Urban collecting focuses on garden plants that are no longer wanted. With the owners’ permission one digs the trees, pots them and eventually styles them as bonsai.
Urban collecting provides an inexpensive source of bonsai material that would otherwise end up in the dump and is an excellent example of recycling a valuable resource.
When one digs a tree, one starts by cutting off roots larger than ¼ of an inch, and then combs out the soil from the remaining root ball with a chopstick. Trees are then planted in a nursery container that is filled about half way with plastic peanuts. The presence of the peanuts make the finished potted plant lighter in weight and encourages a relatively flat root ball which can eventually be readily potted in a bonsai pot. The balance of the pot is filled with recycled bonsai soil which has been previously sterilized by covering the soil with clear plastic, and then exposing the soil to the sun. The heat generated “cooks” the soil to temperatures which are lethal to the bacteria and fungus that might be lurking. One settles the soil around the tree with a chopstick by inserting the chopstick into the root ball and wiggling the stick sideways near the trunk. The tree is then placed in the shade until new growth starts.
What a terrific article! Spoken from the keen thoughts of a beginner, serious about learning and sharing what was learned!!! A thorough explanation. Recycling garden trees or shrubs unwanted from someone’s yard is an excellent way for beginners as well as those experienced to obtain material that has some trunk size and nebari (mature root structure) to it. You can “jump start” the years needed to produce a bonsai.