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]

Wow! Fairy lights has grown a lot. Very nice and inspiring. What happened with moss?

 

[PaulS]

Thanks
The moss dried out and went all brown so I took it off.
Thanks for the bump.
 
Last one!

 

[JJJessee]

Nice job! That Spike is already looking classic.

 

[PaulS]

Nice job! That Spike is already looking classic.

Thanks Dude.

 

[PaulG]

Yeah, ditto, I think the Spike is my favorite.   Great shape!

 

[thirdcoasttx]

Looks good I really like the spike and especially the strange fatalii

 

[cone9]

Very nice, Paul.  Great glog to follow.  How do you water?  Do you spray the exposed roots?

 

[PaulS]

Yeah, ditto, I think the Spike is my favorite.   Great shape!

Thanks dude. My friend Anna is creative director of spike so she will be pleased to hear that!
 

Looks good I really like the spike and especially the strange fatalii

The fatalii one is a really cool shape but the leaves are really crinkled, they dont grow right!
 

Very nice, Paul.  Great glog to follow.  How do you water?  Do you spray the exposed roots?

Thanks dude. I water every other day and once a week with feed, the soil dries really quickly.
I foliar feed every week too, I make sure to give the roots a good spray too

 

[PaulG]

"The moss dried out and went all brown so I took it off."
 
​Did you spray it every day?  It will often come back if it
is damp enough.

 

[PaulS]

"The moss dried out and went all brown so I took it off."
 
​Did you spray it every day?  It will often come back if it
is damp enough.

I sprayed it most days, it was taken from a shaded patch in my garden so I don't think it was used to so much light

 

[jlawrence]

Ok, I'm inspired to give this a go.
I've a scotch bonnet I accidentally over wintered this year. I say accidentally because I left in the nft in the greenhouse and it appears to still be alive. Will chop that down and put it under lights to see what happens.
The biggest issue for me Will be watering. I'm intending putting some matting in the bottom then standing the pot in a tray of some kind and trying to bottom water it.