Ryceman3's 6yr JBP Contest Entry

Ryceman3

Shohin
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And so it begins ... well, for me anyway. Being from the Southern Hemisphere I am patiently waiting for July 1, and have spent the past month or more looking for JBP seeds to work with. They are not so plentiful in this part of the world, and our quarantine laws make importing seed from overseas a no-go zone, so it took a bit of extra effort but I have come up with some.

I managed to get a few from 3 sources.

A local eBay site had the cultivar JBP "Thunderhead", which I think may not be as good for shohin as the growth (from all reports) is a bit coarse - but since this was all I could find locally online I got some and will give them a go at any rate.
JBP-SV.jpg

The next I got from a member of a local (Australian) bonsai forum after I pleaded for a few from somebody ... very generous of him to send me some and much appreciated.

JBP-SR.jpg

The third I got after a lot of begging, hoping and praying to the bonsai gods ... and then just checking my mailbox to find they had come through - you know who you are, much appreciated and stoked when they arrived. I wasn't sure you would come through! :)
JBP-TS.jpg

The last 2 sources have seed that is larger than the "Thunderhead" ones, not sure if that is just a cultivar thing or what, time will tell.
There it is, my hat is now in the ring ... I am still pretty new to bonsai, only been dabbling in it for around 3 years and this is the first time I have grown JBP or any pine for that matter from seed. I also managed to get seed for Austrian, Scots and JRP while I was on my search for JBP so I'll be doing a few of them while I'm at it.

Looking forward to learning plenty and watching the other entries progress (I've already learnt plenty that I will look to put into practice). Good luck to all and a shout out to others from the Southern Hemisphere to get involved also. This should be a lot of fun!
Cheers!
 

Ryceman3

Shohin
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Thread title... KBP? Ahhh... say what?!! Those ‘J’ & ‘K’ keys are too close together! ?
Don’t spose admin can rectify that? ?
 

Ryceman3

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Soaked a few seeds for about a day and have now drained them off and bagged them up into the fridge for a couple of weeks. Of the JBP seeds I soaked for this comp, I had 90% "sinkers", so I'm pretty pleased with that. I think it might be a bit early to be starting out here as winter is not going anywhere soon, but I have a personal deadline to get these guys up and running before I go on holidays in September so I am trying to give them as much time as possible ... hopefully the weather can be kind.
seeds_01.jpg
seeds sorted into bowls and soaked for 24 hours
seeds_02.jpg
placed all the sinkers onto wet paper towel
seeds_03.jpg
Wrapped them up and added a bit of moistened vermiculite on top to keep them wet.
seeds_04.jpg
Bagged up ready for the fridge ... and onto the next batch.

All in all I did 3 batches of 40 seeds for this comp (JBP). There are other seeds I have going with the same technique - namely JRP, Austrian and Scots Pine so it will be interesting to see how the results differ (or not) between them all. I have a few more batches of JBP still coming - starting later to see what happens.

And as for the floaters ....

seeds_05.jpg
These got potted up (no stratification) and straight to the benches ... we'll see how these go!
 

Ryceman3

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After two weeks or so in the fridge I planted up a few of my JBP seeds today. I have just gone with regular seedling mix, topped with a thin layer of vermiculite. It's probably a bit too cold here for these seeds still, but I do have clear lids over the trays for the time being to hopefully help protect them from the cold/wind. All up, I planted 96 seeds so let's see how they go...

JBP-planting01.jpg
The seeds got covered with a thin layer of soil - then a topping of vermiculite (below)
JBP-planting02.jpg
 

Ryceman3

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Today I sowed another two batches of JBP (along with some other pines) ... I know it's not exactly thrilling viewing checking out trays of, well ... nothing but I thought I'd post just to keep my progression up to date. I have now sown just over 180 JBP seeds - with any luck there will be some movement within the next week or two. Some of the seeds I put in today were soaked but not stratified so will be interested to see how they perform in comparison (batches B & F below).
JBP-planting03.jpg
This other tray had leftovers that I had stratified for another week or so from the last lot I posted along with a rogue few JRP seeds I had :
JBP-planting04.jpg
 

MichaelS

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After two weeks or so in the fridge I planted up a few of my JBP seeds today. I have just gone with regular seedling mix, topped with a thin layer of vermiculite. It's probably a bit too cold here for these seeds still, but I do have clear lids over the trays for the time being to hopefully help protect them from the cold/wind. All up, I planted 96 seeds so let's see how they go...

View attachment 202351
The seeds got covered with a thin layer of soil - then a topping of vermiculite (below)
View attachment 202352

Ryceman, I think you haven't put them quite deep enough. You might find that after they germinate, they might fall over! No big deal though, if that happens just replant deeper...
Good luck with your contest.
 

Ryceman3

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Ryceman, I think you haven't put them quite deep enough. You might find that after they germinate, they might fall over! No big deal though, if that happens just replant deeper...
Good luck with your contest.

Cheers for the advice Mike, at the moment I'll be happy to have that problem - cos it means they germinated! (I'll keep an eye on them).
And thanks for the luck ... I'd say it won't go to waste... :p
 

Ryceman3

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Some progress ...
I checked my seeds this morning and there has been some movement in the first batch of JBP I planted on July 24th ... so just under 3 weeks ago. It's small but it's a start, hopefully I get a few more following these trailblazers!
I have had both Austrian and Scots Pine seeds germinate even though I planted them a week later than these seeds - so I was starting to get concerned, it was good to see these two.
JBP_Aug01.jpg
 

Ryceman3

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UPDATE :
I have had reasonable success with my JBP seeds, enough to play with now and I have planted a few extras as insurance if my experiments don't go according to plan. I think at the moment I have around 50 seedlings ... so today I did a bit of work on some of them.
I was keen to try stem cutting but when I pulled a few seedlings getting ready to chop them right off, I found they had some reasonable roots within an inch or so of the foliage, so for these ones I thought I would just do some regular root pruningand see how that goes. They are all labelled so I will be able to see how they compare with one another.
Here's some shots of the root cutting and how I went about it :
IMG_3455.jpgIMG_3456.jpg

I also did some stem cutting too. Hopefully these seedlings aren't too mature for the process, Ideally I would have done this 2 weeks ago or so but I was on vacation so they had to wait. My technique is essentially the same as most others, the main difference being that instead of using hormone powder by itself, I mix it with Clonex gel to make a paste and apply that to the end of the cutting. I use this paste with layering and I find it doesn't wash off so easily so I thought it was worth a shot here too. A few pics of the process below :
IMG_3459.jpg
IMG_3460.jpg
When they were all potted up I put them under domes to keep in the humidity and hopefully increase the chances of success...
IMG_3464.jpg
All up I think I did around 24 stem cuttings and about the same of just root cuttings ... we'll see how they get on over the next few weeks.
 

Ryceman3

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Super quick update: Those that were root pruned are starting to accelerate their growth rates, noticeably pushing new green. One of my stem cuttings inexplicably had the roots exposed ... I have since re-covered them but what I saw was heartwarming, they are smaller than the others but the roots look good (at least on that one!)
First pic : root pruned JBP, almost 100mm (4in)
57284B12-F6F6-4B78-AB80-C12D557725F7.jpeg

Next shot, stem cutting with roots exposed (and a little flare?) Potential here I think...
4DDC8A52-70AC-4A1F-A4BD-8A5CBF4B1451.jpeg
Summer has only really just begun here so hopefully lots more growing over the next few months.
?
 

Wires_Guy_wires

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Thanks for putting the size in mm's!
Just a tip from someone who had a hot summer; cheap white latex paint gets the heat off of the pots. It chips off easily, but if the pots aren't handled a lot it should last the summer.
A 10 degrees C difference compared to black plastic isn't out of the ordinary.
 

Ryceman3

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Probably a good time for an update. Lots of growth on all my pine seedlings over the last couple of months. It’s been a pretty warm and sunny summer in my neck of the woods so that equates to nice progress in these seedlings. I’m happy with how they are going in any case, I’m gonna have lots to choose from!JBP[RC]_0219-01.JPG
This one is pretty indicative of those that went through traditional root pruning techniques. I have allowed to grow on with regular doses of fert (when I remember) and I have managed to get quite a bit of growth and some decent branching down low on quite a few of these guys, happy days. :)
JBP[SC]_0219-01.JPG
This one above was stem cut at roughly the same time. It’s growth is good, probably one of the better ones ... others are 2cms or so shorter (3/4” shorter). Again, branching at base is encouraging- would love to see how the roots compare between these two.
All in all, I have over 50 around this size and probably the same quantity of some smaller ones that were sown a few months later (see below). Given the space I have for bonsai, that’s well over my quota so there will be a cull at some point, probably sooner rather than later.
JBP[SC]_0219-02.JPG
Still a couple of months left in the growing season so hopefully these guys take off a bit now they are established. Thanks for watching!
?
 
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Australia's sun has got you some growth in there. Mine have not grown as tall, but the needles are twice the size of these. Maybe there is a trade-off between needle length and elongation of the stem? Not sure what determines which... Anyways, really nice work.
 

Ryceman3

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Australia's sun has got you some growth in there.
Still a couple of months of good, sunny conditions to go down here before the weather turns. Our summer has been really hot, but I think the consecutive days above 35degC (95 Fahrenheit) have come to an end... the last week or more has been much milder.
 

Clicio

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Our summer has been really hot, but I think the consecutive days above 35degC (95 Fahrenheit) have come to an end... the last week or more has been much milder.
Exactly the same here in Brazil. Some species as the maples suffer a lot with this heat.
But I think it's over now.
 
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