruit yet, but I'm not worried about it at this stage. However I've seen photos of some really lovely crab apple bonsai and I can only hope that mine will come close to resembling one of those some day.

It's also wise to limit the amount of fruit one allows a bonsai tree to grow as too much fruit can put a small tree under severe strain.

If you see the Chinese or the Japanese bonsai's their trees are full of fruits and huge ones.. I agree you need to keep the numbers of fruits small .. but I also think that the tree will only produce as much as it can bear. I have this little lime tree which constantly has fruits but just a few at a time.. the other little fruits drop off while they are still small. Nature has a way normalizing stuff is what I think.

 

[Gina145]

maddie I think it is always wiser to err on the size of caution. At my bonsai club the members often talk about a tree a member had that produced a huge crop of fruit one year. They say that shortly afterwards the tree died. I wasn't a member yet then, so I don't know too much about it, but if my memory serves me correctly it was a pomegranate tree.

I agree that one does occasionally see bonsai with huge fruit, but those trees often only have one fruit on them.

So far I've only got one bonsai that gets fruit and that is a mulberry tree. I've never tried to limit the amount of fruit it gets because I love to eat them. The tree seems to cope with that just fine, but the fruit are small and the tree isn't yet in a proper bonsai pot so it has quite a lot of soil.

 

[ChanellG]

...I have this little lime tree which constantly has fruits but just a few at a time.. the other little fruits drop off while they are still small. Nature has a way normalizing stuff is what I think.

...So far I've only got one bonsai that gets fruit and that is a mulberry tree. I've never tried to limit the amount of fruit it gets because I love to eat them. The tree seems to cope with that just fine, but the fruit are small and the tree isn't yet in a proper bonsai pot so it has quite a lot of soil.

I had not thought of having bonsai fruit trees. I know that some trees can be pruned and kept small and that there are even "dwarf" varieties, but i have always thought of bonsai as small trees, maybe a foot in height. I can't imagine one supporting even enough fruit to yield even a bowl of berries.

Speaking of, we had a storm recently that knocked a bunch of the baby fruit off my blueberry bush :-(