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  • Results 1 to 6 of 6

    Thread: koi and bonsai, interesting similarities

    1. #1
      dick benbow's Avatar
      dick benbow is offline "The Koi Coach"
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      koi and bonsai, interesting similarities

      yesterday as i was helping to pot up the new yamadori pines and juniper's from Wyoming, I watched as customers filed by, interested yet not really.
      there was just one lone limber pine and that one was really nice. It's lower branches perfect for work as a top bonsai. It was dug and potted up with all the branches it had developed because you need the top growth to send down strength to the roots to help it rebuild from being dug and transported.
      Those who could have been prospective buyers, looked at the whole and did not see the tree within.
      Kinda like sumi mono koi who's sumi pattern, tho years in the making, will define the value or worth of the Koi. Knowing the bloodline and how it will develop will tell you the chances of it developing to your expectations. If you don't know that a breeder is say putting a matsunosuke sumi, on a sadazo beni while trying to retain the matsunosuke body, you'd have no understanding about what to expect. And if you didn't know that you need
      all of the branching initially to get the tree to live before styling, then you couldn't anticipate the eventual design.
      At the bonsai retailer, the tree would be semi styled after it was clear it was surviving. Then the quess work would be gone, the buyer would see the design and with a few tweaks of their own have something to be proud of.
      Kinda like looking at tosai and not seeing what it's telling you. many wait till they are furthur developed along as two year olds. Interesting heh?

      How many times have we seen a post get moved from a main post to one that fits better in a specialty subject. This is one that i think could go the other way
      Dick Benbow
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    2. #2
      prestont's Avatar
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      While less thought provoking, I use the same granite chicken grit for the inorganic part of my bonsai soil, the top layer in my sand and gravel filter, and as grog in my pottery clay. The people at the feed store are always trying to sell me chicken FEED to go with the grit.

    3. #3
      Zak's Avatar
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      Totally! The similarities between koi and bonsai seem to be endless. The requirement for ridiculous amounts of patience being one obvious similarity. I know what you mean there dick. You have to see the bonsai within the mess of foliage sometimes. The folks were looking for something that looked finished already. Like those low quality sanke that look finished at six inches, people buy them and wonder why after two or three years the entirety of the back is black.

      Here's what this concept looks like in koi terms: https://www.koiphen.com/forums/showth...nly-One/page10

      Look at Super Kindai's post with the goshiki development pics. Notice how in the first pic it looks like a kohaku with just a faint presence of goshiki showing underneath. I love how the Hi starts off orange and finishes a stronger red.

      The point is you'd have to know what you were doing to know that the fish in the first pic would develop into the fish in the last. Not many people could do that. That's "seeing the bonsai within".



      I use Oil Dri for a growing medium. It's the poor man's akadama.

      Oil Dri and chicken grit sounds like a good combo.
      Voted "Sexiest Koi Keeper EVAR!" 2010, 2011, and 2012.

    4. #4
      icu2's Avatar
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    5. #5
      mike pfeffer is offline Senior Member
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      There is also significant differences in the hobby. For most folks, with koi- you want the largest fish you can obtain/grow and hope she will retain a youthful appearance with age. With bonsai- you want the tree to remain relatively small and have an appearance of age and sometimes you want the tree to look like it has been in a battle with nature. A common question about koi- "Do you eat them?", "How much do they weigh?". A common question with bonsai- "How old is the tree?" A common comment about trees and koi- "Well, I had one once but it died" "Aren't they hard to keep alive?".

    6. #6
      koirus is offline Member
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      The bonsai mappreciate the waste from the koi when yoiu clean the filter. Nothing artificial and the bonsai thrive.

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