jmuzzey
Seedling
Hello all, I have a question that I can not really find an answer to. Can a Japanese Black Pine be air layered? I have a JBP that I have had for 6 years now, and this past year it has been ruined for lack of a better word. When I received the tree(bought for me as a gift), it was very leggy with no interior buds at all. The branching was very sparse with a long thin trunk. I received the tree late in the season, so I just cared for it without doing anything to it other than maintain it.
I have had numerous other trees, but had never owned a pine. So I did as much reading as I could on them. The following spring, I repotted the tree to check out the root system. It appeared that it was repotted the year before as there were not many roots, or at least what I would consider a full years woirth of growth. So I figured I would let it get healthy for the year and the only work I did on it was to candle prune to try to promote back budding. I did get some new buds on older parts of branches.
The following year I did a repot with root pruning(and there were many more fibrous roots this time). After the repot, we got hit with a hard freeze that was unexpected, but the tree made it through the year. It did not put on much growth at all, and I thought I was going to lose it, but it stayed alive, just didn't really thrive or grow much.
The following year it budded great and things were looking up, but some of the interior buds that were growing died back. I felt like I was starting over now, but that is the way it is sometimes I guess. No biggie, I enjoy working with this tree, even if my work is not the greatest. I continued with fertalizing and pruning/pinching and started to get much better growth, but the tree is still rather leggy.
This past year was going to be the year that I was going to cut it back hard and it was going to be a make it or break it year for the tree. I moved it in the spring/end of winter, from the garage to the back patio. It was sitting on a stoop along the foundation of the house(big mistake).
I went outside and noticed that the tree had been knocked over and was out of the pot. So I put it back in the pot and resecured the anchor wires for the tree. (I had removed the anchor wires when I repotted a couple years ago, and did not reanchor the tree(another mistake). Anyways.....about a week later I noticed that some soil by the base of the trunk was moved to the side or dug out. I replaced the little bit of soil and really thought nothing of it. The tree appeared to be doing well, then after a couple more weeks just as we are really getting some nice spring weather and candles are starting to grow, some little critter decided to eat the lower half of the nebari on one side of the tree. It dug some soil out, and literally ate the roots where they came out of the trunk. So half of the trunk has roots now and the other half has none at all. I thought the tree was going to die, but it has made it through the summer and appears to be healthy.
My main problem now is, without being able to air layer this tree, It will never have a good nebari. I am kind of at a loss as to what to do with it. So after this terribly long post, is it possible to airlayer a JBP? Will a JBP put out new roots in an area that the roots have been chewed off and I would guess that area is essentially dead? I was going to take a picture to show you all, but it is raining like crazy today. If the rain stops, I will get a pic..... Thank you for any info you can give me,
Jay
I have had numerous other trees, but had never owned a pine. So I did as much reading as I could on them. The following spring, I repotted the tree to check out the root system. It appeared that it was repotted the year before as there were not many roots, or at least what I would consider a full years woirth of growth. So I figured I would let it get healthy for the year and the only work I did on it was to candle prune to try to promote back budding. I did get some new buds on older parts of branches.
The following year I did a repot with root pruning(and there were many more fibrous roots this time). After the repot, we got hit with a hard freeze that was unexpected, but the tree made it through the year. It did not put on much growth at all, and I thought I was going to lose it, but it stayed alive, just didn't really thrive or grow much.
The following year it budded great and things were looking up, but some of the interior buds that were growing died back. I felt like I was starting over now, but that is the way it is sometimes I guess. No biggie, I enjoy working with this tree, even if my work is not the greatest. I continued with fertalizing and pruning/pinching and started to get much better growth, but the tree is still rather leggy.
This past year was going to be the year that I was going to cut it back hard and it was going to be a make it or break it year for the tree. I moved it in the spring/end of winter, from the garage to the back patio. It was sitting on a stoop along the foundation of the house(big mistake).
I went outside and noticed that the tree had been knocked over and was out of the pot. So I put it back in the pot and resecured the anchor wires for the tree. (I had removed the anchor wires when I repotted a couple years ago, and did not reanchor the tree(another mistake). Anyways.....about a week later I noticed that some soil by the base of the trunk was moved to the side or dug out. I replaced the little bit of soil and really thought nothing of it. The tree appeared to be doing well, then after a couple more weeks just as we are really getting some nice spring weather and candles are starting to grow, some little critter decided to eat the lower half of the nebari on one side of the tree. It dug some soil out, and literally ate the roots where they came out of the trunk. So half of the trunk has roots now and the other half has none at all. I thought the tree was going to die, but it has made it through the summer and appears to be healthy.
My main problem now is, without being able to air layer this tree, It will never have a good nebari. I am kind of at a loss as to what to do with it. So after this terribly long post, is it possible to airlayer a JBP? Will a JBP put out new roots in an area that the roots have been chewed off and I would guess that area is essentially dead? I was going to take a picture to show you all, but it is raining like crazy today. If the rain stops, I will get a pic..... Thank you for any info you can give me,
Jay