Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Maybe we need a new name to describe the idea of using bonsai techniques to keep our larger plants under control so we can AP them? APsai? Bonponics?

I figure we'd need to start the plants in containers and probably with soil - the chunky nature of a normal AP GB might cause odd root ball shapes and make it more difficult to get dense but well shaped root mass going on. Once the plant has grown to something like a decent size, remove it, trim it and plant it in AP.

I had a plant in a container years ago. Use to trim it every Friday until the neighbours complained and the police confiscated it. Never did get it back.

That sounds like a logical idea, but too late for the fruit trees that I planted in the Puddle grow beds. They went straight in from their small pots or bags after a quick wash of their roots. Only the Kaffir Lime, the last to be planted by several weeks, has any foliage left on it.

As for a special name for what we are trying to do with AP and fruit trees, maybe the terms 'growth controlled' or 'growth restricted' could be used rather than bonsai. For example, something like GRAPFT (Growth restricted AP fruit tree), but a bit more catchy.

This an excellent thread - keep the ideas coming!

Moderator, I was not trying to be difficult but only provide information.

If the object is to grow small productive fruit trees (say about 5ft tall in AP) I don't see why it should not be possible. Let's forget espallier or fan pruning only because of the difficulty of lifting them with the supporting framework. Plants get rootbound because a root hits a surface and follows it, so if we are using a largish container then we should have a smaller container with holes all over it. What comes to mind is a GB wide but not necessarily that deep (like a fat blue barrel). In that you would have say a milk crate and in that you would have a net pot (possibly overkill on the net pot ).Root pruning in the earlier stages if growth would be simply to prune the major leading roots to make them produce more smaller roots. The upper structure needs to be fat and strong to support fruit weight and get rid of unproductive wood and allow good light penetration and avoid crossing branches, so it may take a little time.
Ok giving it away as I have had a few beers and I don't normally do long posts.

Perhaps the term bonsai holds more meaning to some. Perhaps I should rename the thread to "using bonsai techniques to enhance AP fruit trees." The appropriate dressing of the roots being the starting point, because I think that is where the difference between a successful tree and a failed tree can be made early on. The proper way to bare root a tree especially. Getting the soil off of the root ball, and saving the feeder roots is something that bonsai does a lot. Thankfully in AP we only have to do it once. However, a recurring question I see people ask is "Do we rinse the roots, or leave the soil on when planting?" often met with the answer of: whatever. Well when it comes to fruit trees, I would say that it is important to remove the soil so oxygen can reach the roots.

Once we have roots covered, then it would be good to move on to pruning and wiring to get the desired branch structure.

Sakanasuisai? Sakana is Japanese for fish, Sui is water, Sai is planting. Fish water planting, sakanasuisai. Perhaps it is a bit much. APsai sounds good too.

Have we finished with rooting then?

Those with experience in bonsai might be able to correct me here - I recall (vaguely) reading about 35 years ago that bonsai could be done with plants with tap roots by trimming the main root rather drastically (i.e. to the depth of the pot it was in) and then trimming the other roots out towards the sides.

To give an idea, my impression was in (say) a desert bowl, the main root would only be long enough to reach the bottom of the bowl and the others would be shaped to match the bowl shape but not quite reach the bowl. As I said it is a bit vague after all this time, but I think small rocks were placed in the bottom, and the tap root went into them and the smaller side roots were splayed out and soil laid on top. Wire was used below soil to provide support.

@Ronmaggi - saksuisai?

Totally pissed but you cut the taproot, if it had one and then placed a flat rock etc under the trunk to make the roots go laterally, sort of.

Not finished with rooting.

Nope... just doesn't seem to be as prevalent lately...

Ronmaggi, you definitely can & should use bonsai techniques for any plant that can handle it in AP systems, not just trees! I actually stumbled upon this idea not too long ago after a huge wind knocked over a mid-sized squash plant growing in my NFT (with grow media!) system. About a foot of the roots which grew out of the 3.5'' net pot stayed in the grow bed, while the net pot containing the actual plants ended up several feet away.

Miraculously, after losing probably 90% of its root mass, the squash plant lived! The leaves did wilt and the plant was super stressed out for a few days, but new roots eventually grew back in a neater, denser fashion. And all of the leaves sprung back to life. I have noticed that the leaves on this squash plant are more compact and smaller than the others. I'm gonna see whether the fruit end up being smaller, too.

I have since experimented with root pruning (and air pruning -- much less invasive way to achieve same results) on all the species of plants in my system with great success. I have found that as long as I leave at least 1/2 to 1/3 of the roots in tact, the plant does not wilt or show signs of stress at all.

I plan to do a side-by-side comparison of pruned vs. unpruned versions of a few varieties of plants in a few weeks after harvest. Should be interesting to see how root pruning effects plants. It sure as hell makes it easier to fit more of them in small spaces!

I definitely have been, especially for peppers.

Nice! Figured, since these posts were a few months ago. How are the results? Do u notice smaller peppers, leaves, branching?

Bonsai'ing does not affect fruit size. Right now I have a California wonder bell pepper that had been grown to a rather large size, but has now been pruned way back. I transplanted it to a different bed, and did some root pruning on it while doing so. It is just now sending out new branches. On my jalapeño plants, I am currently nipping any blossoms to encourage vegetive growth. Hopefully I will have much larger plants than I had before, to which I will prune back to make for a sturdier treelike plant.