🟡 Oak Yamadori, #2408
Feb 24, 2024 Grace allowed me to collect again 🫶🏼. Oak with an interesting base—rocky soil. Tap root may have fiber roots further down, but had to cut to remove the tree.
Aug 2024
Months after collecting and not faring well, I chopped back the long branches, sealed it, bagged the trunk and placed on a heated pad. Last attempt to see if this can be salvaged.
Bonsai Mirai - Coast Live Oak
Broadleaf evergreen never fully defoliates. It maintains its foliar mass and boasts a thick, rigid, spiny leaf as its main identifier.
Coast live oak is a moderate water mobility tree, meaning it needs to dry out between waterings—contrary to most broadleaf trees. Due to the thicker, rigid leaf and reduced transpiration, oxygen must be allowed back into the system before being thoroughly hydrated again.
Loves heat and can grow in incredibly hot, dry conditions.
When kept in a deeper container that has a reservoir of water, full sun exposure will create tight inner nodes, small leaves, and a strong tree that is very responsive to bonsai operations.
When fertilizing coast live oak bonsai, avoid high nitrogen fertilizers. Opt instead for a solid fertilizer once per month or a liquid fertilizer once per week during the growing season.
Coast live oak can produce a second flush of growth toward the end of July to mid-August, but you want to avoid any heavy reduction of foliar mass or branching as you get closer to fall.
You may use a solid akadama soil or a 3-1-1 akadama, pumice, and lava mix as long as you can customize your watering schedule.
But if you’re using an automatic irrigation system, a 1-1-1 akadama, pumice, and lava mix is the driest mix you would want to use. For an increased capacity to produce finer ramification, you can use a 2-1-1 mix to provide the tree with more resources.
When repotting coast live oak, you never want to bare root or heavily reduce the sheen at any one time. The focus should remain on ensuring the health of the soil and the sheen. Sheen base trees thrive in deeper containers.