Finding the way of Kami in my own garden

[JeffS73]

Hey, so I have a bunch of stuff going on in my garden that I thought would be fun to share in one thread as it's a bit too piecemeal for lots of threads. Hopefully you will enjoy too.

I had some 2018 JBP with good nebari but no low buds, so I decided to use them as rootstock for JWP. I decided to try Zuisho and Arakawa. I started with 10, but only one of each survived. We had a really hard frost and everything in the greenhouse was frozen solid for a week. Bit much for the young plants and grafts.

Zuisho, March '21


June '21 - top of rootstock cut off and scion started to 'whoosh':


October '21 - I cut the rest of the rootstock crown off two months ago. Two flushes of growth this year, all of the plants energy went into this. 4 inches tall, speckles are copper spray. I'm really pleased with how well it has bonded and grown, right on top of the nebari.


The cutting changed colour as time went on. It was originally a kind of grass / blue green, but became bluer as it has gone on. Heres a comparison with JWP from seed (2020):

 

[JeffS73]

Arakawa, July '21. I may have earlier pictures.



October '21 - 6 inches, needles 2 inches long, 2 flushes, similar story to the Zuisho:

 

[JeffS73]

I got quite interested in Lacebark pine, Pinus Bungeana, so i decided to grow some. Very good germination rate, and they responded well to seedling cutting methods. I tried both grodan and rootriot (some sort of peat like foam) cubes, and these are very effective, if a little awkward to remove. I'll wait till spring to repot the rest:

 

[JeffS73]

After an overly early repot and a freezing spring, I lost a dozen nice young JBP. Here are a couple of survivors. I'm looking forward to mature needles next year, the juvenile foliage is much more vulnerable to pests and diseases. The rod is marked in inches.



I like being able to see how a shoot causes localised swelling of the trunk:


And the micro-tears in the bark from recent trunk growth. We've had a good summer for growing.

 

[JeffS73]

I didn't cut make a seedling cutting of this one, it grew faster at first but many of the seedling cuttings have caught up on trunk diameter.

 

[JeffS73]

This is a funny one, I bent it so far it was kind of laid down, to which it has responded to by growing into a wide clump / short raft. It's hard to see with all the needles, I'm leaving them for now to increase rootage.

 

[JeffS73]

I'm keeping an eye on this one, with both flushes the shoots were streaked red. It could be a stray seed from a different species, but in all other respects it looks like JBP.

 

[JeffS73]

Larch roots - warning some ugly roots here.

I tried seedling cutting and tourniquet methods on some larch seedlings in 2020. Larch do some interesting things. A few, not many, behave:




A *lot* had grown one super dominant root, or a couple, and a lot of radial roots had died. It's possibly frost damage but I don't think so.






I cut back the dominant roots and tried to balance things out. I guess we'll see next year. I was half minded to cull some, but better to experiment!

 

[JeffS73]

I've got a couple of older larch that are in "stick in a pot" territory, but they got some root work too.

This one, it's roots were so offensive to my eyes - it's kind of crazy but I really was disgusted by them. So, last year I cut all the way round above them, added hormone and moss, a ground layer. This is how it looked this year:




The layer had taken well, roots all the way round. I couldn't restrain myself from removing the old ones.




It'll probably be a slow start for this one now, but I'm surprised with how well it layered, it might be a better way than seedling cutting for young ones.

 

[JeffS73]

Last years P Bungeana are a pleasure to repot, they've almost all had a really good spread of radial roots following seedling cutting. I've tried to refine them a bit:



For some I used Root Riot cubes. You've got to get them off to refine the roots, but they are quite tough. I won't use them again:




The Grodan cubes come off a lot more easily, just ease sections off with tweezers, they just slide off the roots. They were also easy to remove from some more fragile P. Glehnii.




Last one, this had so many roots, I just chose where to cut off the old stem, all of the roots lateral. At the next repotting I'll get prune these back and get something natural instead of the cartwheel:

 

[Arnold]

How old are the Pinus bungeana? very cool species, I love the mature bark

 

[JeffS73]

One year. I'm curious how they do in our climate, and also how to ramify them. I think they're closely related to Strobus, so it may be a challenge. I don't think I've seen any mature bonsai, have you?