Creeper - Mini Bonsai

Creeper species : Unknown

Collected on : Sept 16, 2015

Before

Now June, 2016

I don't remember why I took this creeper. I found it uprooted near my car parking area. Maybe out of curiosity since it was just lying on the ground. The parent creeper has reached an adults height on another shrub.

Now my plastic pot has turned into an unexpected miniature garden. The 3 extra plants just sprouted on their own. It wasn't planned but adds a nice contrasting color.

The green creeper has been nipped in the bud to keep it small. Trunk has become thicker and tapered now. A snail shell and some quartz crystals were added later for a better look. The rooting medium is cocopeat only. I guess the lack of nutrition in it might be also helping in keeping it small.

The next plan for this is to slowly expose the surface roots or nebari and move it to a smaller pot. The holes on the side and bottom are for root aeration and air pruning. I highly recommend reading this page if you are unaware : Air Pruning Roots Automatically

UPDATE  
(June, 2016) 

To increase root mass, I decided to move it to a bit more deeper pot for now. The water kept below the pot encourages roots to come out of the holes below. After pruning those a few times, the root density increases. Thereafter, I allow them to grow into the water, where they grow much faster in volume. For nutrition, I dissolve NPK fertiliser in water and prepare a solution, with the undissolved sediments removed. This liquid is then diluted in water and used for watering the plants (once a week). 

Substrate is a mix of soil, coarse sand & cow manure. The extra substrate helped in increasing the upper growth and couple of times, this creeper managed to climb onto the plant kept next to it. After a few pruning iterations, this is the result I got. The trunk taper now is more than what I wanted. Ramification is on the rise. Will be wired soon.

Normal behaviour of same species.