dlepthien
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Drainage and other unfortunate mysteries (was : Bonsai Today - 2006/08/30 07:10
Soil layering is an issue that, like so many individual and specific practices, is largely misunderstood by enthusiasts outside of Japan. We tend to think of this and too many other bonsai practices and techniques as unrelated to other elements of the art and science. For instance, if it is seemingly a science question, we don't include artistic concerns in the equation. We also tend to wrongly believe that the differences in horticultural practices between East and West are based on preference and tradition rather than necessity.
In the case of Japanese growers advocating soil layering, neither the science nor the reasoning is wrong. They do it for reasons that address the entirety of their approach. For instance:
- Japanese growers have traditionally used large, handmade fertilizer cakes - which necessitates some very specific annual practices and influences the conventions of soil use/cycle/size/medium.
- Japanese growers have traditionally used akadama and large sand as their primary soil media.
- Japanese growers are concentrated in a small country - with areas of specific climate and annual rain trends.
- Japanese growers understand that the "art" of bonsai extends beyond the tree and the pot (like to the soil and how it should look/behave in a couple of specific different cases).
- Japanese growers understand that horticulture and art have to be compatible - that horticulture must sometimes adapt to artistry, and vice-versa.
So merely layering your soil is no better than merely cutting black pine buds nor merely repotting nor merely defoliating. With each of these practices/techniques there is a host of related issues that may be specific to species, season, geographic location and/or individual tree condition and history. Believing that just because it is only dirt means that soil techniques that come from a specific country are not related to the other specific practices common to that country is short-sighted.
This does not, of course, mean that soil layering is important in Japan but not anywhere else. It means that if you follow the specifically growing practices common to Japan, most of them are related to one another and dependent on one another, so you can't so quickly discount one of them.
Take the various broom style formations. You will find that skilled
Japanese artists will poo-poo certain forms even though they are beautiful.
We may think that they're merely expressing their personal taste, but I've found that when I ask, such cases are always related to specific horticultural issues or issues of the tree's form 10 to 30 years from now.
So in such cases, an elm or beech that is beautiful now will not be in 20 years because certain physical structures will cause problems down the road - so the skilled and knowledgeable artists advises huge changes (wrecking the now beautiful form in favor of a long-lasting beauty). But most of us have no experience with evaluating a bonsai's beauty and physical quality over the span of 20 to 30 years.
We're foolish to evaluate specific practices or techniques of Japanese growers based on Western growing techniques, Western growing practices and
Western bonsai tradition. Japan has a much longer history in bonsai AND they have what we don't - a history of passing proven practices down in strict, dogmatic fashion from skilled teacher to student. Most importantly, this has happened in a proper learning environment - where the teacher is a teacher, not a merchant for the student's purse.
Instead of asking Western growers who follow some - or very few - Japanese growing techniques about the necessity or reason for certain specific
Japanese techniques, ask a Japanese grower about why they do this or that.
The answer will nearly always be because of several other things they're doing too as a matter of course.
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