Bonsai at work…

LanceMac10 · Oct 15, 2020

Before it gets twisted, I know my Pine knowledge is but a pimple on @Dav4 Pine knowledge, lets get that established first. It always feels like a "virtual scorn" when I ask about/say something about JBP.

cutting needles? Look at the branch in question...obviously super vigorous with HUUGGEE buds for next year already present...cutting needles doesn't seem like such a bad idea on such a vigorous branch?

And yes, I'm aware you can just pull as many "new" needles as necessary to balance vigor on such a shoot.

Adair M · Oct 15, 2020

Cutting needles opens an avenue for disease. It’s better to not cut them. Sometimes if there’s only a few long ones, it’s ok to cut them.

Dav4 · Oct 15, 2020

Adair M said:
Cutting needles opens an avenue for disease. It’s better to not cut them. Sometimes if there’s only a few long ones, it’s ok to cut them.

Pish posh...

.

Dav4 · Oct 15, 2020

In all seriousness, I’m really not that concerned about disease. I’ve gone to the Darkside with routine preemptive insecticidal and anti-fungicide spraying, and with a relatively short dormancy, Those buds will be swelling in less than five months.

Dav4 · Oct 15, 2020

LanceMac10 said:
....and early means in the overall timeline of the trees development.....not timing during the course of the growing season....

So, I will mention that I do pull needles on some very young trees that have been initially wired and have sacrifice branches in place... some guy named Tyler told me to and he's bigger then me... and he won a top prize at Kokofu, too. Ultimately, it's got to fit with the plan and the schedule... these were mostly shohin who were both still being grown out for girth and were at the initial phase of branch development.

... and fwiw, the same guy told me Adair wouldn't approve of cut needles... but he also didn't tell me not to when I asked him about it

.

Dav4 · Oct 15, 2020

Dav4 said:
In all seriousness, I’m really not that concerned about disease. I’ve gone to the Darkside with routine preemptive insecticidal and anti-fungicide spraying, and with a relatively short dormancy, Those buds will be swelling in less than five months.

... and I cut them as much for aesthetics as I did to balance energy... having a branchlet of 5 inch long needles surrounded by branches with 1 1/2 inch needles looks stupid...

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River's Edge · Oct 15, 2020

Dav4 said:
So, I will mention that I do pull needles on some very young trees that have been initially wired and have sacrifice branches in place... some guy named Tyler told me to and he's bigger then me... and he won a top prize at Kokofu, too. Ultimately, it's got to fit with the plan and the schedule... these were mostly shohin who were both still being grown out for girth and were at the initial phase of branch development.

... and fwiw, the same guy told me Adair wouldn't approve of cut needles... but he also didn't tell me not to when I asked him about it .

Boon told me the same thing! You can do it, but it is frowned upon in certain quarters.
I often do it when I wish to shorten needles that would otherwise touch the soil during the wet season! Get to keep the needles for bud back purposes and prevent fungal issues.
Sometimes its fun to do it just for the reaction it gets!

Adair M · Oct 15, 2020

I cut them, sometimes, but I try to avoid cutting them.

Dav4 · Oct 21, 2020

Don’t throw away your plastic 2 L soda bottles… This is a four-year-old seedling. It should be something in another few years. Needle plucked and bud thinned today… I will reduce the sacrifice branch to 1 leader this winter.

Dav4 · Oct 28, 2020

Housguy · Oct 28, 2020

Interesting day at work, the facility was closed for a terrible air day (fires yesterday), so I took advantage and had to come to work anyway, trauma doesn't sleep for unhealthy air day. I brought a nana to work on and mostly did some trimming and branch selecting for today.

Before

After

Dav4 · Nov 17, 2020

I got some light wiring done on these two this morning. I need to finalize the front and planting angle sooner than later for both of them.

Dav4 · Jan 6, 2021

So, Georgia has a post election hangover, which means a slow day at work for me

… This tater is getting tweaked over the next day or two.

Dav4 · Jan 6, 2021

Almost done… Need to decide if it’s time to move this into a bonsai pot in a few months.

misfit11 · Jan 6, 2021

Dav4 said:
Almost done… Need to decide if it’s time to move this into a bonsai pot in a few months.

Really nice, Dave. Was this from seed, seedling, pre-bonsai? What was the timeline for it in your care. If you have a thread dedicated to it, I'd love to see it. Thanks!

Cory

Dav4 · Jan 6, 2021

misfit11 said:
Really nice, Dave. Was this from seed, seedling, pre-bonsai? What was the timeline for it in your care. If you have a thread dedicated to it, I'd love to see it. Thanks!

Cory

This was my workshop tree from the first National Shohin Bonsai exhibition back in 2017. Here's the tree at the beginning of the workshop. I'm going to guess it was 6-7 years old then and came from Kenji Miyata.