Club News - November 2019
Meeting - November 20 @7pm via Zoom
Steve Iwaki - "Creating a Juniper Raft Bonsai"
Steve Iwaki is a second generation bonsai practitioner. He grew up in Southern California with a backyard full of bonsai and his father’s bonsai friends, including John Naka. Steve has been developing his own bonsai collection for more than twenty-five years. He is by training and experience a designer and focuses on balance as a chief aesthetic principle. For his demonstration for us his raw material is a large leggy shimpaku juniper that he will transform into a raft and secure in a grow box that Steve has built for the purpose. For his and our inspiration, he is bringing a sixty-plus year-old raft juniper that he inherited from his father. You will not want to miss Steve, his stories, and the trees.
Note that this meeting will not be recorded.
Monthly Tasks
Each month there are a number of tasks you need to do to your bonsai – from repotting, to fertilizing to spraying for pests. We have put together a checklist, customized for the San Francisco Bay Area to help you. This checklist is adapted from earlier work by Mitsuo Umehara.
This month: November Tasks
Recap of Our October Meeting
Ryan Nichols primarily discussed pest identification and control in his presentation. Much of that information has been incorporated into our Pest and Fungus Control Basics article. But here are a few highlights.
Throughout the year different pests and fungus attack trees. Trees that are stressed, for example, too much heat, not enough water, too much pruning, etc. can make a tree more vulnerable to attack.
During the fall and winter we have shorter days and less light so the trees aren’t as able to fight back against insect damage. It’s a good idea to kill insects and mites before this happens. You should also spray in spring to kill off any new infestations. If you see insects or fungus at any other time during the year you should spray again.
Throughout the year you should occasionally look closely at your trees. In spring aphids like to attack maples. And, during the summer heat spider mites can be be a big problem.
Insecticidal soap or horticultural oil will kill most insects, including spider mites – which technically aren’t insects so most pesticides won’t kill them. These are probably the safest pest controls you can use, but they won’t treat all pests. Pest controls do nothing about fungus that may attack your trees. Copper Fungicide is a good treatment for most fungus and is safer than older chemicals. It’s good as a preventative treatment but it doesn’t treat every kind of fungus that might infect your tree.