The previous post is basically the most recent update on these trees. The wife and I just bought our first house this year and we're pretty busy with the work of getting settled in. I'm hoping that come next spring I will dig up my first couple trees and get them into training pots/boxes. I will...
Just finished up this years annual (usually around the 4th of July, 2 weeks late due to vacation this year) decandling. Did most of the regular decandling on all lower buds pushed out this spring, with the exception of leaving some as future sacrifices or branch thickeners. Unlike in previous...
August 2022
These photos are 1 month after de-candling on the 4th of July weekend.
Same tree last picture in previous post^
The outcoming was in general all the new growth is coming from the base of needles "needle buds" around the decandling locations, rather than new buds forming at the...
2022:
Some of these leaders are getting 7'-8' tall on the older trees. with base trunks getting to ~2-3" thick.
May 2022
Before /\
De-candled over 4th of July weekend.
After \/
Example of a JBP lower down decandled, with a sacrifice branch that is probably 8' tall
2020:
Blank year, not sure what happened to my phone, but somehow, I lost any documentation for this time.
2021:
A lot of my focus is keeping the lower branches alive stripping needle higher on the tree and decandling on lower branches to keep growth compact lower down. Trying to keep as many...
2019:
Planted another large group of pines up in the ground growing garden, this time I was better about planting all the trees at an angle. Hopefully providing the future bonsais with more movement in the lower trunk. I didn’t make the effort of wiring and contorting any of the trunks because...
2018:
The great re-planting begins. Seedlings are transplanted from raised bed into the field. I planted things in a variety of ways. Some were planted through a tile I drilled a hole in. Spoiler alert only a few of these survived to present. I suspect a lot of that was due to the difficulty I...
2017:
Basically, everything survived the winter and came out growing well throughout the year. Everything remained in the growing bed. I began preparing my growing grounds purchasing a lot of haydite and then tilling it all into the clay soil I would be growing my trees in. Not a perfect...
2016:
The Beginning:
Seeds came from online in Fall of 2015 and I stratified seeds in a damp paper towel and left in the fridge over the winter in order to get seeds to germinate for planting in the Spring of 2016. Seeds were then planted into a raised bed which I had filled with a mix of...
Sidesummy's JBP & JRP Ground Growing Progression Photo Series:
As of 2022 I'm 7 years into my bonsai from seed journey. I thought it would in nice to provide an ongoing photo series of my progress thus far. Reading the forums for several years I have always found it particularly helpful when...
Hey thanks for the video reference. Yes I'm very much doing something similar to what he's been doing in pots, except mine being in the ground. It seems he didn't detail a lot about what his work looks like for the lower branches, but I suspect he was a little more on top of that work than...
Several years later. Some 3-4 year old pines in front
Some of the 5-6 year old pines in the back.
I continue to decandle the lower branches each summer and bud select in the fall. I've been stripping the needles off pretty much everything on the sacrifice branch except this year's growth...
I haven't had any really problems with them from winter yet. Granted I've never had them in bonsai pots with a need to give them a little more over wintering protection. But a few are sitting in some colanders just sitting on the ground (some roots have gone through the bottom and into the...
Here is an album of where the trees are today. Most everything is up in a garden plot ground growing now to thicken up trunks. Im doing my best to keep low growth alive and compacted (decandling, needle pulling for light, or cutting back to adventurous bud) while letting leaders growth ong and...
I got a new shipment of colanders to plant even more of my 1-2 y/o seedlings into individual containers.
It seems that the black/red pines I put into individual pots have also survived the transfer, their candles have begun elongating! Yay success!
The pines planted in the ground also seem to...