Bonsai: Day 0099 - Lots of new growth

Bonsai: Day 0099

- Environment Update: The humidity has dropped since winter has been settling in. I have watered a few times since my last update. Once before and after taking a 9day holiday (11/13--11/22). I also watered today after my Thanksgiving holiday (11/26--11/29).

- Growth Update: The growth has picked up substantially and has new shoots sprouting everywhere. I'm very excited to see how this develops over the next month. I was also able to remove one of the branch ties without it springing back up on me.

Bonsai: Day 0079 - Power Outage

Bonsai: Day 0079

- Environment Update: The power went out at the office for a few days due to a tornado that touched down near me (LOCAL NEWS ARTICLE). This outage left my little plant without direct light for awhile. After the power kicked back on its light cycle was then turned upside down for another 2-3 days until I could reset the light timer back to normal.

- Growth Update: I believe the light deficiency stimulated the leaves to enlarge greatly to compensate. I believe this occurs to give the plant more surface area to absorb light. Either way this folly produced very undesirable results, for one I don't want excessively large leaves for a bonsai plant. I theorize that this will also lead to an overall slow down in growth because I believe the larger leaves will require more nutrients to maintain itself. The one positive effect that may occur from this theory is that the trunk and roots may begin to grow to compensate for the increased nutrient requirements for the larger leaves. I guess we will find out :-)

Bonsai: Day 0071 - More Growth

Bonsai: Day 0071

- Update: The growth spurt continues. New leafs have formed and the trunk is noticeably thickened. I can't believe the results I have gotten in less than 3 months even with the stress in training the branches.

Additional training started on protruding branch

Bonsai: Day 0066 - New growth

Bonsai: Day 0066

- Update: New growth everywhere. Monday (day 64) I had moved the plant away from the window (getting too cool; 45-50deg Fahrenheit) and moved it under a florescent light with a timer [14hr day/10hr night]. I'm not sure what caused the growth spurt, but below are some hypothesis.

• Maybe the plant has growth cycles; ie: focuses on foliage growth, then maybe takes a break for root growth, then back to foliage.
• The increased temperature
• The increased light (day) cycle

- Not sure what caused it, but I'm glad to see my little guy get back to growing.

Bonsai: Day 0061 - Little Change

Bonsai: Day 0061

- Update: I've added about 6oz of superthrive solution (1/4 power). I've noticed some more growth in the lower limbs, some leaf enlargement, and the trunk is getting a little thicker. So it's about the same progress as last time.

- I'm curious as to why growth has slowed down, but it could be from the winter cold setting in. I feel it might be switching to a more dormant state.

Bonsai: Day 0051 - Thickening

Bonsai: Day 0051

- Update: I've added about 5oz of superthrive solution (1/2 power). I've noticed a little growth in the lower limb and some mild leaf enlargement. I also can see the trunk getting a little thicker, which what I was hoping for.

- The leaves stopped bleeding the day after I posted, so not really sure what that was all about.

Bonsai: Day 0038 - More shaping; why bleeding sap?

Bonsai: Day 0038

- Update: I've added support to the trunk using a black tie as a support brace. I also adjusted and retied down the two longer branches. I plan to let the two new limbs grow out a bit to catch up before attempting any shaping with them.

- I noticed some white sap bleeding from the leaves, I'm a bit concerned I may have stressed it in one or multiple ways. It could be from putting it near the cold window, over fertilizing (still working the ratio), maybe over-watered, or by me shaping. I will have to research this "bleeding sap" symptom and until then I'll just keep wiping it away.