Dwarf Alberta Spruce, #2430
Picea glauca, also known as the white spruce—big box holiday decor. Bought to use in a SBBK club wiring workshop. $10. Selected for decent branches, tapered trunk starting at 1.5”-2”, and semi-pliable upper trunk.
Clean up: removed lower small branches to see the structure better, gently raked the upper dense roots to see the nebari. Densely root-bound. Digging an inch deep, no thick roots found yet (power washed and chopsticked), and found an even thicker 3” base and not seen the nebari. Will explore further and repot in spring.
Repotted with inorganic 1:1:1 mix, though the trunk is thick and the base tall. May need to saw flatter during next repot in 1-2 yrs.
Angled and thinned out to primary branches, and reducing whorls or three-branch forks. Cleared trunk to see it more clearly and for wiring.
Will Jin some branches for contrast and variation, and Shari the trunk or base after wires are removed in summer.
The spruce needs a place in full sun during the growing season.
Water the spruce thoroughly as soon as the soil gets dry, but don't keep the roots soaking wet all the time. In winter water less but never let the rootball dry out completely.
Apply solid organic fertilizer every four weeks or use a liquid fertilizer every week during the growing season. Spruces also benefit from leaf feeding which makes a nice dark green leaf color. You can use a good liquid fertilizer with chelates and iron for spraying it over the foliage.
Prune the roots of a spruce only slightly, especially old trees will not tolerate loosing larger roots. Use a well-draining soil mix with structurally stable grains.
Bonsai Empire https://www.bonsaiempire.com/tree-species/spruce
[The] biggest problem [using this material for bonsai is] its upward-shooting branches. Ninety percent of the branches on your tree will have angles from the trunk that will make them very hard to tame into more lateral positions. to get the branches to set in "pine style" planes requires undercutting the branch at the trunk, wiring in place and hoping the branch doesn't die off.Over a few years, the callusing on the branch cuts "sets" the branch in place. Trying to only use wire on them results in ridiculous-looking "rainbow" branches with no character.
Don’t over-work them at once, as they can be sensitive to too much stress at once.
