How to Get Good at Bonsai - Deciduous Bonsai Podcast Episode 1
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- Hosts Andrew of RAKUYO and bonsai enthusiast Maciek talk about ways to get good at bonsai in this first episode of the Deciduous Bonsai Podcast. Andrew brings his professional insight while Maciek translates it to bonsai beginners. We hope you enjoy the first of many podcasts focused on creating and maintaining beautiful deciduous bonsai art.
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The dog having a blast chasing his tail, around minute 5, pretty much sums up why I do bonsai.
They keep it fun in the garden!
Best bonsai video discussion podcast released all year by far. I’m so happy that y’all are going to be doing more of these. Maciek is an absolute treasure in the sub and incredibly charitable with his time providing some of the best advice for bonsai aspirants all over the world. The vast majority of my bonsai knowledge is from reading his insight and since beginning my bonsai journey in 2020 I think it’s served me very well. Can’t wait to hear what y’all talk about next!
Happy to hear that, he's such a great guy!
14:35 I can relate to this part 100%. I had this beautiful trident maple, it was one of the first trees I bough when I decided to take bonsai seriously (around year 4). It had some bad taper (on both trunk and branches) and horrible scarring and a bad root base. After around 3 years I set out a plan to fix all these problems and realized its going to take me years upon years to fix all of these problems. So just last week I sold it and I have replaced it with a much better specimen to spend all these years 'starting again' and I will end up overtaking where the old tree would have been in the long run.
Once you see and appreciate quality, nothing else matters
Thanks for this Andrew. Great informative, informal chat full of gems of knowledge and experience. 🙏
My pleasure!
So much fun. I love propagating
It's a hobby in itself
Finally a bonsai podcast that I think I can actually listen to! Great jobs guys!
Glad you enjoyed!
Nice to see Maciek and hear everything that was brought up. He gives some good advice on the Bonsai subreddit and recommended people to your channel.
Super helpful and informative episode. Can’t wait for the next one!
Thanks!
Interesting conversation.
A point to improve is listening to each other!
Just listen back and notice how many times you talk over the other, never letting them finish. Much more valuable is staying relaxed and letting the other express themselves, so that a truly good conversation can emerge.
My two cents.
This is meant to be more of a conversation rather than a monologue of two people, this is how we normally converse with one another
Loved this.
😊
Pretty sure I'm the one who submitted that question about skill dev on r/bonsai (especially from the details about the club experience, frustration in my first year, and marveling at a certain precocious member that caused me feel a bit insecure). Thanks for tackling it in depth here!
Glad you were able to tune in!
Thank you for this, enjoyed it! Was very easy to listen to, nice comfortable voices to listen to.
Glad you enjoyed it
Enjoyed the chat - I definitely need to do more sorting with my trees.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Really enjoyed this, I particularly
Like the part about how trees progress so fast when we are preparing them for a show. I can say this is 100 percent the case. Often I have so many trees I spend all my time tending to mediocre trees when I could be growing the nice ones at a much faster rate. Look forward to the next one.
It's a really helpful thing!
Wow guys, this was absolutely fantastic and full of home truths that I needed to hear. I definitely fall into the "grower" category in this discussion. Although I do want to be a good bonsai practitioner and show trees one day.
I think the biggest issue I've had is trying to envision what a tree may look like in say 5, 10, 20 years time. I'm not sure if this is just a skill I need to learn or an artistic trait that people have engrained in them. I've certainly gone down the route of choosing trees that are not good for my area due to their popularity. Things like Japanese black pines don't seem to do well in the UK. We have very wet winters and we don't seem to get enough sun for a double flush.
Thank you both for such a candid and insightful look into this question and for sharing your thoughts and ideas. I already feel that I can become better at bonsai with this knowledge. I just need to put it into practice.
A big concern for me is something that you touched up. Will I be a 30 year grower which is made up of 30 year 1s or can I continue to progress and make real progression.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Ngl, I checked this as something to fall asleep to 😅 but instead I got hooked in the first minutes and listened to the whole thing wide awake. Very interesting, so many of nuggets of wisdom. Thanks gents!
Haha, glad it was entertaining and insightful!
Whatever happens, make sure that dog is on every vidcast LMAO gold Andrew GOLD 🤣🤣🤣
They tend to make cameos in every video!
Highlight of this podcast is the Good ole boy chasing his tail!😂❤
He's a goofball!
So true about growing local trees, my ficus virens & ficus Long Island kept thriving even in hotter -longer than normal summer! Well I have 3 of most on average 😊 now I’m running out of space
It's so important!
Trying help my club understand your exact point about how there are "bonsai techniques" aka refinement/maintenance techniques that have no use for getting a 1 year old seedling to bigger sizes (and they slow that process down)
Growing and maintaining are two very different concepts
I feel to really get good at bonsai.You have to be able to physically study good trees. You need to see an abundance of them and really understand the logic of how they are made and developed . I feel grafting is a very big key to creating nice trees. Especially maples. You are only going to get as good as what you can physically see and understand. Pics can help. But only so much.
Good points!
great, thank you
You are welcome!
What do you think of the Portulacaria Afra?
It's more succulent than bonsai, but a great learning plant for beginners
👍👍
😊
What is the optimal way to go form 50 pre Bonsai trees to 50 Bonsia trees?
One bonsai comes in, 2 pre-bonsai go out
I have one question im going to graft my japanese white pine,next February Can i report as well, or is that a bad idea?
Yes you can!
@rakuyobonsai thank you so much. Have a nice day
You never know in 1000 years you might have a 2 million dollar tree
Maybe with inflation that might be true!
I do believe that doing good bonsai is innate. You have to have some kind of natural sense of proportion, scale and beauty to make art. Rules and guidelines will only get you so far.
There is something to be said for the nature side of the argument!
What does Jonas always say about a 1yo tree and a 2yo tree? You guys kind of spoke over each other at that moment, the message was unclear.
One of youz should've said jynx!! 😆
All you need to know is the next step, not the entire process
The dog spinning is the best
:)