Tools of the Trade

Lights

The coolest thing about this winter is I am growing trees off season, indoors and in a room with no windows. Now I bought a basic kit from Hydrofarm. It is called the Hydrofarm JSV2 2-Foot Jump Start T5 Grow Light System. It seems to be doing me very well. Notice the wording "T5". They say that the T5 fluorescent tubes are the best of there class. My system has a T5 bulb in it. This is my first grow light so I can not tell you if it is better or not. So far it is just big enough for what I first set out to do. Basically it is big enough to house up to two seed trays under it. I only have one at the moment. I would recommend, if you have the room, to buy a lager one. I thought that it would do me, but when your plants start to grow underneath the light it really makes you think of the next plant you want to grow. As far as light duration, I have been keeping my light on from 14-16 hours per day. I got some info from a guy I found while googling on the internet. His name is Jack Wikle, and he really seems to know alot about growing under light. What he said was, "When I began experimenting with fluorescent light bonsai, I read some U.S. Department of Agriculture publications suggesting 14 to 16 hours of fluorescent light daily is adequate for growing plants indoors. So I thought why not try 16 hours as a compromise. This has worked quite well. I have experimented with longer light periods, but keep coming back to 16 hours." So I am rolling with that. If you have any other suggestion or comment, drop me a line at the bottom of this page.

Table

This story begins in the middle of last week when I was surfing my new favorite bonsai forum, the Bonsai Nut, when I came along a guy named Tom. By the way his blog is sweet. He had commented on something that I was reading about and I decided to read his blog. Well in it I saw that he built a table to hold his bonsai in the yard. So I had to have one. I woke up early Saturday morning and started doing a little research on tables. My wife had left to go shopping with a friend and I was all alone. So I grabbed my drill and headed off the the local Rona and bought some cedar. Wow it is expensive. Over all I spent $75 for two 4x4x8 (for the legs) and two 2x4x8 ( for the bracing). Now that is not how much the table costs. I had some extra cedar deck boards laying around so I could build the top. I am not sure of the price, but I went through 26 feet. Most likely around $40-$50 for two 12' boards. It took me around an hour, hour and a half to complete. I sanded everything money and I have decided I want to leave it o' natural, so I can have that old rustic look to her in a couple of seasons.

Cutters

I have four types of cutters. Big branch cutters or root cutters. Really they are wire cutters iron workers would use in commercial construction years ago. I have linesman pliers that I found in the same old took box I inherited from a family memeber. I also use a small pair of leaf trimmers I bought from Canadian tire this year. My newest addition to my collection are long handled trimming shears that I bought from my new favorite store, Leevalley.  I also have a cultivator, I use that to separate the roots when I am re-potting. Thats it in a nut shell. There are more tools out there and I am working on getting them all. I would really like to get some big branch benders. 

These are all the tools that I use and wanted to talk about. Of course you can buy more. Last but not least, just buy good quality.

Thanks for reading.