Japanese Black Pine

esteve59

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darrellw

Hi Steve,

First of all, Welcome!

Are these Japanese Black Pine, or Austrian Black Pine?

Have you read Brent Walston's blog, and black pine articles on the Evergreen Gardenworks site?

http://bonsainurseryman.typepad.com/bonsainurseryman/
http://www.evergreengardenworks.com/pines.htm
http://www.evergreengardenworks.com/pines2.htm

You will have to search back through Brent's blog entries, but there is a wealth of information there.

-Darrell

bonsaikc

Believe it or not, I think Brent's articles as cited are a little advanced for this tree. Trees in this shape need one thing: To get the roots freed up. This is the main difficulty with gallon JBP from big-box stores. The roots will be tangled and difficult to sort out. But sort them you must. In this case I would recommend using an angled pair of tweezers or a chopstick if you want to feel old-fashioned, and gently rake all the accumulated mulch off the top of the root ball. You must be able to see the nebari, the place where the roots emerge from the trunk.

Most likely it will be a mess, we will try to sort that out later. Can you do that and show us a couple of good pics?

__________________
Chris Johnston
"She was a critic, and lots fo critics who aren't called to do what they write about grow jealous and mean and small in their disappointment." - Stephen King, Duma Key
Sashi-no-eda.blogspot.com

esteve59

Darrell,
Thanks for the warm welcome and the links,they are Japanese Black-Pinus thunbergiana...


And
Chris,
Thanks for the suggestions....
Is this the right time to do root pruning and about how much should I remove ......50% or more ??



Steve

bwaynef

I worked with similar, if a little smaller, last night. I essentially bare rooted them (with root hook, not water jet) and cut as little roots as possible to form the start of a good nebari. Granted, in some cases that was 50% of the roots, and maybe a little more. I had to remove the tap root on most of them. That left me with a pretty radial span of roots though.

I put them into a much freeer draining mix and set them aside. Now I'll leave them alone until the fall. Fertilizer, water and sunshine are the order of the year.

Its best to do the hard work on them now when they're growing their fastest ...and when the problem is not as bad or hard to fix. Sort out the roots. The canopy will be there for you to sort out.

__________________
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© 2004 - present bwaynef

bonsaikc

Pinus thunbergiana is more commonly called pinus thunbergii these days, either one lets folk know what you are talking about. Now is a good time for root pruning, and you may take more than 50% of the roots off, but don't do anything until you can get some more specific advice.

Can you do what I asked you to do earlier? Brush off all the chips, mulch, etc., and take a few pics of the root base and about six inches of the base of the tree, from different directions?

Also, is there a club near you? You would benefit from some hands-on help which we can't give over the interwebs.

__________________
Chris Johnston
"She was a critic, and lots fo critics who aren't called to do what they write about grow jealous and mean and small in their disappointment." - Stephen King, Duma Key
Sashi-no-eda.blogspot.com

esteve59

Ok,
I worked two of them to give you an idea.One has a tap root ,the other does not....I probably lost 15-20% of the fine roots to get this far.... do you think I should remove much more ?? For reference the dark trunk on the left is about 3/4 to 7/8 and the other is about 1/2 inch....

Thanks,
Steve

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bonsaikc

For the record, Steve, I wasn't asking you to comb out the roots, just to expose the base of the trunk. If you want to make these into the best material you can, YOU HAVE TO SLOW DOWN.

On the next one, when you take it out of the can, just clean off the top bits. When you see the nebari, stop. There are ways to work the other roots, and if they are very compacted and tangled, you can just cut off about 1/2 the remaining depth with a saw. Then you will slowly work one side of the root ball or the other, not all the way around.

My suggestion to you is to take your tweezers or chopstick, and GENTLY tease out either the front or back, left or right, of these root balls. Bare root HALF of the root ball and leave the other half alone, since you have already teased out some of the root tips. Then pot it up in good bonsai soil, making sure to wire the tree into the pot.

Here are two more links that might help you.
http://www.bonsaikc.com/repotting_technique.htm
http://www.bonsaikc.com/repotting_established.htm

__________________
Chris Johnston
"She was a critic, and lots fo critics who aren't called to do what they write about grow jealous and mean and small in their disappointment." - Stephen King, Duma Key
Sashi-no-eda.blogspot.com

esteve59

Chris,
Thanks for the info,I do tend to 'jump b-4 looking'....I think I get what you are saying now.I did not know how fragile Black Pine roots are...At least I didn't wash off all the mycorrhizae.....!!
Fortunately I have about a dozen so If I lose the first two learning,so be it.I will move forward..gently...