Surprise visit

It was a pleasure to see Ka Pabling's wife and son last week.

Flor is over here staying with her son Alex, she has not yet been back home since winning with her fantastic tree "The King".
Alex was lucky to find a great lump of Grape vine in a retail outlet in Swansea so we did a bit of work on, cleaning out some of the old dead wood etc.

Do I see grapes hanging from the top?

Alex with the grape vine
Some close ups of the dead wood
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Rob Kempinski wrote:Do I see grapes hanging from the top?

Fancy that. Grapes on a Grapevine.
Chris. Do the leaves reduce on a Grape?

Hi Chris,
I recognize the lovely lady in the picture!
She has been telling me that she wants to attend your wednesday/sunday workshops, I am glad she finally made it. did you give her a tree to work on?

I had two grape bonsais last year,bit smaller than that of Alex but lost them together with 30 others when a portion of my garden got eroded last Sept 2010.

Best wishes
ka pabling

Hi Chris,
The trunk looks great, with nice curves and the barks looks aged.

I chose weeping style for my trees, I thought it was the best style for my grape trees, I was trying to thicken the primary branches so it could carry its fruits.I hope I can get a replacement soon.

Best regards
ka pabling

Hi everyone, yes Rob they are grapes.
We had a good chat about the pros and cons of a species like this in this country, remember this is Wales, wet damp and cold for long periods through the winter. This Grape vine has no doubt just been imported from a mediteranian area where this growth and fruit have been produced.
Now we are looking at this being in the Welsh climate and with all the greenhouse thing and the best will in the world we have to see if its possible to grow this and fruit it, will the leaves reduce? The reality is that the growth will have to cut back hard each year to keep some control on the overall size of the image. I think this is still worth the time even if it is only to show of such a great trunk and if leaf size and fruit can be obtained then all the better. Its going to be a fantastic project .

Regards Chris

chris wrote:Hi everyone, yes Rob they are grapes.
We had a good chat about the pros and cons of a species like this in this country, remember this is Wales, wet damp and cold for long periods through the winter. This Grape vine has no doubt just been imported from a mediteranian area where this growth and fruit have been produced.
Now we are looking at this being in the Welsh climate and with all the greenhouse thing and the best will in the world we have to see if its possible to grow this and fruit it, will the leaves reduce? The reality is that the growth will have to cut back hard each year to keep some control on the overall size of the image. I think this is still worth the time even if it is only to show of such a great trunk and if leaf size and fruit can be obtained then all the better. Its going to be a fantastic project .

Regards Chris

Thanks for the feedback. Good luck growing it in your climate. It's not that easy to get a grape bonsai to produce grapes, especially if you try to prune it to keep anything like a bonsai shape. Having bunches of grapes though in the canopy regardless of the shape seems to satisfy most, especially non-bonsai enthusiasts. In Florida there is a wild grape that rarely produces fruit once put in a bonsai pot.

In a different post I had promised to post a photo of a grape bonsai from the bonsai show in Cordoba Mexico. It was the nicest bonsai grape I had seen, but alas it seems I never got around to photographing it. Maybe someone else there grabbed a shot of it. While a nice bonsai, it didn't have any grapes on it.

Ka Pabling wrote:

I had two grape bonsais last year,bit smaller than that of Alex but lost them together with 30 others when a portion of my garden got erroded last Sept 2010.
Best wishess
ka pabling

Ka Pabling, when you say eroded, do you mean your garden collapsed from erosion? If so, sounds bad. Will future erosion be prevented?

Rob Kempinski wrote:

Ka Pabling wrote:

I had two grape bonsais last year,bit smaller than that of Alex but lost them together with 30 others when a portion of my garden got eroded last Sept 2010.
Best wishes
ka pabling

Ka Pabling, when you say eroded, do you mean your garden collapsed from erosion? If so, sounds bad. Will future erosion be prevented?

Hi Rob, sorry it was on Sept 2009 not 2010,Undoy, the worse flood to hit our country in decades did it.
My garden is in a hill beside a river, the hill is standing on a solid rock base except that little portion which had a fault, I didnt notice it till after the erosion, anyway its now ok, I had the fault fixed and planted over a hundred mahogany trees in the eroded area.

hello ka pabling , chris, rob and all:

thank you for sharing the beautiful grape material. with size, age, movement, deadwood already there, your grape will be a worthy tree in the near future. I've grown grape for bonsai in hawaii using old stock from california. they grew well for awhile and even fruited, however, without cold weather induced dormancy, they slowly weakened and eventually died. It was fun while it lasted. got a gasp or two from viewers . leaf size can be managed by timed defoliation before exhibition. wire and show when leaves are new and small. sharing a photo

best wishes, sam

Hi Sam,

Thats a real beauty! Do you still have it ?
We have grape plantations here, I am not sure what variety they use but grape trees here last for 30 -40 years and never experience cold weather and dormancy. After 40 years or so the farmers replace their old grape trees that are not efficient enough in fruiting, with new ones for better yield ,This is our source of our materials.
I will ask what variety and will let you know.

Best wishes
ka pabling

Hi ka pabling:

the tree died a year or so ago. unfortunately , the trees we 've used are california trees not acclimated to our weather, so they weaken over time and ultimately succumb.

best wishes, sam

kauaibonsai wrote:Hi ka pabling:

the tree died a year or so ago. unfortunately , the trees we 've used are california trees not acclimated to our weather, so they weaken over time and ultimately succumb.

best wishes, sam

Hi Sam,
Sorry to hear that.
I am sure you have grape plantations in your area, what you can do probably is to visit one of these plantations and look for their "rejects". Usually farmers consider as rejects trees that are crocked,and with deadwoods They prefer straight and clean trunks. If you can convince the farmer to replace the rejects with new vines, then you are lucky. Thats how I got my materials.
Best wishes, ka pabling

chris wrote:Hi everyone, yes Rob they are grapes.
We had a good chat about the pros and cons of a species like this in this country, remember this is Wales, wet damp and cold for long periods through the winter. This Grape vine has no doubt just been imported from a mediteranian area where this growth and fruit have been produced.
Now we are looking at this being in the Welsh climate and with all the greenhouse thing and the best will in the world we have to see if its possible to grow this and fruit it, will the leaves reduce? The reality is that the growth will have to cut back hard each year to keep some control on the overall size of the image. I think this is still worth the time even if it is only to show of such a great trunk and if leaf size and fruit can be obtained then all the better. Its going to be a fantastic project .

Regards Chris

Hi Chris,
I googled and found out that there are some varieties of grapes in Wales, I dont know if it is of the same variety as Alex, but then this is good indication that the project might succeed.Alex has a conservatory so he could probably put the grape trees there during winter.
You are right, this going to be a very challenging and fantastic project.
Best wishes,
ka pabling