Hey guys looking to build a bc forest this spring that’s on the larger side. Looking for some input on my plan.
15 trees in it, most are at the starting line of becoming bonsai.
The platform is made of .7 thick plastic sheets, joined at the middle, reinforced from the bottom with aluminium support to keep the weight stable. It’s almost 4 feet long and 1 foot 7-10 inches wide.
The sticks represent the tree placements.
Thanks!
I like the concept. I feel your trees are too evenly spaced. You want to have some that are very close together and with some larger gaps between groups. A platform of this size could probably accommodate 20+ trees unless they are quite large (i.e. diameters at least 1/4 of the typical gap you show). This is just my opinion, and I look forward to seeing whatever you put together.
I would second the spacing and I think it is because you are shy on the number of trees in total. A couple random groupings strategically spaced in combo with negative space would increase the visual interest
I would also love to see any of the process of how you made this or what the sheets look like if you have any. I think it is very cool looking.
Thanks for the feedback.
I plan to have two larger trees in it, still in nursery containers, and the rest from this that I put together about 2 years back while I was searching for the main trees.
I’m planning to have a pretty tall forest, around 3 feet-ish, maybe taller.
Good idea on grouping things a bit, I’m thinking maybe even leaving a small gap off center to the right of the composition. Depending on what’s inside those large containers and how they’ll fit.
Unfortunately I didn’t record the process, but they were basically 2 large cutting boards that I drew the base shape on, cut it with a jigsaw at an angel, grinded the edges with a Dremel. After that I took a small blowtorch to melt the edges a bit to hide the scuff marks. I used stainless steel screws to fix it together and added some aluminium support at the base, since I felt it might flex under the weight of the trees when I have to move it, plus it ads a bit of a floating effect. The boards are foodsafe, so no leaching and heat resistant to, so it should hold up to the elements.
It took about an afternoon to put together.
I attached some more close-ups, plus a the candidates for the report.
Ohh that makes sense I was wondering if you 3d printed or cnc’ed thin plastic panels. A+ in ingenuity.
It was way cheaper and easier this way 
Hey I get it, its why I started making my own pots
Quarter way there, hope to finish it up TMR
Don’t balance it looks better on the left side…it you can get it a little further back or pull the biggest one up some I think you got it. Symmetry is for cowards, go for it!
For me those two compositions come as close as possible to explaining the difference between art and craft. I’d also be curious to see what it looks like to take the smaller one off vertical…a little slant . I am not saying it’s right but I’d love to see it and it might give the composition some movement…lean it towards the negative space (right)
Potting done, 3,5 hours bare rooting the big ones, 4 hours placing and tie down and another 3 chopsticking in the soil and 1,5 adding the moss.
It’s pretty large and heavy as f.
Added a plier for scale.
Now only thing left is to prune wire the thing and treat the new wounds.
looks great-spring is hard!
Looks good. I would probably wait to wire to avoid further stress on the trees as they grow new roots - both due to movement while wiring and reduced branch function as the tree heals wiring damage. I might cut back some of the top thick branches, so you don’t end up with all of the foliage at their ends.
Finished, for now.
I ended up pruning it back a bit to get some taper started.
Gnawing away with a knob cutter rather then a saw not to vibrate the roots to much.
Added a bit of wire where the branches would have completely shaded out lower branches or trees, causing problems along the way or would become unbendable.
At places I had to use 10 mm wire just to be able to bend it a bit.
Now will see what the future will bring.
I’m pretty confident that all trees will make it bas d on the health of last year.
