PaulS Bonchi Glog

I thought I would make a glog for my first attempt at creating some bonchis and share my experience as I'm pretty excited about the whole thing!

I should say I'm following fatalii's growing guide and my own basic plant knowledge! Fatalii's growing guide is here: http://www.fatalii.net/Bonsai_Chiles_Bonchi
If you've never seen it, it's well worth a read.

These are the plants that have been chosen to become bonchis:

a Scotch Bonnet plant. This plant is already two years old which is why I chose to use this one as it already has a thick woody stem and some nice thick roots.

A Spike plant. This was grown this year and is ideal as it's got small leaves and small fruit.

A Fairy Lights plant. Also this years. This one has got awesome colour changing fruits.

An Antillias Carribean plant. Also this years. This one has a nice thick stem.

A Paper Lantern plant. Also this years. Nice and bushy.

Im starting with the Scotch Bonnet plant. I bought a pot from York Bonsai - http://www.yorkbonsai.co.uk
They have good prices and quick delivery.

I exposed these roots a couple of months ago to make them thicker.

I also bought some bonsai soil. I'm also using some leftover perlite and vermiculite.

After being trimmed down.

The roots have been washed off.

 

[ania]

Looks really nice! Waiting for the final result.

 

[PaulS]

I trimmed all of the smaller roots at the top so only the larger roots will be visible above the soil

Threaded some wire through the roots to anchor the plant down

Then added the soil mix for the final product!

I'm really happy with the way it turned out, I left some of the smaller leaves on to help it survive the transition. I'll put the plant in my conservatory while there's still some summer left! And will be under a light over the winter.
I'm going to try the spike plant next.

Looks really nice! Waiting for the final result.

Thanks

 

[sreinhard88]

Looks good so far, I like your plant choices, should make for some great bonchi!  I'm tempted to try my hand at bonchi this year, I have a wild brazil that would be perfect for this...

 

[PaulS]

Looks good so far, I like your plant choices, should make for some great bonchi!  I'm tempted to try my hand at bonchi this year, I have a wild brazil that would be perfect for this...

The plant choices were made for me as the only plant I had over wintered last year, the scotch bonnet, looked good same as the paper lantern. The other two were bought as plug plants to make bonchis.
You should definitely give it a go, I've have a lot of fun so far, i've just finished doing the spike plant, its the first time I've tried wiring. I'm just about to upload the photos. I've never seen the wild Brazil plant do you have any photos?
I've just been doing the Spike plant, it was my first time trying wiring!

I started with this;

Trimmed it down to this;

Any ideas for these?!

This is the first time I've attempted doing the wiring. I bought 1.5mm bonsai wire which I think has worked out okay. Maybe I'm wrong?

Another pot, again from York bonsai and the roots washed clean.

The wired plant

 

[sreinhard88]

There might be some older pictures of one of my wild brazils in my glog from earlier in the year, I think in one of my video updates I show my wild brazil and talk about wanting to bonchi it (which reminds me I haven't done an update in awhile...)
 
I've never seen the spike pepper before but it looks awesome!  How's the heat level?
Does the wire stay on permanently, or can it come off after awhile?

 

[chilicheesebeard]

Tagging along for the ride. Question: what does the wrapped wire do? Looks pretty awesome though!

 

[PaulS]

There might be some older pictures of one of my wild brazils in my glog from earlier in the year, I think in one of my video updates I show my wild brazil and talk about wanting to bonchi it (which reminds me I haven't done an update in awhile...)
 
I've never seen the spike pepper before but it looks awesome!  How's the heat level?
Does the wire stay on permanently, or can it come off after awhile?

 
I'll look through the glog for the video. Thank you.
Spike is really pretty to look at but it doesn't have much heat it's listed as [SIZE=10pt] 97,000 SHU[/SIZE]
The wire round the plant doesn't stay on forever. It's just used to slowly shape the branches into the desired shape, every so often I'll bend them a little bit more!
I haven't decided how I want it to look at the end. It's all just an experiment which I hope will be succesful.
 

Tagging along for the ride. Question: what does the wrapped wire do? Looks pretty awesome though!

 
Like I said above, it's just wraped round to bend the branches into the shape you want so the plant grows that way.
As a plant grows these have to be adjusted as obviously the banch gets thicker and longer.
Gradually I'll bend them more and more!

 

[Kyox89]

Looks really interesting.

 

[chilicheesebeard]

Neat! I'll have to try this out sometime best of luck!


*edit*
Would the wire be firm enough, as the branches and trunk grow, to stay i the same place? Maybe form a nifty spiral throughout the trunk like you'd see with a tree growing into a fence? Curious like a cat.

 

[PaulS]

Looks really interesting.

Thanks. More soon
 

Neat! I'll have to try this out sometime best of luck!


*edit*
Would the wire be firm enough, as the branches and trunk grow, to stay i the same place? Maybe form a nifty spiral throughout the trunk like you'd see with a tree growing into a fence? Curious like a cat.

The wire is fine for now but when a plant gets bigger you can use a thicker wire if needed. The wire has to be adjusted every so often so the plant will never be restricted to grow in size. The wire is just to manipulate its shape.

 

[ania]

How do you know which pot size to choose? Are there any rules?

 

[rory]

Looking really good Paul. I am also thinking of doing a bonchi experiment on a couple of plants. Can you tell me do they need to be fed and watered ALOT?

 

[JoeFish]

I'm going to bonchi my reaper and a rooster spur. I want to start a glog as well. I think it's cool as hell.

 

[PaulS]

How do you know which pot size to choose? Are there any rules?

I read somwhere that the pot should be roughly 2/3 the height of the plant.
I might be wrong, but it seems to look good like that. The idea of the bonsai is to make it like a miniature tree so by restricting the roots and the actual plants growth the trunk should grow thicker.
 

Looking really good Paul. I am also thinking of doing a bonchi experiment on a couple of plants. Can you tell me do they need to be fed and watered ALOT?

This is my first real ettempt so am not entirely sure but I read somewhere once a week is good. Will see.
The feed I bought was really cheap and you don't need much so it should last a long time.
 

I'm going to bonchi my reaper and a rooster spur. I want to start a glog as well. I think it's cool as hell.

That sounds sweet. Post a link here when you start your glog and I'll follow your progress:o)

 

[Devv]

Nice work Paul!
 
I have one Bonchi, a Thai. And I have to water it almost everyday during the summer.

 

[JoeFish]

Show us Devv!

 

[PaulS]

Nice work Paul!
 
I have one Bonchi, a Thai. And I have to water it almost everyday during the summer.

Thanks dude.
I'd like to see them. How often did you water during the winter? Were they under a light?
 

Show us Devv!

+1

 I worked today on the rest of my plants. I did the Fairy Lights plant first:

 
After trimming it down and wiring

 
Finished product

 
Paper Lantern

 
After trimming it down. This one was really bushy and we had already snaped a stem and repaired it. It created an odd right angle!

 
Finished product

 
Another Paper Lantern

 
Finished product

 
Fatalii

 
Finished product

 

[Ian S]

Awesome !

 

[PaulS]

Awesome !

Thanks dude.
 
Group shot:o)