earthquakes

The eastern portion of the USA, which is not used to earthquakes as we who live on the pacific rim (seattle)
experienced one just recently. I noticed on the suiseki threads that some stones were broken in the experience.
I thought this might be an excellent opportunity to share strategies and pictures of how to secure bonsai on their stands to avoid damage. I've seen pots both tied down with string as well as secured with bungee cords. have something you can share here ?

We are living on moving land, Turkiye. We live every day a earthquake.

Than, every time ı'm thinking when ı saw the stands, thats will jump first earthquake.

The San Francisco area in Northern California experienced a mild earthquake last night around 11:30 pm. Mother Nature showing us who is boss.

Dick is asking for some suggestions on how to secure bonsai to benches etc. so to hopefully elicit some responses I'll start.

I am fortunate enough to live in an area which does not suffer from earthquakes but we do get our share of high winds. Again, I am fortunate in that the garden has some relatively sheltered spots, but I have lost a couple of nice pots owing to the wind. The trees suffered no long term damage I'm glad to say.

However, I now either weight down the pots with small but heavy stones or else I use short bungees to secure the pots to the benches. This latter is made easier because I have slatted benches.

I have seen myself outside in the dark on very windy nights moving the more exposed trees into the sheltered areas though.

For trees susceptible to getting knocked over I use old bonsai wire to wire down the pots to the benches. I also put a rim around some of my shohin benches to keep the small pots on the bench.

Eathquakes aren't a factor in my life either. But in Japan, all of our bonsai were tied to their stands with black jute cording. And God help us if they weren't.

Russ, do you think the black thread had any significance or just happen to be the color on the most available
string? It would only seem lodgical that the color be subdued so as not to be distracting, I would suppose?


Anyone got any pictures of maybe a visit to Japan that could see how it was done. I honestly need to do some securing but would like to keep it as minimally noticeable.

Thanks for those who have contributed

Dick, I think the black was used because it was less obtrusive. I looked through an old photo album (remember those?) for some good examples but the cording was not easy to see. I guess that was the objective. Some showed pretty well, especially with a little snow. I'll attempt to scan and post some pics for you.

R

Okay, here are a few.

This was an early winter snow, and most of the bonsai, especially the satsuki, went into cold frames after this.

thank you SO much ...

We don't have many earthquakes on the Former Space Coast, but we do have hurricanes. When we expect a storm I just put all my trees on the ground. I also put the stands down, they are mostly stacked concrete blocks.

Bud the earthquakes don't say, ım coming. Just coming.
I think, if any land moving, there must be strong stand for trees.

Well, our last hurricanes were Ivan and Katrina less than one year apart. I push the living room furniture against the walls, put down a sheet of visqueen over the oriental rugs and start bringing everyone inside. The last time I left them on the ground I ended up with 2 broken expensive pots. It's a pain in the ass, but at least we have plenty of warning.

I was ready to do the following because of Hurricane Irene, which as I write this is probably doing significant damage to the Bahama Islands about 140 miles due East of us. We are luckily only getting the outer bands of showers and winds of about 30mph in gusts :

1. Set up tables inside the house for trees
2. Bring any tree I can carry inside, And get help to bring large ones in. ( nothing is safe with what flies around in these storms )
3. Store or secure any outside furniture or movable stands
4. Put up hurricane shutters
5. Clear enough floor area in the garage for my car
6. Put enough gas in the generators to start them & check out...then put them in the garage.
7. Wait

After the storm passes, all of the above is done in reverse order, and usually the clean up of storm debris takes a while. The exhaustion that follows this is incredible !! But having seen the terrible damage these things can cause, it is worth the effort to make sure that anything you can protect, is. I hope that all of those now in the path of this storm are ready, and pray that all remain safe.

I like the black rope to tie trees down Russell....much better than my bright orange bungi cords !!


Ed

Good luck Ed! and to all bonsai lovers in harm's way! let's hope irene goes out to sea!

I know this thread was started two years ago but for whomever may be interested I found one time searching for bonsai security/bonsai theft protection and I found a product that is a bonsai pot lock that's designed for securing bonsai trees to benches not only for theft resistance but weather protection also. Now I cannot remember where I found them or the exact name for the product but if you search for bonsai protection, bonsai security, bonsai pot locks, or something along those lines I'm sure you will find them. I have not used them yet but I am planning on it because we get storms here every year with some straight line winds and I'm tired of having to spend so much time watching the weather and being ready to go outside and set all my plants on the ground every time it calls for strong thunder storms. If I find them again I will post the name and source if anyone responds to this reply.

For high winds we get here I have used fishing line, monofilament or spiderwire (or other very thin braided fishing line which is less likely to break down from UV exposure than mono). It is a bit tricky to tie without slack. You can't really see it unless you look closely.