Today we're looking at one of my birches from the growed bonsai kit that I started in early 2020
I actually got a lot of them to grow but this one is in its own pot and you'll see still enough why it needs his own video
I just remove the top as it was a little too tall. Where I cut is literally one millimeter out of the frame but you can see here I didn't actually remove that much
There's nothing really wrong with this growth. It's actually all pretty good. So I just remove the tips to promote the buds further down to grow
The fact that this tree isn't even a year old at this point, but as side branches is pretty
incredible. Its growth rate was just completely insane last year, even in this tiny little pot
But you'll see here a lot of the buds are in the crotch where the branch meets a trunk
This is a terrible place to have new shoots grow, so I just removed them before they even grew
so they don't need to be cut out later. so I really need to stop biting my fingernails
Watching this video back and seeing how much I'm struggling with this is really not what I want in my life
Anyway, a couple of weeks later and at the end of February, the buds have started really swell
It's had been outside during the winter but I brought it back inside which is why it's waking up swirly
I wanted to live under the grow lights during the growing season which is why I'm able to re-pot it here at the end of February
As you can see the buds are almost open at this point so I really can't delay a repotting longer
My plan is to get into a slightly bigger pot. well, as big as I can fit
So I just started by removing the soil and then just raking everything out
There's a lot of actually really fine roots in here
For being so young, this has a crazy amount of roots and it isn't all just one big huge tap root
You can kind of see here, it's actually got a good spread of roots which is pretty incredible
I then just trim the back a bit, mostly just removing the thicker roots
So this is what I was left with. It's not too bad
Well actually, since it's a tree from seed that's about the turn one year old, it's pretty incredible
Everything about this tree's growth has been incredible so far, so hope it keeps up the pace for the next few years
I then just putter up in the old classic ice cream pot
They the perfect shape and size I would like to do something a bit bigger but from what I can accommodate they just perfect And you can see here it going to have plenty of space in there to grow out for now
And here it is a few weeks later in March
All the leaves are started to open and it's looking pretty good. But if you come in and have a closer look, look at this, I can't remember the name of these things
but I'm pretty sure it's like the Birch's version of a flower. Feels like this tree is a couple of years old, when it literally was a seed, a year before this video was taken
And there's more than one, which is mind-blown. In April it's crazy how much growth is on this thing
It's under the grow light And I think it's really making it grow even faster than normal
Because there isn't much room in my grow tent I had to take it back a bit
I just trimmed back the top And a few upper branches And left the bottom ones alone
Which should kind of help keep it in proportion Here it is from the side, you can see this tree is going to be huge
I'm very excited to see what happens with it in the next few years. In May I've literally got a full-sized bush inside my house
My mind is blown at the growth. on this thing. So I just did the same as before and clip back the tips, just to bring
it in a bit You see in a second that I changed location so I can actually fit it all in the frame But I actually got myself confused at some point in June or July I decided to fully defoliate it and I didn even fill in this
So clearly I was very confused. But more importantly, you shouldn't defoliate these
It totally messes with the energy balance. Which is why, in August, I have this mess
It was covered in buds, but basically only the buds right at the tip grew
and then a lot of new shoots shot out of the base of the trunk. Just a load of bare parts and just buds that didn't open
Basically a mess, and you really should not defoliate your budges. Of course, nothing has really changed in September
You can see some leaves are huge and some are tiny. It really messed up the energy distribution
So I've probably set this tree back a bit, but I'm hoping this spring it will kind of correct itself
It's really weird looking, and I've... No idea if the buds that didn't open will just open this spring or what's going to happen
The good thing is that it is young, so it shouldn't really suffer from this long term, hopefully
So yeah, I guess I learned that the hard way. I really have no idea what I was thinking at the time
I clearly wanted to try and get some more branching and it was healthy enough to take it
It's just that you don't defoliate birches. I can't believe I didn't remember that or didn't even double check
But anyway, it's done now. It's still looking pretty green in November
You can see a few leaves changing colour but it's still pretty bright in that grow tint
And here we are in December, where it's pretty much dropped most of its leaves
After I shot this video here I removed the last few leaves and then put it in the shed, which is where it's now, just chilling
There's not much going on with it at the minute, but I'll bring it back inside soon and hopefully it will cover from my stupidity and go crazy again