Another episode in the saga of the JWP

WHITEPINE

Hi all,

Just thought that I would update anyone who may be interested in my on going sage with the Japanese White Pine. And I’m afraid its not good news as the decline has been rapid since my last post.

About 60% of the needles on one of the lower branches has either gone completely brown or are well on their way to going brown. Some individual pads on other branches have gone completely brown and I assume are thus dead. There are some clusters that are completely green, but not many.

The pity is, is that I have no idea where I went wrong. I have certainly made mistakes. I watered the pine one week after it arrived, I put it out in the wind, and a few weeks after that, I fed with 7 pellets of chicken mature. But I quickly realised that I was over watering,. I realised after one day that I shouldn’t have put the chicken manure pellets in, so I removed the vast majority. The wind could have caused the damage, but judging by what people have been telling me, the JWP should have been able to stand up to this.

I have done what the majority of people have said to me - which is not to worry and let the tree adapt to its new conditions - but still the decline
continues.

There are candles at various places on the pine (or should I say, I think they're candles) the ones at the top are much larger than the ones at the bottom. There is even candles where the cluster of needles have completely died. But of course, these candles could have developed and then died too. And for that matter, I don’t even know how big they should be by now.

I was thinking of having a look at the roots, but I assume that its already been repotted once this year, so if I did that, I think that I would kill it anyway. And if the roots were in a poor state, I wouldn’t know what to do.

As I haven’t watered for a couple of weeks, I have watered with a half measure of liquid fertiliser. My reason for this is that I have assumed the damage has been caused by the windy weather that we have been having. It was also suggested to me that when I do water, I don’t water for long enough for all the roots to be thoroughly watered. However, I can’t say that I’m optimistic.

I hope I still find it within me to continue with bonsai after this experience. After all, I have kept my maples in perfect health and with no problems whatsoever. But I would advise anybody who is thinking of buying a JWP only do so if they have several years of experience first. I genuinely thought that I did have enough experince, but this has been an expensive and painful lesson.

Regards
Stephen

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It hurts when a tree that you love dies or is dying but Keep going!!!

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Joanie

I wouldn't put any more fertilizer on it. If it's a root problem, then the fertilizer isn't going to help, and could do further damage. The need to do something sometimes drives us to do too much.... Does the soil stay wet for an entire week? Is there a smell in the soil? As long as you have green needles, then hang tight.

Sending positive thoughts your way...

Joanie

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TreeBay

I have never heard of a pine being damaged by wind. But White Pines are especially sensitive to salt. You might want to lay off the fertilizer.

Regards,

Matt

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Craig Cowing

I think you meant to write "saga." A "sage" is a wise person.

Craig Cowing

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WHITEPINE

Hi Joanie,

I totally agree with you. I think many bonsai must have been killed because their owners felt the need to do something. Its for this very reason that I haven’t been doing anything. Experience has shown me that doing something drastic, like soaking bonsai in a bucket of water, usually means the end for it.

But I now feel that it has long past the time when I should keep ignoring the problem. In fact it may already be too late. Watering is a problem, because it’s planted in Akadam and Kyodama. These are a mixture of clay and volcanic rock granules and they drain very fast. Consequently, they feel dry nearly all the time. And this makes it hard for me to judge when to water. I have mainly been letting the rain take care of the watering.

I must admit that I did do a stupid thing the other day. I sprayed the needles with water when the temperature was about 75 degrees F. This seems to have made matters worse.

Because it appears that buds are developing, I gambled that there is nothing wrong with the roots. This is why I gave it its first dose of fertilizer. As I mentioned, it was only a half dose – though I did know that this may make matters worse.

Considering the time of years, its been very warm in the UK, so I will move the pine into a shaded area tomorrow for two or three days. Apart from that, I don't think there's much more I can do.

Thanks for your good wishes

Stephen

rmuniz007

I too am guilty, I have lost about 4 white pines so far...out of the 4, one of them was outstanding, I got water-to-happy and it died. Today, I am more careful in watering the white pines I got. I actually have a nice collection of 5 white pines. 4 of the 5 white pines are doing outstanding, the other one is coming back finally. I think you best bet is to don't do nothing and gave it about 4-6 hours of sunlight (morning sunlight is the best). As most of us white pine lovers know, white pines don't like moist too much...I usually allow for my white pines to come to an almost complete dryness before I water it, but I still mist it daily.

rmuniz007

White pines are probably the most delicate pines then all other pines, even though in my opinion white pines are one of most beautiful pines ever. In anycase, pines in general does take so experience and it is a learning process. Believe me, I have lost a lot of money as well thinking that I was capable to handle pines in my earlier years (about $2000) yes....2k, that is a lot of money wasted. Everytime it kills me thinking how I could have wasted so much money. I don't want to be the one to give you the bad news, but in most cases when white pines begin to loss a lot of its needles, it is hard to reverse the process. I had 7 white pines that begin the same process and I was only able to save 2 which I barely coming back...

WHITEPINE

Hi,

I have been exposing the pine to full sun all day, because this is usually recommended. But as part of my recovery plan, I will keep it in a part of the garden that stays in shade for most of the day. Then in two or three days time, I will expose it to full for 4 or 5 hours per day.

The majority of needles are still on, but some have turned yellow. As far as I know, once this occurs, the browning and then dropping process is inevitable. If it dies, which what I expect, I will concentrate on my maples.

On thing that I would say, is that I have found the change from a soil medium to clay granules very difficult. This is because as the granules drain so quickly, I have been unable to check for dampness. Therefore, it could even be that I have under watered.

I simply don't know what went wrong, which is why I won't get another JWP.

Regards
Stephen