Page 43 - BSAM 2015 Q4

Top; The plant was now small enough to pack into a suitcase for the ight home.
Middle right: the Bucida was potted into a large container to facilitate growth.
Bottom left; The olive was allowed to grow undisturbed for a few months.
Bottom right; a branch was selected to be the new apex and the trunk was further carved and reduced.
Top right is the shape of the tree a er cutting. It was small already, so that it would be easy to clean the soil from the roots, wrap the roots in wet moss, and package it to travel in my suit case on my ight to Indonesia.
A er arriving home I changed the pot to a larger, at container so that the tree will grow faster. I put it in a rich and porous soil mix containing of tropical lava (70 %), some humus (15%) and a bit top soil (15%).
It was very important to let the plant to grow without much disturbance for some months, so that the roots that has been cleaned during the transportation from Puerto Rico to Jakarta would stabilize and grow.
Luckily there was a new growth on the lower part, very close to the bending part of the trunk. A branch was selected to become the new apex of the bonsai. Below is how it looked in January, 2010.
October/November/December 2015 | BCI | 41