Chojubai root over rock start

Cadillactaste

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I hate to admit, but I have started over with 'Chojubai' more times than I care to admit. My current resident 'Chojubai' I've had for 3 years now. It is not the easiest of the Chaenomeles to grow. I find 'Contorted White' to be the most vigorous and the sturdiest of the cultivars commonly used for bonsai. 'Toyo Nishiki' is also quite a tough, resilient plant. I find 'Chojubai' to be delicate, or fussy. It drops leaves easily. It dies easily. It is not as winter hardy as the other 2 mentioned. Frankly, if it wasn't so photogenic in those bonsai magazine photos, I wonder if anyone would bother with it at all. It has never performed well for me. I bought my first cuttings of 'Chojubai' back around 1980, and have never had one last more than 5 or 6 years. Usually after one dies, I try to figure out what went wrong and try again. So over the last 40 years, I've owned at least 7 different young plants of 'Chojubai'. I'm a serial killer. Yet other flowering quinces post many fewer problems.
Even Brent's site talks about chojubai being finicky. So not surprising.
 

Brian Van Fleet

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I hate to admit, but I have started over with 'Chojubai' more times than I care to admit. My current resident 'Chojubai' I've had for 3 years now. It is not the easiest of the Chaenomeles to grow. I find 'Contorted White' to be the most vigorous and the sturdiest of the cultivars commonly used for bonsai. 'Toyo Nishiki' is also quite a tough, resilient plant. I find 'Chojubai' to be delicate, or fussy. It drops leaves easily. It dies easily. It is not as winter hardy as the other 2 mentioned. Frankly, if it wasn't so photogenic in those bonsai magazine photos, I wonder if anyone would bother with it at all. It has never performed well for me. I bought my first cuttings of 'Chojubai' back around 1980, and have never had one last more than 5 or 6 years. Usually after one dies, I try to figure out what went wrong and try again. So over the last 40 years, I've owned at least 7 different young plants of 'Chojubai'. I'm a serial killer. Yet other flowering quinces post many fewer problems.
Strange. I virtually ignore mine and they grow pretty strong, blooming nearly all year. Cuttings root almost regardless which end is up.
 

Leo in N E Illinois

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Sounds like you and Leo are on different planets.

Actually climate is the significant difference, My summers are quite short compared to Brian. I have fewer than 120 day growing season, Brian has over 200 days. There's significant differences in my winter versus Brian's. It adds up.
 

b3bowen

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Thought I would update on what I did. I went with rock number 1. The roots seemed to match best with the groves in that stone. Weather is supposed to be 80 or less for the next few weeks so I thought timing would be good.
F0E57D9B-3FA7-4380-A43E-BD9BF08F7AA8.jpeg
Used spagnum ho hold primary roots where i wanted them.

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Here it is potted up.
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Plenty of room for roots to grow down. Will gradually cut away plastic pot over time to expose roots.
 

roberthu

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Thought I would update on what I did. I went with rock number 1. The roots seemed to match best with the groves in that stone. Weather is supposed to be 80 or less for the next few weeks so I thought timing would be good.
View attachment 327932
Used spagnum ho hold primary roots where i wanted them.

View attachment 327933

Here it is potted up.
View attachment 327934

Plenty of room for roots to grow down. Will gradually cut away plastic pot over time to expose roots.
Ha! Perfect timing. I plant to repot mine this weekend as well. We will still have a couple 80F plus days next week. But Jonas posted a blog regarding summer repot on Chojubai so I thought what the hack.
 

Paradox

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Actually climate is the significant difference, My summers are quite short compared to Brian. I have fewer than 120 day growing season, Brian has over 200 days. There's significant differences in my winter versus Brian's. It adds up.

And yet Bill Valvanis grows them in Rochester, NY.
 

b3bowen

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Repotting really made the quince angry. It decided to drop almost all of its leaves. I’ve taken special care of it since, and fortunately it’s coming back.
 

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b3bowen

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Interestingly, I repotted a white chojubai on the same day, and it never skipped a beat. I repotted a very large contorted quince the same day, and it also dropped nearly every leaf (fortunately, it is also slowly coming back.)
 

b3bowen

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I guess my take-home from this is that if spring is not good for repotting these, perhaps there is no perfect time. I don’t love that they are now pushing out new leaves which will soon be killed by frost. I wonder if it would have been better to do it earlier in the summer, purposefully defoliate as I have read others doing, giving it more time to recover.
 

Dav4

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Chojubai don't follow the rules. I've seen them flower while sitting in frozen soil. They tend to drop their leaves in mid summer then grow them back again, all while flowering prolifically. That, and they don't like me :D. Fwiw, I wouldn't worry too much about yours... the more you care about it, the more likely it'll kick the bucket. With that said, I'll be interested to see how it's doing next year... always hoping to learn something.
 

b3bowen

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Thought I would update this thread. Turns out I should re-read my own threads so I don’t make the same mistake twice but I did not. Repotted the tree about a week ago which was nearly identical timing to two years ago. Thought it would be no problem because I did not even mess with the roots, just placed in a different container and exposed more of the stone. Well, again it dropped every leaf, but it is already pushing new leaves and flower buds so I know it is fine. C3ABBFE6-B97C-4F8A-BD9C-0D3EF7D2FB06.jpeg
997A1936-8A12-4851-A71F-6929BFCD181A.jpeg

Interestingly this thing does not seem to grow that much for me, but flowers all year long.
 

DavidBoren

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Thanks for the update.

Let it grow for a couple years, it will get there. Probably wouldn't prune too much this next year... the more it has above ground, the more those roots will grow around the rock below ground.
 

b3bowen

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I agree, like the pot its in and the rock can be exposed at the current level of planting so i don’t plan to repot for at least a few years.
 

Maiden69

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Repotted the tree about a week ago which was nearly identical timing to two years ago. Thought it would be no problem because I did not even mess with the roots, just placed in a different container and exposed more of the stone. Well, again it dropped every leaf, but it is already pushing new leaves and flower buds so I know it is fine.
If you read the chojubai posts in Jonas website, he states that chojubai loves to drop their leaves when repotted in summer-fall, so he totally defoliate them at the same time. The sample he did defoliated vs none, the defoliated trees bounced back faster and stronger than the ones that were not. I am repotting a few full size quinces soon... they will get defoliated. My chojubai are growing strong, but they are nowhere near needing of repotting.
 
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