Legit 50 year old black pine

Just Duane

Shohin
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I have a friend in our club who finds everything! I mean the guy can hit garage sales or estate sales & bring back tools, pots & anything to do with bonsai. This past weekend, he gave me a call & said, you're not going to believe what I found today! He said he was out looking for a garage sale & spotted this jbp in someones yard on a stonewall. My friend is not afraid to stop his car & ask about a tree, pot stone or anything of interest (hes been told to get out of here a time or two) Luckily, the owner was in his yard. Long story short, the owner realized it was time to reluctanly let this tree go. The owner was an 85 yr old japanese man & when it was time to haggle the price for the tree, he kept saying, money no can buy this kind over & over to the point where my friend was ready to leave. By this time, the owners wife had come out & told my friend that they planted this tree in 1960 & it was already a couple yrs old (hence the title) Well my friend did end up getting the tree & also an ironwood tree from this japanese man. I was stoked for him & in our conversation he said, I know you love jbps, would you like to buy it from me? Without seeing the tree I said HELL YEAH! & now it sits in my yard:)
The tree needs a lotta TLC & it has some quirks, but I was willing to live with it & will try to bring it back as best I can.

The tree has lost its vigor, has some reverse taper & came with needlecast.

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It has a 4 1/2 inch base & 2 1/2 trunk

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Just Duane

Shohin
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Cont

The soil was the pits & I believe this tree would've died if left in plastice pot & soil. Water would pool up & it would sit there for a long time. I had no choice but to repot the tree.
Because the tree is old, I didn't mess with trying to work the tree out of the pot, I just cut the pot in 4 sections & got the tree out.

Here you can see the problem.

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My heart sank when I began working the roots & saw that the soil was MUD! & the roots had started rotting. I had no choice but to bare-root the tree, cut off as much of the black rotting roots & pressure wash the mud out of the rootball. The roots looked like a junipers roots & would just crumble off from the water pressure. Here you can see just how muddy the soil was. Big rocks would fall out & even some styrafoam was hidden in the mud. You can also see the dead roots that I pulled out of the water.

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This is what I had left.

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The tree was potted into fresh soil, akadama, black cinder & turface 1/3 each. Im not worrying about front or placement in the pot, I just want to try to 1) get this tree to survive & 2) bring back its vigor if it does survive. The tree stand 24 inches from the soil line & 25 inches wide.

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Pray for me gang!
 

mcpesq817

Omono
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Nice score for you - good luck with it, looks fantastic!
 

grouper52

Masterpiece
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Marvelous tree, Duane! What I can see of the remaining roots leads me to believe it has a good prognosis, and may even take off without missing a beat.

Lucky you - again! :) I like the tree a great deal, and you will have no trouble bringing some elegance to it with your styling.

How is mama-san's tree doing?

Will
 

noissee

Mame
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I really love the way the first branch comes off and almost looks like a second trunk. It is very unusual, but in the end I think it will make for a very special and unique tree. Pleas don't get rid of either trunk.
 

GOZTEK

Yamadori
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amazing tree, i wish i can get something like that. Here i can't dug anything because there is no forest, the parks there are, are all cultivated hehe
 

Just Duane

Shohin
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Thanks for all the feedback guys. This tree will be not be worked for about a year or more if necessary, just to let it get back its vigor. I will update whenever I do work this tree. I forgot to mention that the guy has several more pines, so my friend will be trying to get those too. He said there was a thicker pine there that was just fried & the guy told him he cried when the tree died. I wish my friend had found him 6 months ago.


Will, thanks again. Mamasans pines are doing great & per your suggestion (you were absolutely correct) those 2 will get worked either next year or the following year. I will post when they do get worked. I wish I had this tree a couple of weeks ago for the Hawaii convention because the headliner Tohru Suzuki is a pine man & would love to have gotten his take & possible future of this tree.
 

rockm

Spuds Moyogi
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"Here i can't dug anything because there is no forest, the parks there are, are all cultivated hehe"

This isn't a forest collected tree. It's from someone's front yard, apparently. It is a 'cultivated landscape tree." Old front yards, side yards and back yards in older neighborhoods in suburban and even urban areas are excellent hunting grounds for superior yamadori...
 

Just Duane

Shohin
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rockm is correct, this was not collected material. I sometimes wonder when he last repotted this tree.
 

mcpesq817

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This isn't a forest collected tree. It's from someone's front yard, apparently. It is a 'cultivated landscape tree." Old front yards, side yards and back yards in older neighborhoods in suburban and even urban areas are excellent hunting grounds for superior yamadori...

I have to start being nicer to my neighbors :D
 

treebeard55

Chumono
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... Old front yards, side yards and back yards in older neighborhoods in suburban and even urban areas are excellent hunting grounds for superior yamadori...

Not to hijack the thread away from pines, but here's a picture of two yews I came back with a week ago. BrianBay's mother-in-law in Indianapolis wanted a yew hedge removed, he put out an inquiry, a few responded, and this is what I got to work with! :D:D
 

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mcpesq817

Omono
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Not to hijack the thread away from pines, but here's a picture of two yews I came back with a week ago. BrianBay's mother-in-law in Indianapolis wanted a yew hedge removed, he put out an inquiry, a few responded, and this is what I got to work with! :D:D

Wow, that's fantastic! Nice score for you!
 

sfhellwig

Mame
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So this fellow had been growing the pine in nursery pots for 50 years? A very bonsai tree for not very bonsai practice. It just has such nice trunk for the pot it was in. I guess this is a great example of natural dwarfing due to growing conditions.
 
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Just Duane

Shohin
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sfhellwig, good point. I can't say for sure if he grew it only in plastic pots. The guy is into bonsai cause he had a lotta bonsai pots for sale too.
 
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