Bonsai Material Story (well, not that kind of story, more of a process thing)

Caveat: I am not an expert bonsai-ist nor I pretend to know much about the art. What I am sharing here is limited to my experience with my materials. I'm almost three years into the hobby and I still feel like a newbie. For more stuffs and conversations about bonsai, I suggest you join Bonsai Hobbyist of the Philippines on Facebook.

Bonsai materials that I bought from a hunter in Koronadal City, Mindanao. The package arrived two weeks ago. The materials are not that expensive, it's the shipping fee that doubles the cost. 

Notice how carefully the materials are packaged. The seller has to make sure that the materials are kept fresh and moist during the its travel from Koronadal City, Mindanao to Taytay, Rizal,Luzon.

Unpacked.The first thing I did was to check if the materials were fresh. To do this, I nipped the bark and if it's still green, it's fresh and alive. Though some materials maybe moist, it does not necessarily mean the material is fresh. I have not experienced receiving any damaged or dead materials from the sellers I had dealt with. They were reliable.

I cleaned the materials. Brushed to remove lichens, fungi, insects etc. I couldn't find my fungicides but with my other materials I sprayed fungicides to prevent fungal development during the rooting period.

After cleaning up, I prepared the rooting hormone solution. Before, I did not use rooting hormones but after reading that it helps better the chances of stimulating the materials, I started using it.

Common rooting hormone brands: Hormex and Anaa. Available in garden shops and ACE hardware.

Soak the materials in rooting solution for a few hours. Others prefer soaking overnight but since I had work the next day, an hour or two would do fine.

Next step was preparing the medium: river sand. I used a strainer to separate different grades of river sand

The pebbles are put at the bottom layer in the trainer dish for good drain.

 The smaller pebbles is put  at middle layer and the fine grain of sand at the topmost layer .

Secure the material into the dish with wire to prevent movement and make sure that there's no vacuum or all the base of the material is completely covered by the medium. Here I put "bamboo antennas" around the materials to prevent the materials from touching the plastic cover that I would  put on them, sprouts turn brown and die when they touch plastic.

Covered in plastic. This acts as a greenhouse to keep the humidity high and stimulate the materials. This speeds up the rooting or stimulating process. 

Once the materials have grown leaves and branches that looks healthy enough, the plastic should be removed gradually to give the materials time to adjust with the changes in humidity. First, open the bottom of the plastic cover an inch or two every three to four days and check if the already developed leaves are not withering. once you noticed that the leaves are turning brown, return the plastic cover and wait longer until the materials become established.

 There are those who prefer to not use plastic cover and instead keep the material in shaded area until it sprouted, a little slow but it works too and the materials are already adjusted to the environment when buds appear.

The plastic cover traps water inside so its not necessary to water the materials everyday for two weeks or so.  Check the medium (soil) and check if its already drying up, then if it is,  water carefully. Accidentally bumping or jerking the materials will break the developing roots and could kill them.

I had many materials die because cats, dogs and even rats tumble them. 

I put them in a dog's cage to prevent animals from accidentally bumping the materials.

Two weeks after, there;'s already little leaves sprouting. Of course this does not mean that the material will live. A lot could go wrong, like root rot etc. but this is a good sign. Still a few more months before these materials can be put under full sunlight and many months more before they could be trained.

Some hobbyists compare this to gambling because there's a 50-50 chance that the materials will live or will die. 

Well, the uncertainty makes it more interesting and challenging. Just seeing a material live and become established is already an achievement for me..

Patience is virtue.  

Al Dub...as usual, blah, blah...

I was watering our plants when a neighbor's head popped up at the gate and said something about the news that day. I opened the gate and let him in. We talked. My neighbor knew a lot of Marxist-Engels-socialist-communist etc.philosophy, not surprising since he was a former labor union president and was well indoctrinated with leftist philosophy and dogmas. 

A conversation like this usually lasts hours and meanders into almost every conceivable topic under the sun from socialism, which from our many conversations he is in favor of, to conspiracy theories. We were talking about the INC incident, the coming presidential election and the presidential candidates, Marcos, Education and of course Marxist philosophy when the mention of "opiates of the people" popped up, I suddenly blurted out, "Al Dub".

"Look at what's on TV today," I have often lamented the fact that TV was not what it used to be. "I cannot make sense of AL Dub. Why are people hooked into it? Why they are mesmerized by a story that is made up along the way as if it was a well written story like in TV drama or soap or something."

I came to the conclusion that Al Dub is for idiots.

Until well written essays about Al Dub started coming out of Facebook. Some learned people are talking and thinking about it, at least the phenomenon. Why even the  Roman Catholic Church Bishops endorsed it as good for the moral health of the televiewers. the CBCP expressed their support to AlDub for its “noble cause of spreading virtue, values, and morality that our nation deserves” Who can argue with theologians? 

But it cannot be denied that it has numbed the mind of the people to an extent.

Attorney Capunan lamented the fact that the Filipinos are all tuned in to Al Dub on the news while the mention of the Chinese president going to the United States wooing the economically bankrupt superpower with promises of international cooperation maybe even loans etc. in return for the South China Sea. Do we even care about this issue? No reaction on this issue.

I did not an impromptu survey in my class. I asked my pupils to choose between Al Dub and Kathniel love team. Ninety percent voted for Al Dub despite the fact that they are in school most of the weekend and have no time to watch the kalye serye.  

I attended the DepEd Rizal's teacher's day celebration yesterday and while an actor was performing, I could hear my colleagues shouting "Aldub na yan!." It's a little embarrassing because the guy was not part of the Al Dub love team.

  

I have not seen Al Dub because of I am at work during weekdays and in the weekend I usually do gardening and bass guitar practice but my wife and my daughter love it so whether I like it or not, I catch portions of the show. 

 I find it funny but...

As to my neighbor, he left just before noon and I think he watched AlDub after our talk.

Brigada Eskwela and Asthma

PNP personnels fixing broken desks

When I was in my grade school I used to skip the firs week of school because I  knew (and my parents knew too) that the first days of classes would be spent cleaning the school grounds and the classrooms. The pupils were asked to bring cleaning implements: brooms, dustpan, coconut husk and sandpapers. I most especially dreaded the sand papers.

We sand paper books to erase names written on their sides and desks to remove names and other graffiti. There was so much dust that I usually ended up with asthma attacks. 

BFP firemen flushing a pathway.

Pre-classes preparations were the task of the teachers and the pupils then but now thanks to DepEd's Brigada Eskwela , the preparations now involve stakeholders from the parents, Private Organizations and Companies, NGO's, alumnis, LGUs and government agencies like the PNP, BFP, etc.

Parents doing their share.

Brigada Eskwela is an offshoot Republic Act 8525 or the Adapt-A-School Program. An act that gives opprtunity for privatte sector companies to contribute in improving the public education systm in the country. 

In an effort to bring the Adopt-A-School Program to the community level, DepEd launhed the National Schools Maintenance Week in May 2003 which is now known as the Brigada Eskwela. (Brigada Manual)

What do non-bonsai people think about bonsai hobbyists?

 One of the members of the FB group Bonsai Hobbyist of the Philippines (BHP) asked this question and I ,again, collated the members' answers and added some comments of my own. 

1. They are crazy

This is the most common thinking of non-bonsai people because most bonsai hobbyist/artists/owner have this special relationship with their trees that to common folks seems to defy sanity. The bonsaists spend a lot of time looking at it from many angles, clipping branches and removing leaves here and there, and sometimes even talking with the trees.

But I think the craziest thing is that many if not most bonsai hobbyist go out at night, with their flash lights, to check on their materials/trees. 

Imagine yourself looking out your window, there's your neighbor in the middle of the night with a flashlight beaming on his/her bonsai, eyes and nose almost touching the trunks and branches, checking under and over, as if looking for something valuable, a jewelry or an evidence of a murder, etc. I mean...

2. They are in love with their trees

The husband must keep in mind the first commandment: "Thous shall not have no other wife than the wife." 

Anything that takes away a husband's attention from his wife is an object of jealousy. I mean anything. This is understandable and normal to a married person. Jealousy is a basic instinct both for the male and female of the specie. This instinct or emotion is a product of evolutionary processes that aims to preserve the unity of a family and the continuity of the species. Ok, ok, enough of the Darwinian blah,blah, blah

Many members of the BHP, at least in the beginning of their bonsai life, had to deal with a jealous wife. The wife could not understand how her husband could focus his energy on watering trees 2-3 times everyday. I mean before they even greet their wives or enter the door of the house, they first get their water hose or lagaderas to water their trees. Then they spend a lot of hours grooming the trees, clipping branches and leaves  which the husbands do not do to their wives. 

I do not clip my wife's nails or groom her hair and I doubt it if any husband does that, but it is understandable for the wife to feel resentment at seeing her husband clipping a damned tree and not her nails and grooming the tree and not her hair. Of course most wives prefer have manicurists and pedicurists but still the mis-focused attention is what makes them jealous. They do the housework, cook food, do laundry, they deserve better...better than the bonsai's.

Of course after a period of time, the wife realizes the benefits of bonsai to her husband. 

1. The husband started losing interest with vices and going out with boys.

2. Great stress management.

3. Once the bonsai revealed its beauty, the wife starts to appreciate them too.

4. Some husbands have additional source of income.

5. The wife then becomes a bonsai hobbyists. too. I hope.

3. They are gay

I have no problem with this but to some BHP member, they think this is defamatory or something. If your sure of your sexuality no problemo. 

4. They are torturing the trees!

This is also how my friends describe what I'm doing with my bonsai, cutting them here and there, wiring and then bending the branches, defoliating the leaves, sometimes removing bark, etc. By the way this called training.

Since trees are living organisms its is only reasonable to think that they feel or at least they react to these training methods in a way that many people could empathize with. There are times that I feel that way too. But one must look at this philosophically. 

Training is a difficult and even a torturous process. It is the process of removing, redirecting, learning, retaining and maintaining. It is refining, managing the crude, the base and the wild nature and then turning them into something beautiful and usable. It is a process of change.

Training a tree is similar to educating a human being.  It's unthinkable to cut fingers here and there or amputate a deformed arm or a leg  because we don't grow them back. Though physical beautification or enhancement is being done through cosmetic surgery it does not capture the real essence of bonsai training.

So, like bonsai training our crude or wild natures/behaviors are pruned and defoliated through the painful process of behavioral modification called education and religion. 

Bonsai is metaphorical, if you really think about it.

5. They have nothing better to do

I guess that's why its called a hobby. Anyway, seriously, I had a visitor who told me that he'd rather plant vegetables than bonsais. I understand the bit of sarcasm in his voice because I can't eat my bonsai. But I love gardening and I did try planting vegetables in our lot but the soil--mostly compacted fillings-- is not fit for that kind of gardening. 

I guess no one can understand a bonsai hobbyist unless he or she becomes one.

People who contributed to Manny Pacquiao's lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr.

I am a Manny Pacquiao fan and like many people around the world and would have loved to see Pacquiao knock down Mayweather on the mat but the fight didn't turn out that way. Instead, using unorthodox tactics Mayweather out danced and outrun Manny Pacquiao winning the bout the other way around, by not boxing. 

I am not an anal expert (or an analyst) but I do have something to say about the fight.

Boxing fans were disappointed because they were expecting explosive pound for pound, fist to fist, gladiator like contest instead what they saw was a hugging contest. Knowing Mayweather and based on most of his fights, he would use his head instead of his fists to win. He feared Pacquiao's speed and punching power so he would not go into a fist fight instead he would his defensive and evasive skills to keep Pacquiao off and using his longer reach would try to land punches and score, nitpicking. This is what Mayweather employed vs. Pacquiao and it worked superbly.  

Manny fought the way he knew, by throwing punches and combinations. He tried his best to corner Mayweather but Floyd was slippery as an eel. 

Though the fight left a bad taste in the mouth, it could not be denied that Mayweather showed outstanding defensive skills that neutralized Manny's fighting style but bored the audience to death.

Anyway, for fun,  I'm enumerating 10 people who contributed to Manny's lost.

10. Mommy Dinosia's prayers failed

Mommy D's prayer is powerful and combined with middle finger pointed at Pacquiao's opponent, the cosmic energy emitted is enough to create a psychic imbalance to create confusion and headache to an opposing boxer.

It seemed Mommy D's cosmic battery was not charged to the fullest. The reason...number 9.

9. Mommy Dionisia's cosmic energy was sucked off by her boyfriend.

Now, I love Mommy D. She's been a good mother to Manny. She went through a lot to raise Pacquiao and his siblings. She has a wonderful sense of humor, self deprecating at times but honest and spontaneous. But this boyfriend thing is bad. Manny loved her mother so much that he tolerated this relationship but it sucked off Mommy D's cosmic energy and she lost focus on praying and directing cosmic energies against Mayweather.

8. Chavit

What do you think? Me, I'm not talking...

 7. Lito Camo's songs

I first heard Lito Camo on radio during the 90's. His earlier songs were Eraserheads rip offs that then later degenerated to novelty songs with double entendre and nonsensical lyrics. He wrote Manny's song but I like the "Eye of the Tiger" better, feral and fierce: mabangis. His new theme song sounded like a marxists, anti fascists a la EDSA Revolution theme...

5. Wrong Jesus

Let's see...

Is it okay to box and then preach?

No, the Bible mentioned running a marathon as a metaphor for our spiritual journey but not boxing. 

Basketball, volleyball, football etc. are all contact sports and their aim is to out wit, out play the opponent by putting a ball in a goal etc.

But boxing is a different contact sports in that its aim is specifically to physically abuse the opponent. It feeds on a person's  animal instinct and this is evident in fights were boxers instintively bite their opponents.

The scripture does not justify this sport though the scripture does mention stoning adulteress to death.

4. The Reverends

Mind you, I am happy that Manny became a born again Christian and a powerful endorser of the movement but then again these reverends should have made Manny realized that boxing and the Bible don't mix. They should have convinced him to stop fighting the day he received the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal savior and Lord of his life. 

“Manny Pacquiao is THE purpose-driven boxer! His huge heart for God energizes his heart for everything else - his family, his country, his sport, the street kids, and all his fans,” said Pastor Rick Warren.

My ass...   

3. Kim Henares

Need I explain?














2. Floyd Mayweather Senior

This guy sure knew what he was doing. He didn't care what other people say about his tactics yet it won fights consistently: box by not boxing. Philosophical indeed, he has deconstructed boxing!









1. President PNOY

Oil price hike, OFW on death row, Mamasapo Incident, Joblessness, Inflation, Deflation, no love-life, pollution, etc. These are all the president's doing and Manny's lost to Mayweather is also PNoy's fault. 

Why?

Because he didn't do anything! That's why.

Outing

Five years ago.

The guys (barkadas) and the families are going on a two-day summer outing in Batangas tomorrow. It's been five years since we had a get together and this is long overdue. Though we are neighbors, we don't get the chance to get together because of work, busyness, schedules, blah, blah.

This will be fun and there'll be a lot of reminiscing and maybe even a few (with the help of beer or rum) tears shed.

What's nice and what's bad about bonsai? Part 2

Bonsai hunting

What's bad about bonsai?

1. Damages the environment and contributes to global Warming.

This has been the concern of many bonsai artist/hobbyist and some even go to the extent of boycotting events that allow participants who do not practice sustainable bonsai, that's what I saw on a Lindsay Farr video about Philippine bonsai.

Anyway...

One case is what happened to the Japanese wild junipers. Wild junipers were almost wiped out because of uncontrolled yamadori hunting by bonsai practitioners that the Japanese government had to step in to replenish junipers in the wild. The specie was never threatened but their presence in their wild natural habitat was. This is happening to the Bantigue, the Philippines premiere bonsai material. It is being hunted to the point where it forced some local government units to pass ordinances banning bantigue hunting within their area of jurisdiction. 

It can be argued that the environmental damage cause by bonsai hunting is minimal compared to the destruction caused by illegal and legal logging, mining, residential and industrial land conversion etc. Bonsai hunters are also selective in their collecting compared to the wholesale destruction caused by the industries mentioned above. Another argument for is that the trees are not really killed instead they are just being replanted despite the fact that they are dwarfed hence lessening their capacity to process carbon dioxide in the air.

Another is the area where the uprooted trees were once planted and now uprooted creates "ecological vacuum" and disturbs the soil which results to soil erosion. and collectively, if you add up all these "little hunting activities" it would still amount to a significant contribution to climate change (or global warming).

The bonsai trade is growing and so is the demand for hunted materials. I for one would be hypocritical if i say that I did not buy hunted material. I did and maybe I will in the future. What needs to be done is to make the hobby environment friendly and sustainable. (Another post on this topic, I guess).

2. Bonsai Addiction

How could anyone get addicted to this hobby. 

Here's my story.

My materials.

I started with one, a ficus microcarpa cutting. Then I got impatient looking at it, I  got another one thinking that while I'm waiting for my first material to develop, I would be working on the next one. Then after the second I got my third tree, a bucida spinoza so on.... the cycle continued until I ended up with almost a hundred bonsai materials and it would have continued until I came to the realization that I am running out of space and I am spending money and too much time for the hobby, which is becoming un-healthy.

I think I have gotten over my addiction and I am now focusing on developing what I have. But there are those who couldn't stop buying on credit and they ended in heavy debt because of overbuying bonsai materials.  This happened to a few members of the online bonsai group that I belonged to. This is embarrassing for the buyer and a financial loss to the bonsai/material hunter-seller.

3. Incompetent Exhibition Judges

Not mine

 I have no experience with exhibitions. My trees are still in their material-training phase and I guess wit would take more years of training to achieve exhibit quality i.e. if they posses the qualities. Anyway, my trees are for personal enjoyment and an exhibition is somewhere out there in a distant galaxy:  

Only experienced bonsai exhibitors can comment on #3 but in my experience with many competitions from basketball to piko this "incompetence" line is always invoked by the losers.

4. Fake Friends

I have only "friends". Fake friends are not real friends so how can they be friends. But I know what they mean: Fake friends are people who uses a friend to gain something at his own advantage and at the disadvantage of his/her friend. Most of my bonsai friends are online so... 

5. Jealous Wives

Well, I have not experienced this yet. An advice: talk to your wife first before you talk to your bonsai.

There you go...

What's nice and what's bad about bonsai? Part 1

What's nice and what's bad about bonsai?

This is an interesting question posted on Pinoy Tropical Bonsai Group's FB wall. I collated the answers and presented them here. By the way, all pictures of bonsais here are not mine. I'm three years into the hobby and most of my bonsais are still in their material-training stages, some even do not have leaves yet.

Good about bonsai:

1. It is relaxing and therapeutic. Bonsais are orginally used as meditation tool by Buddhist monks. By focusing on a bonsai tree the monks could achieve a state of closeness with nature and its spirits--a harmonious unity of humanity with nature and with the universe. 

This is achieved by repudiating the self (ego) through meditation by focusing on the representation of nature, which is the bonsai. And blah, blah, blah...

Of course most contemporary bonsai-ist now are not Buddhist monks and do not know an iota of a difference between yin, yang, and yung, yong, or they even know or care about meditation and all that eastern philosophy. But even in the absence of these esoteric eastern  stuffs, the hobbyist only has to look at bonsai to feel their calming effect and to achieve the aura of being close to nature...blah,blah,blah. 

Another thing is because bonsai comes in different sizes  you can put many trees in a small garden or even within the confines of the home, office, or even inside a car. Yes, I have seen picture of cars with live bonsai (as opposed to artificial) on the dash board. I 

Personally this is one of the reasons why I engaged in the hobby.   

2. You learn a lot about the diversity of trees in the Philippines.

Before I started the hobby I knew very little about our native tree species. I could name some fruit trees, some hardwood and a few medicinal trees. But since engaging in the hobby I have expanded my taxonomy of Philippine trees and can even identify some them by just looking at their leaves. 

Aside from taxonomy, there's also horticulture: How to take proper care of the trees, their behavior,  propagation, diseases and cures, pests and control, etc.

Training techniques like wiring, clip and grow, reduction, branching etc. stuffs that I am still trying to figure out.

3. Saving Trees from destruction.

 Many areas in our country are being developed into residential and industrial areas and many trees are felled to clear spaces.  This is the best bonsai hunting site because these tree are being saved from destruction. 

Many of my materials acquired are charred, indications that they are victims of slash and burn farming.

4. Investment

Bonsai is an artwork and just like any works of art, it has monetary value. I don't know much about bonsai market and how they are priced. I guess it will depend on the buyers capacity to pay. it could go to millions to a few hundred pesos.

I am into the hobby as a catharsis--a fancy word for artistic outlet. And most of my bonsai materials do not have the potential for financial returns, in fact they are practically worthless to a trained eye, but if I measure the amount of water, the time I spent training, trimming, pulling weeds plus the emotional investments I poured into them, I would say they are priceless.

There is a bonsai market out there many people are engaged in the bonsai trade and are making something out of it.  I guess each to his own: some engage in it for they get something spiritual or emotional out of bonsai and some engage in it for for financial or business reasons and it maybe that it could be for both reasons.

5. Recognition/Awards/Prizes

This is what most bonsai-ist aim for. I don't know how much the prizes for these exhibitions are, but I saw a documentary about bonsai exhibition on TV and one bonsai owner told the host that the cash prices are a few thousand pesos, not even enough to cover for the water and the fertilizers spent for his tree. I guessed its not about the money but its about the recognition and the affirmation of the artist. (The owners are sometimes not the artist and the artists sometime are not the owners.Many owners do not even touch their trees, they employ people to do artistic works.)

6.Lots of online Friends.

Since joining bonsai FB groups, I have accumulated good friends. I learn a lot from them, share photos and experiences with them, ,joke with them, etc. I was also able to purchase materials.

There you are. I slept the whole afternoon and I have nothing to do so I blogged about this. Tomorrow, If I'm in the mood, I might blog about the bad side of bonsai.

It's the Chinese!

Chinese consumer goods have been flooding the Philippine market for decades now. They are selling fast because they are colorful and cheap because most of these products are disposable and consumables like plastic pails, basin, slippers, kitchen utensils, cd's  etc.

What is troubling are the products for children's use and consumption like toys and school supplies; products that are always in contact with children through their skin and through their mouth and through the air they breathe. 

 According to environmental groups most of these products, even branded ones and are sold in reputable malls, contain dangerous levels of six dangerous heavy metals--antimony, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead and mercury. All known toxic elements that can cause serious harm to humans especially children.

This is old. Worse is coming: there's almost
the certainty that her father could be the next
president of the Philippines!This is a spoof, or is it?

These heavy metals destroy body organs. But in small and controlled doses the  poison would not be felt until later in life and the accumulation of these toxins among pregnant women could produce offspring with developmental problems. This is specially true in the Philippines where most of Chinese products that goes into the market do not pass through proper testing and quality assurance. Its only later that NGO's have randomly checked the level of toxicity of these products and the result of their tests confirm that our children are slowly being poisoned.  

Think! 

The Filipinos have been buying Chinese products for decades now. Filipino children have been exposed to these heavy metals from their pacifiers to slippers to bags etc. and the accumulation of the toxins and its effect to the intellectual development of our children must be significant and exponential. Is there a government research about this? I don't think so.

Let me get to the point: The Philippines has been gaining recognition as one of the most stupidest (the double superlative  is for emphasis) country in the world. I am not saying this is true in fact I am offended by this claim but to say that there is no truth in this would be playing possum to the reality that the quality of the  our country's leaders especially our senators are going down south--getting worse. 

I remember hearing former Senator Rene Sagisag saying that when he was elected into the senate he considered himself a dwarf, an inferior compared to the former senators Pepe Diokno, Claro Recto etc. And that was Rene Sagisag yet how many of our senator could say other wise? Many of them got elected into the senate because they were famous actors, sports figure etc., and to quote Sen Santiago, they have the epidermis of a pachyderm.

AFP Modernization: Philippine Air Force bought
21 Huey Helicptres. Instead of UH-1H which is an old
helicopter, what was delivered were UH-1D an even
older helicopter.

I think this is part of the Chinese plan to take the Spratlys Island. The CIA or the Chinese Intelligence Agency has been executing this overt-covert operations from decades ago and now they are reaping its rewards: Poison the Filipino electorate with heavy metals toxins at dosages that do not kill them but enough to retard their intellectual development. Then the next phase would be easy and automatic--nincompoop Filipino politicians get elected: taking Spratly Islands is now easy. 

See! How could our National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA our country's CIA) not know about this? 

Hmmm...How could NICA do its job when it has meager budget. 

Anyway..I'm sleepy.