6-foot 4-inch Pest In My Bonsai Pot!

[BillsBayou]

Think you have pests in your pots? Mine were arrested by the police!

This morning at about 4:15am, my two standard poodles went insane with barking. I thought they had seen a cat and I went to let them out. Maybe I could go back to bed if they get the barking out of their system. Well the dogs were still going nuts in the yard. So here's the synopsis of what went down in my neighborhood:
There was a LARGE noise out behind my shed.
I shined my flashlight at the shed hoping there wasn't a burgler in there.
Several police cars were racing around the neighborhood.
Flashlights were shining in the neighboring yards.
More noise like someone jumping fences.
Voices cried out "They're over here!"
I went back inside to turn on the flood lights.
I looked out my side garage door in time to see two hooded figures climbing into my yard.
I yelled out their location and the police finally caught them.
The police told me the "suspects" were attempting to steal a car 4 blocks from my house.

But here's what made me mad:
After sunrise I went out to water my bonsai. I found this 13-inch long footprint in my newly collected bald cypress tray:

IMG_5363.jpg (131.21 KiB) Viewed 1985 times

You can just make out the footprint on the left side. The shoe is facing away from the fence which means the "suspects" had come into my yard at least once before I saw them coming over again.

My poor tree is just starting to bud on the trunk. I hope those morons didn't knock off any of my buds.

Tree info: Bald Cypress. The tree was collected at the beginning of February. All branches are removed before potting, even if there are buds swelling on the branches. Otherwise the tree will dedicate branch growth to existing branches. Buds swell out within a month of potting. Branches will form by the beginning of Summer. That's a 26"x20" mixing tub. The tub does not have drain holes and is filled with water. I burn drain holes into the plastic in late summer once the tree has branched out. I think the volume of water in the tub is what helps to hold the shape of the footprint.

[centaura]

So, how's the cypress doing? Any long term damage from the intruder? I recently had an intruder in one of my freshly repotted trident maples, but it caused a lot less damage and had a lot less fanfare.

-Cat

[BillsBayou]

No long-term effects of having car thieves trample through my pots.

That's one big pest in your pot! I pot my newly harvested bald cypress trees into mason tubs. One year, it was exceptionally rainy. I had tadpoles swimming among the roots. Never had a full grown toad, however.

The only excavations I know of come from squirrels. They bury acorns and pecans in my pots. Then they cover them up! The only evidence I have at the time is mildly disturbed soil. Then in the spring, I have a bonus tree growing in my pot. Damned squirrels.

I'm going to be doing some serious carving of that tree. It's covered in small branches and shows great vigor. I'll have to post some updates.

[centaura]

Yeah, I got more toads than I know what to do with. Vacant house next door has a small pond in the backyard, and they breed like rabbits. They love it in the spring when I put spaghum moss on newly repotted trees - they burrow under the moss. Generally not too big an issue on bigger trees, but if there's no moss then they'll try to wiggle little "caves" for themselves in the soil itself. Then events like yesterday happen, when I pick up a pot and suddenly have a toad jump on my chest. Thankfully, I have enough of a "save the bonsai" reaction that no trees were harmed when I jumped out of my skin.

Yeah, gotta love the squirrels. Took me a few minutes the first year I had acorns sprout in my bonsai pots to figure out how they got there. Most everything else that sprouts gets put there by the wind, I couldn't figure out how an acorn had gotten blown in and buried.

-Cat