grouper52
Masterpiece
This season I am harvesting from our yard four trees that my wife orginally denied me in favor of making them landscape trees. As has often happened, after a few years she didn't like them anymore, and told me I could make them into bonsai. There is a Rosemary, a Korean Birdsnest fir, and a Monutian helmock that I may post later, but I'll start with this guy first.
I'm not sure what kind of pine he is. He was billed at the nursery as a Japanese Black pine, but Dan Robinson says the 6" needles make that doubtful, and he suspects an Austrian Black pine. The needles, though are very stiff and sharp like a JBP, and not like the Austrian Blacks I've known. It also has grown much more robustly than any JBP I've ever had in the ground, but then there does seem to be at least some very rapid-growing stock that the tree is grafted onto, so who knows what's going on. Maybe some of you Black pine experts can shed some light here.
He actually started his harvesting two seasons ago. He was a 3" tree at his base when we got him and threw him in the ground about six years ago. He grew very quickly in a very robust fashion to a girth of about 6.5-7" by the time my wife turned him over to me two years ago. Some tenuous little branches at the first whorl died early on, but otherwise it's been very hardy.
So two years ago when I came into possession of him, I dug him up and threw him in this too small pot, but then I decided to throw him back in the same hole again, in the pot, hoping he would put new roots out through the drainage holes and thicken his base even more. I did this after removing a huge horizontal wrap-around root, the scars from which removal can still be seen a few inches up from the base in several shots below. I was hoping the new growth at the base might start to heal the scar there, but it's only done so to a small extent so far. But, no new roots, it turns out, ever grew down into the soil - which I discovered only when I lifted it out again yesterday. Despite that, the base continued to grow surprisingly thicker, now about 8". Also, ever since we got him I've been doing some preliminary pruning, and he has responded well.
I plan to put him in a much larger grow pot or a grow box, work on the rootage, and start to work on the branches and foliage over the next few years. I also anticipate some fairly extensive deadwood features. I'll post further as he progresses.
I'm not sure what kind of pine he is. He was billed at the nursery as a Japanese Black pine, but Dan Robinson says the 6" needles make that doubtful, and he suspects an Austrian Black pine. The needles, though are very stiff and sharp like a JBP, and not like the Austrian Blacks I've known. It also has grown much more robustly than any JBP I've ever had in the ground, but then there does seem to be at least some very rapid-growing stock that the tree is grafted onto, so who knows what's going on. Maybe some of you Black pine experts can shed some light here.
He actually started his harvesting two seasons ago. He was a 3" tree at his base when we got him and threw him in the ground about six years ago. He grew very quickly in a very robust fashion to a girth of about 6.5-7" by the time my wife turned him over to me two years ago. Some tenuous little branches at the first whorl died early on, but otherwise it's been very hardy.
So two years ago when I came into possession of him, I dug him up and threw him in this too small pot, but then I decided to throw him back in the same hole again, in the pot, hoping he would put new roots out through the drainage holes and thicken his base even more. I did this after removing a huge horizontal wrap-around root, the scars from which removal can still be seen a few inches up from the base in several shots below. I was hoping the new growth at the base might start to heal the scar there, but it's only done so to a small extent so far. But, no new roots, it turns out, ever grew down into the soil - which I discovered only when I lifted it out again yesterday. Despite that, the base continued to grow surprisingly thicker, now about 8". Also, ever since we got him I've been doing some preliminary pruning, and he has responded well.
I plan to put him in a much larger grow pot or a grow box, work on the rootage, and start to work on the branches and foliage over the next few years. I also anticipate some fairly extensive deadwood features. I'll post further as he progresses.