My First JBP

[bonhe]

Grant Hamby,
Needle cast? Sounds horrible... Guess I should figure out how to deal with that.
Prevention is much more important than treatment:
- Do not water the needles.
- Good ventilation.
- Good direct sunlight.
- Clean up the soil surface.

. I put some copper wire on my Christmas list.
I saw you already have very nice aluminum wire on the wall. I would not use copper wire for young or pre-bonsai trees! The aluminum wire is much cheaper. When I first joined into this hobby, I bought a lot of copper wires, but I ended up using aluminum much more than copper. I only use copper wire for big branches to which aluminum wire don't have enough power to hold. Besides I don't have any tree to be displayed in public.
Bonhe

 

[Adair M]

Grant, did I see in another thread that you are planning to go to the Silohette Show? Julian Adams will be a there and he sells good copper wire. I think he has a "beginner set" which has some of all sizes.

I disagree with Bonhe about using aluminum. Yes, you can wire with aluminum. But copper works much better. Especially with pines. My JBP will be there, fully wired with copper.

 

[Grant Hamby]

Grant, did I see in another thread that you are planning to go to the Silohette Show? Julian Adams will be a there and he sells good copper wire. I think he has a "beginner set" which has some of all sizes.

I disagree with Bonhe about using aluminum. Yes, you can wire with aluminum. But copper works much better. Especially with pines. My JBP will be there, fully wired with copper.

Yes I'll be there, I finalized the decision tonight! (Or... my wife finalized my decision, lol)

That's good to know! I'll probably be pretty busy in the vendor area, haha. And yeah, I'd like to have both aluminum & copper at my workstation, regardless. Sometimes aluminum just doesn't cut it, or I end up double wrapping huge wires.

I look forward to seeing your tree!

 

[Grant Hamby]

Also, I'm already on my third Boon video. I think I'm starting to get the pine bug... I'm excited to keep learning more about them.

 

[Grant Hamby]

I was looking at this tree today and realized that my choice for the front was way off. This new front shows off the trunk so much better, and most of the existing branches should work well. I don't know how I didn't see it before.

I did go ahead and remove a couple growing tips from the sacrifice at the top, but left the main stub.

 

[dirk hoorelbeke]

You have found a good tree in the material. Now you have found a good front, there are still some branches that make no sense keeping. Keep in mind keeping more branches is better than cutting to much. I would go ahead and wire everything, give movement to the branches (left to right and up and down). Will you repot in spring?

 

[aml1014]

@Adair M how do you feel about winter wiring of pines?

Aaron

 

[Grant Hamby]

You have found a good tree in the material. Now you have found a good front, there are still some branches that make no sense keeping. Keep in mind keeping more branches is better than cutting to much. I would go ahead and wire everything, give movement to the branches (left to right and up and down). Will you repot in spring?

Yes I plan to get the tree in good soil and a training pot.

 

[Grant Hamby]

@Adair M how do you feel about winter wiring of pines?

Aaron

I was wondering the same thing, haha

 

[aml1014]

I was wondering the same thing, haha

I personally want to wire up some pondys I have, but I know Adair only has one so I'm asking in general. our Temps are very similar right now, teens and twenties at night. We're gonna have a warm spell for the next week so I want to get some work done if possible.

Aaron

 

[Grant Hamby]

I personally want to wire up some pondys I have, but I know Adair only has one so I'm asking in general. our Temps are very similar right now, teens and twenties at night. We're gonna have a warm spell for the next week so I want to get some work done if possible.

Aaron

Yeah, I think I'm getting some copper wire for Christmas, so I'm probably gonna wanna test it out if it's not going to be a problem, haha.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

I wire pines all winter; it's a very good time to do it. I have 3-4 on the docket if I can just find a few days!

 

[aml1014]

I wire pines all winter; it's a very good time to do it. I have 3-4 on the docket if I can just find a few days!

You are a fair amount more warm then we are though, do you know if they can be wired but still be exposed to Temps in the teens regularly? If not I'm going to have about a week of unusually warm weather, do you think they'll have enough time to heal themselves enough for the cold?
Thanks
Aaron

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

You are a fair amount more warm then we are though, do you know if they can be wired but still be exposed to Temps in the teens regularly? If not I'm going to have about a week of unusually warm weather, do you think they'll have enough time to heal themselves enough for the cold?
Thanks
Aaron

Yes, those temps are fine for normal wiring. Best to save big raffia-needing bends until closer to spring.
No, you can't look at anomalies like a warm week here or there to do work that takes trees months to recover from.

 

[Adair M]

The best time to wire pines is after the needles have "hardened off". Which means late fall and winter. Especially for JBP that had been decandled the previous summer.

JWP can be wired earlier in the fall since their needles harden off sooner.

Until needles harden off, they're easy to bend and accidently break. Or pull off as you're wiring. The thing is, you won't notice if you've damaged them until about 2 weeks later when you'll see a bunch of needles half green and half brown.

 

[Grant Hamby]

This thing has me nervous lol. I have no idea how to water it in winter. Is it safe to water it while temps are below freezing? And tomorrow night is supposed to get down to 6 degrees, is it safe just sitting on the ground out of the wind with mulch around it?

 

[markyscott]

Japanese Black Pine are not known for their cold-hardiness, but overwintering for extremely cold temperatures is not something I've had to deal with in the places I've lived since I've grown them (Bay area, Seattle, Houston). Unless you hear from someone that has more experience in growing black pine at those kind of temperatures, I'd suggest caution in the single digits. Do you have an unheated garage where you can store it until more seasonable temperatures for your area return? I'm guessing that 6 degrees in Mo is a bit unusual.

Scott

 

[Grant Hamby]

Japanese Black Pine are not known for their cold-hardiness, but overwintering for extremely cold temperatures is not something I've had to deal with in the places I've lived since I've grown them (Bay area, Seattle, Houston). Unless you hear from someone that has more experience in growing black pine at those kind of temperatures, I'd suggest caution in the single digits. Do you have an unheated garage where you can store it until more seasonable temperatures for your area return? I'm guessing that 6 degrees in Mo is a bit unusual.

Scott

Yes I have all my deciduous trees in the garage, I can throw it in there for a bit. And yeah, we usually get a handful of days in that range, but it's always a shock.

 

[f1pt4]

Japanese Black Pine are not known for their cold-hardiness, but overwintering for extremely cold temperatures is not something I've had to deal with in the places I've lived since I've grown them (Bay area, Seattle, Houston). Unless you hear from someone that has more experience in growing black pine at those kind of temperatures, I'd suggest caution in the single digits. Do you have an unheated garage where you can store it until more seasonable temperatures for your area return? I'm guessing that 6 degrees in Mo is a bit unusual.

Scott

I have a couple of friends who overwinter their JBP's in covered unheated porches/foyer's. One of them uses a heatmat, the other doesn't. I reckon it gets cold in there.

I currently have a couple of 2 yr old JPB seedlings. Mulched to the top, roots dug in, in a covered coldframe. The JBP and the Coldframe are both pretty much covered in snow. If they survive the winter, I'll post it here! I hear snow is a good insulator! Another 15cm on it's way.

 

[Potawatomi13]

For past week all trees Black pine included have been covered with ice. This has happened in past as well. Have only lost one JBP in past and not sure why. Just failed to wake up and grow one Spring. Also have been thru temps down to about zero F so not that cold sensitive at least here.