HamburgerTrain
Shohin
I picked up this weird critter at a local club auction back in November. It looks unhealthy to me. It appears that the apex is dying off as there aren't many needles growing there. It has weird flattened nodes that the seller said was a characteristic of this cultivar. I kind of took that with a grain of salt as I have no idea if this person's horticulture is on point. Based off the condition of the tree at time of purchase I am assuming horticulture needs improvement.
Aside from the lack of apical needles and weird branch growth, I noticed the pot feels super heavy, like it was filled with cement. He told me had the tree 15 years, I didn't remember to ask him when last repot was. I kept the tree in a covered area out of the rain for weeks but much to my surprise it still felt like a tub of cement when I went to pick it up.
My plan for this tree is to pot it in boon mix in a 10" pond basket and try to get it to bush out.
Yesterday I pulled it out of the pot to see what was going on under there. Bad news is it didn't look great, good news is I'm pretty sure the soil is to blame for the condition of the tree. There are huge hollowed out portions under the roots where the drainage holes in the nursery pot are located filled with slugs and potato bugs. It looks like the bottom of the container was filled with river rock as a drainage layer. The rest of the soil appears to be red lava, sand and garden soil.
I scraped back the surface and it is very muddy and sandy.
What I think I know about JBP based off advice from club leadership/local bonsai professionals; it's ok to bare-root young jbp seedlings, older trees should only be half bare-rooted.
I figured I would post some photos here and see what some of my favorite b-nutters have to say. After all most bonsai advice I here is more of a guideline and very situational depending on the individual tree.
Here are some pics from back in November when I first got the tree.
Aside from the lack of apical needles and weird branch growth, I noticed the pot feels super heavy, like it was filled with cement. He told me had the tree 15 years, I didn't remember to ask him when last repot was. I kept the tree in a covered area out of the rain for weeks but much to my surprise it still felt like a tub of cement when I went to pick it up.
My plan for this tree is to pot it in boon mix in a 10" pond basket and try to get it to bush out.
Yesterday I pulled it out of the pot to see what was going on under there. Bad news is it didn't look great, good news is I'm pretty sure the soil is to blame for the condition of the tree. There are huge hollowed out portions under the roots where the drainage holes in the nursery pot are located filled with slugs and potato bugs. It looks like the bottom of the container was filled with river rock as a drainage layer. The rest of the soil appears to be red lava, sand and garden soil.
I scraped back the surface and it is very muddy and sandy.
What I think I know about JBP based off advice from club leadership/local bonsai professionals; it's ok to bare-root young jbp seedlings, older trees should only be half bare-rooted.
I figured I would post some photos here and see what some of my favorite b-nutters have to say. After all most bonsai advice I here is more of a guideline and very situational depending on the individual tree.
Here are some pics from back in November when I first got the tree.