A JBP from seed

[markyscott]

This thread will focus on a US grown Japanese Black Pine propagated by seed and planted in 2004. The pine was grown by Jonas Dupuich. You can see a post about it’s development on his blog. https://bonsaitonight.com/2013/04/05/developing-young-pines/

I bought the pine from Jonas at the National Show in 2018. Jonas was kind enough to share some pictures of this tree in it’s early development and I’ll share them here. They are very informative.

Scott

 

[markyscott]

These are the earliest pictures that Jonas was able to find. They were taken December 1st, 2012, so the tree was 8 years old at this point.



A couple of things to note. Jonas had wired the tree to get some low movement. Where he set the movement kind of determines the size of the tree. At some point before 2012, he removed the original sacrifice and trained a new one.



On that day, he shortened the sacrifice - probably to direct energy into the lower branches.

S

 

[markyscott]

In early 2013, Jonas removed the sacrifice entirely and did some preliminary wiring to set the structure of the tree. He had wired one of the lateral branches up to form the new apex and one down to form a strong cascading branch. Here are some pictures taken after the sacrifice branch was removed and the structural work was done.

 

[markyscott]

That spring the tree grew strongly and sent long candles - here are some pictures taken as the candles were extending in late spring, 2013.



Interesting to note - this tree developed both pollen cones and seed cones that year.

- Scott

 

[markyscott]

In June of 2013, likely noting how strong the tree was, Jonas cut it back hard.

 

[markyscott]

By January, 2014, the tree had sent a ton of new growth.



Here it becomes clear why Jonas removed the sacrifice when he did. He wired some tight curves in the trunk during development. Had he left the sacrifice on, the trunk would swell to the point where the curves would disappear. To maintain the curves, he removed a large escape branch which shifted the focus to developing branches.

Scott

 

[markyscott]

In June of 2014, the tree was growing strongly again. Jonas decandled and cut back - trunk development was done, now he’s always focusing the growth inward.



Scott

 

[markyscott]

In January of 2015, the branch structure of the future tree was beginning to take shape. An apical sacrifice branch remains.

 

[markyscott]

Here’s the tree in June 2016. The sacrifice branch was very strong.


In late June of that year, Jonas decandled and cut back.


Scott

 

[markyscott]

In July of 2016, Jonas removed the apical sacrifice branch entirely and thinned the new growth.


Scott

 

[markyscott]

Here’s the tree in late spring 2018. I purchased it from Jonas in the fall of that year at the national show.



As you can see. Either in early spring 2017 or early spring 2018, he repotted it from the colander into a terra cotta pot.

Scott

 

[markyscott]

Here is the tree on my workbench in February 2019.



Scott

 

[markyscott]

The tree had clearly grown well under Jonas’ care. It was very root bound. I’m guessing it was in the pot for 2 years when I repotted.


S

 

[markyscott]

Here’s the tree after repotting.

 

[markyscott]

The tree seemed to grow OK after repotting, although it did not exhibit the explosive growth that Jonas had seen in previous years. It seemed to produce healthy candles, although clearly not as vigorous as the 2018 growth. But it looked strong enough to decandle and the color was good, so I did. Then I wired it out. Here’s the tree before and after work.



I wasn’t totally happy with the old needles - they were kind of thin and twisted and the color was a little grayish. It was a bit of a concern for me at the time.

Scott

 

[markyscott]

But the tree sent good summer shoots. In December I thinned the new growth and removed some needles. This spring it grew fantastic. That brings us to today. I typically decandle around the fourth of July because there’s nothing more American than hot dogs, fireworks, Shiner Bock and decandling Japanese Black Pine. However, I plan to be lost in the Wyoming wilderness around then, so I’ll likely get to this one in mid-July when I return. I’ll post some pictures then and we can talk about styling. I think this tree presents some interesting challenges.

 

[MrWunderful]

Looking forward to seeing what you do with the structure. I have a few of his JBP from seed but from a later batch (including one I took a huge sacrifice off last weekend). Some of mine will be at this point soon!

 

[just.wing.it]

I really like the tree.
What a great progression, you da man!

 

[eryk2kartman]

Nice progression, well done!

 

[Haines' Trees]

I love seeing this type 5+ year development. As someone who has only been engaged in this pastime for about 2 years it’s really difficult for me to have any kind of long term vision for the trees I have. I have also developed a particular liking to growing from seed and there are even fewer examples of that sort of development. Thank you so much for taking the time to document this. Also thanks to you and Jonas for almost 20 years of excellent care for this JBP! I have a few from seed that I hope to develop into something even half this beautiful.