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:

 

[Crazy Diamond]

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?

 

[JeffS73]

Young Spruce update



It's interesting to see these side by side. Sitka, Engelmann and Jezo are 2yrs old, Glehnii 1 Yr. All root cut easily enough as seedlings for starter nebari.

Sitka have been fun so far, vigourous and responsive, I've already had a lot of input with wiring and shoot selection. I'm thinking they'll be best as medium size trees. The nicest show yellowish new shoots, like the cut wood.

Engelmann, slower, bluer, more compact and stubby growth. I guess they need time to show their character.

Jezoensis, man I love these the most. The deep, rich needle and bark colour are fantastic, the needles are short and close together. But they're so slow. I think mine are Hondoensis, due to the darker bark.

Glehnii, they're nice, similar to Jezo, the needles are finer. I think they like the stonier soil mix, still evaluating.

Some of these are so small they might be bonsai for my children's children, climate allowing, I'll keep growing them all the same.

 

[JeffS73]

I should point out, there are two rows of plants, same variety in each column, I.e. Two examples of each type. Some are pushing new shoots (Glehnii), jezonensis examples quite different too.

 

[JeffS73]

2020 JBP update at 2yrs, main points:
Many are already as thick as my 2018 ones, with better low budding.
They still have the annoying juvenile foliage. I think this is due to either a long indoor period, or hormone/foliar spray when young.

I cut the long juvenile foliage back because its a fungi magnet and blocks light. Spot the tree in the 'grass'!

14in first flush, 12in 2nd, monster:





This one shows how shoots got away fast and became pretty useless. Really have to pay attention to shoots I want to keep:


Still, lots of low buds:


Not sure how this one escaped me before, just a stick in a pot:


Now a short stick. But lots of buds:









With a few plants in my care I'm beginning to get a handle on how to grow them out, and how to get growth where I want it. JBP really are incredible to work with - the budding and two flushes offer a lot of flexibility in development.

 

[JeffS73]

Pinus Bungeana observations:

These were started in 2021 see post #3.

This year, with them getting a bit long, and also generally forming just one bud per shoot, I decided to cut the candles back and see how they responded. Candles cut mid-May, so about 5 weeks ago. Midsummer today!

This one shows the best responses of the bunch.

Leader has 2 new shoots, 3 buds and new needles forming at the candle base:


2nd candle down has 3 buds forming:


The third shoot down I didn't cut, and has buds forming:


On the main stem, between almost all needle sets, buds or new needles are emerging:



Also, there's a lot of genetic variation in the shoot colours. New shoots can be lime green to a pale jade green. Older shoots are often pink:


It'll be interesting to see how those variations play out over time. I'm pleased to see the budding response, it gives me hope that they can be ramified and needle length reduced in time.

 

[JeffS73]

Corkbark JBP update.

Started pushing needles just before midsummer, clearly sulked after it's shop repot, but glad its still here:


It is weeping resin low down, something to keep an eye on:

 

[JeffS73]

When I was worried the corker wasn't going to make it, I took some cuttings and grafted them high on sacrifice branches on my JBP:




The grafts still look quite healthy, but the needles aren't pushing like they are on the parent. Today I chopped the sacrifices back a bit to hopefully redirect sap flow to the grafts. This strategy has worked before: