3-D Printed Slab for a Shore Pine…

Using the talents of a student, we transferred this Shore Pine to a new ultra-techy support…

This Shore Pine was featured in a post a few years ago: Shore Pine…On a Metal Post… The nylon cutting board support always felt like a temporary solution. The dead peach color wasn’t very appealing, the construction was…alternative…in one place we used a hot glue gun to lengthen it… When Kevin mentioned 3-D printing and the ability to choose the color of the plastic, little dinner bells went off.

Enjoy the photo essay-

Kevin sketching out the dimensions for the 3-D slab

The completed slab; Kevin said his computer didn’t like the incline of this piece, for whatever reason, so he just made two pieces and bolted them together; really dense material, and UV-resistant

Testing our placement

Removing the old nylon cutting board, with all its embarrassing reveals

At this time of year a real repotting wasn’t best, so we reused the old wires to minimize disturbance

Mucking around the edges of the new 3-D slab

Affixed to the metal post again, the view from underneath; Kevin’s design has nice scalloped edges

This is the innocuous kind of slab I’d envisioned from the beginning; the lichen out-competing the moss is a common result of the drier conditions in pine cultivation

View from the front, close up

Front from further away

This Shore Pine is one of my favorites in the yard. Thanks Kevin for your help!

August 2020 Bulletin Board:

—We’ve recorded 3 episodes of our new Bonsai Wire podcast and are working on making them available soon…

—Official! Carmen Leskoviansky, curator of the Matthaei Bonsai Collection in Ann Arbor, MI, has now signed on to start her apprenticeship in the spring of 2021; care packages, bandages, strong drink, and other offers of support may be sent to P.O. Box 22972, Milwaukie, OR 97269

—And, as for answers to the ‘What’s Wrong Here? A Blog Quiz‘ from a couple weeks ago about exceedingly happy and lush moss growing on top of a pine pot, the most common problems are:

• original soil / duff still intact, can hold a ton of moisture
• too much shade
• overwatering
• mycorrhizae (beneficial root fungus) clogging drain holes