In a message dated 8/16/05 12:03:37 AM, Justin writes:
most of which are out of my control... things like squirrels in the night,
or cats.

I found the simplest way to keep squirrels away from a plant stand was to
move the stand. If it is fairly close to the house or out in the middle of the
yard away from trees, the squirrels don't bother it. Having a dog also helps.
Whose cats? If it is yours, the cat belongs indoors & the bonsai outdoors.
End of problem. If it is your neighbor's cat, the first step is a nice talk with
your neighbor explaining that cats are healthier, safer, & live longer if
they are kept indoors. If that doesn't work, call your animal control officer.

I'm finally down to about 3 or 4 a year that are lost for good.

Welcome to the club. I think I lose at least one or two a year nowadays. One
of the better known bonsai growers told an enlightening story. He was at a
workshop given by one of the top luminaries in the Northeast. Needing to pee, he
decided to go behind a nearby fence instead of all the way back to the house.
When he got to the other side of the fence, he was astonished to see a huge
boneyard full of this famous expert's dead trees. Nobody is immune. When I
taught an orchid course 20 years ago, I always told my students, "Behind every
green thumb is a large pile of dead bodies."
The important thing, if you lose a tree, is to figure out why it died. Then
it won't be wasted. As long as you are going to make mistakes, make new ones.
Don't keep making the same mistake over again, like buying serissas.

what tends to be the cause 10 or 15 years down the road?

For me, impatience - doing too much too soon, not letting a newly styled tree
rest long enough before repotting. Wrestling a new tree into the "right" size
pot, instead of overpotting it the first time & going easy on the roots.
Putting trees out too soon in the spring.
Iris

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On Aug 16, 2005, at 9:17 AM, wrote:

In a message dated 8/16/05 12:03:37 AM, Justin writes:
most of which are out of my control... things like squirrels in the
night,
or cats.

snip If it is yours, the cat belongs indoors & the bonsai outdoors.
End of problem. If it is your neighbor's cat, the first step is a nice
talk with
your neighbor explaining that cats are healthier, safer, & live longer
if
they are kept indoors. If that doesn't work, call your animal control
officer.

Our outdoor cat likes to sleep on the soil surface of several of my
very large trees which are in wooden boxes. She doesn't use the boxes
for litter boxes, just likes to sleep under the trees. It took me
awhile to figure out that she wasn't pooping in the soil, and once I
realized this it didn't bother me that she slept there.
snip

For me, impatience - doing too much too soon, not letting a newly
styled tree
rest long enough before repotting.

Yep yep
Wrestling a new tree into the "right" size
pot, instead of overpotting it the first time & going easy on the
roots.
Yep yep yep.
Putting trees out too soon in the spring.
Iris

That I learned about the hard way in Maine, by trying to wrestle trees
out that were half-frozen in the mulch, and breaking off branches.

Craig Cowing
NY
Zone 5b/6a Sunset 37

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----- Original Message -----
From: "Craig Cowing" Subject: [IBC] Things That Go Boomp In The Night


Our outdoor cat likes to sleep on the soil surface of several of my
very large trees which are in wooden boxes. She doesn't use the boxes
for litter boxes, just likes to sleep under the trees. It took me
awhile to figure out that she wasn't pooping in the soil, and once I
realized this it didn't bother me that she slept there.


My wifes big cat ( out during summer days, in at night) does the same thing
during the day .
What's up with that Craig??

Him, and the other two smaller "wastes of fur" are also good at stretching
out on shelves and gently pushing trees off the shelf onto the ground!!
grrrrr I've lost more than one pot and/or branch to that. If you yell at
them they look at you with that "what's your problem" look!
Dale

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************************************************** ******************************
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Ah Iris,

That might be the ideal, but when you live in an open space zone 9, there are almost as many cats as squirrels, some ferral. There are folks out here who even feed the ferral cats. It would take a change to a city law and even then not all of them would go away. Besides cats I have racoons and possums roaming the shelves looking for grubs, not to mention the birds who love to rearange the moss.

Kits

wrote:
In a message dated 8/16/05 12:03:37 AM, Justin writes:
most of which are out of my control... things like squirrels in the night,
or cats.

I found the simplest way to keep squirrels away from a plant stand was to
move the stand. If it is fairly close to the house or out in the middle of the
yard away from trees, the squirrels don't bother it. Having a dog also helps.
Whose cats? If it is yours, the cat belongs indoors & the bonsai outdoors.
End of problem. If it is your neighbor's cat, the first step is a nice talk with
your neighbor explaining that cats are healthier, safer, & live longer if
they are kept indoors. If that doesn't work, call your animal control officer.



Welcome to the club. I think I lose at least one or two a year nowadays. One
of the better known bonsai growers told an enlightening story. He was at a
workshop given by one of the top luminaries in the Northeast. Needing to pee, he
decided to go behind a nearby fence instead of all the way back to the house.
When he got to the other side of the fence, he was astonished to see a huge
boneyard full of this famous expert's dead trees. Nobody is immune. When I
taught an orchid course 20 years ago, I always told my students, "Behind every
green thumb is a large pile of dead bodies."
The important thing, if you lose a tree, is to figure out why it died. Then
it won't be wasted. As long as you are going to make mistakes, make new ones.
Don't keep making the same mistake over again, like buying serissas.



For me, impatience - doing too much too soon, not letting a newly styled tree
rest long enough before repotting. Wrestling a new tree into the "right" size
pot, instead of overpotting it the first time & going easy on the roots.
Putting trees out too soon in the spring.
Iris

************************************************** ******************************
++++Sponsored, in part, by Kevin Bailey++++
************************************************** ******************************
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+++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++


****
"Expectations are resentments under construction."

Anne Lamott

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************************************************** ******************************
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+++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++

On Aug 16, 2005, at 11:24 AM, dalecochoy wrote:

----- Original Message -----
From: "Craig Cowing" Subject: [IBC] Things That Go Boomp In The
Night


Our outdoor cat likes to sleep on the soil surface of several of my
very large trees which are in wooden boxes. She doesn't use the boxes
for litter boxes, just likes to sleep under the trees. It took me
awhile to figure out that she wasn't pooping in the soil, and once I
realized this it didn't bother me that she slept there.


My wifes big cat ( out during summer days, in at night) does the same
thing
during the day .
What's up with that Craig??

Don't know. My big cat who died last fall did the same thing. Cats like
to hide under things, so I guess it's part of that.

Him, and the other two smaller "wastes of fur" are also good at
stretching
out on shelves and gently pushing trees off the shelf onto the ground!!
grrrrr I've lost more than one pot and/or branch to that. If you yell
at
them they look at you with that "what's your problem" look!
Dale



That's right. It's in their way and that's that.

Craig Cowing
NY
Zone 5b/6a Sunset 37

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************************************************** ******************************
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Kitsune Miko wrote:
Ah Iris,

That might be the ideal, but when you live in an open space zone 9,
there are almost as many cats as squirrels, some ferral. There are
folks out here who even feed the ferral cats. It would take a change
to a city law and even then not all of them would go away. Besides
cats I have racoons and possums roaming the shelves looking for
grubs, not to mention the birds who love to rearange the moss.

Can't do much about the birds. At least, I haven't found anything that
works.

The mammals are a different story, though. I've mentioned it here
before. I make an infusion of hot peppers in grain alcohol. Never quite
the same way or proportions twice; it's all ad lib.

Run the peppers, seeds and all, in my food processor with some grain
alcohol until it ends up a paste. The last batch I made was maybe a
pound of peppers (habanero) and two cups alcohol. After processing, I
put it into a half-gallon canning jar and added about three cups of
vegetable oil and shook it all together. Let it sit for a few days. In a
steel bowl, put maybe a half-gallon of crushed granite and two cups of
the pepper infusion (stir it to distribute the oil and alcohol) and
tossed it to coat the stones. Spread a couple tablespoons of the stone
around each tree. The critters stopped that day. Have to add new pepper
stuff maybe two more times during the season. No furry critters around
the trees. No harm done to them.

Japanese beetles have been a plague this year in the Shenandoah Valley
of Virginia. They seem to especially like my wisteria and honeysuckle.

Pastorio

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There was a time when I had cats that were marking inside the house. I used straight black pepper, a whole 1 lb can of it 3 feet deep around the offending area. On the third day there were kitty paw prints in the black pepper. So how often do you have to renew your pepper treatment?

Kits

Bob Pastorio wrote:
Kitsune Miko wrote:
Ah Iris,

That might be the ideal, but when you live in an open space zone 9,
there are almost as many cats as squirrels, some ferral. There are
folks out here who even feed the ferral cats. It would take a change
to a city law and even then not all of them would go away. Besides
cats I have racoons and possums roaming the shelves looking for
grubs, not to mention the birds who love to rearange the moss.

Can't do much about the birds. At least, I haven't found anything that
works.

The mammals are a different story, though. I've mentioned it here
before. I make an infusion of hot peppers in grain alcohol. Never quite
the same way or proportions twice; it's all ad lib.

Run the peppers, seeds and all, in my food processor with some grain
alcohol until it ends up a paste. The last batch I made was maybe a
pound of peppers (habanero) and two cups alcohol. After processing, I
put it into a half-gallon canning jar and added about three cups of
vegetable oil and shook it all together. Let it sit for a few days. In a
steel bowl, put maybe a half-gallon of crushed granite and two cups of
the pepper infusion (stir it to distribute the oil and alcohol) and
tossed it to coat the stones. Spread a couple tablespoons of the stone
around each tree. The critters stopped that day. Have to add new pepper
stuff maybe two more times during the season. No furry critters around
the trees. No harm done to them.

Japanese beetles have been a plague this year in the Shenandoah Valley
of Virginia. They seem to especially like my wisteria and honeysuckle.

Pastorio

************************************************** ******************************
++++Sponsored, in part, by Kevin Bailey++++
************************************************** ******************************
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+++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++


****
"Expectations are resentments under construction."

Anne Lamott

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************************************************** ******************************
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+++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++

Billy on the Florida Space Coast

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