Berra's Satsuki Nyohozan

[Glaucus]

It depends on the specific variety. Basically the different species of azaleas are forms adapted to different niches/environments.
Rhododendorn indicum specifically seems to grow exposed on the rocks near rivers.

https://yakushima-asobi.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/bfab1b016bdfd4b319df8356f4a3afdf.jpg

Source: https://yakushima-asobi.com/blog/nature-information-yakushima-information/flower004/
That's from Yakushima island.

So basically:
R. indicum on rocks near rivers
R.eriocarpum (maruba satsuki) on rocks near the coast/beach
R.kiusianum on magma cliffs on volcanoes from 750m and upward
R.kaempferi valleys, hills and mountains below 750m

For R.kiusianum and R.kaempferi there are many videos on youtube showing how they occur in nature.
R.kiusianum because of the volcano hiking videos.
And R.kaempferi is pretty common, one would see them randomly on the side of the road while driving in the countryside.
Sometimes, R.kaempferi is shaded by trees. It occurs in forested areas. But those wild plants are actually huge so they are very rarely shaded by trees.
It may be that R.kiusianum is more common on the eastern face of a mountain, though. Not sure if the south face is also completely covered.
But I hear there are also flat lava fields where they also grow.

There is one paper that makes the case that R.indicum is the river-adapted version of R.kaempferi. R.indicum is an adaptation to being flooded and to resist rapidly flowing water, hence the narrower leaves.
In fact, that paper states that R.indicum in Yakushima and R.indicum in Honshu are two independent lineages where R.kaempferi adapted twice to the specific river environment, And they converged on the same 'solution'. If true, there are two distinct species of R.indicum (Yoichi et al 2018). The way things evolve in nature is extremely complicated. Things evolve in parallel, then interbreed again, over and over.
The thing though is that these azaleas grow in areas where water drains very fast and there is very little soil or compost. But this is possible because it rains a ton.
Now, Japan is a long thing country and oriented kinda North to South, plus with a lot of elevation difference. So there are going to be sub-populations adapted to each site.
Additionally, our cultivars are generally hybrids produces as a result of human breeding efforts starting in 1650 or earlier.

 

[Berra]

@Deep Sea Diver Sorry for a short answer, I'm on vacation. It's Nyohozan. I apply Biogold pyramid thingies. This year I am on the third application, two pyramid rounds have turned to small fragments or washed away.

@waydeo We bought a house with a garden this year, for my part (and this particular tree) the balcony issue is alleviated.

 

[waydeo]

Berra congratulations on getting a house . Next stop bonsai garden . Are the brown tips crunchy like leaves before they fall off during winter ?

 

[Berra]

@waydeo thank you. Yes they were crunchy back when I started the thread. But they haven't been like that since I got help from this thread.

 

[waydeo]

Berra , thats great . sounds like it's on the road to recovery. Good luck. Wonderfully helpful people here.

 

[Berra]

I bought a couple of cheap mass production pots following @Deep Sea Diver suggestion to put it in a larger container. The round one is a little bit deeper than the other, but otherwise they are similar in size.

Planning to repot spring of 2023. Did you suggest to also do some wiring in 2023, or 2024?

I didn't understand what you mean by the 'shin'. Below the 'skirt' of the tree, right under the trunk?

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

These look much better. A good guide for a satsuki pot is one should have at least an inch around on all sides. Depth is key.

(So sorry if this following knowledge bit is a repeat.)
A real fooler is when folks see photos of satsuki being displayed in Japanese shows. The reason is often satsuki are repotted in shallower, and sometimes narrower pots to meet the “traditional aesthetic”. What folks don’t know is the trees are repotted back into deeper pots right after the shows.

You are correct. The shin is the area directly under the trunk. It’s also where many of the roots that supply water and nutrients to the apex exist. The idea of drilling, or poking a few well spaced diagonally toward the center, is to allow water and fertilizer to percolate better into the shin.

Peter Warren showed another method on a stream, digging a hole with a chopstick and backfilling, even recommending inserting a tube to keep the hole from clogging up.

One another note, perhaps the final frontier is properly protecting the upper 1/3 of the roots (key area to good health) properly by getting a layer of Yamagoke (mountain moss) or Sphagnum to grow and keep the upper roots cool and wet vs dry and dead). I soak the moss for hours to overnight, then start by tucking moss into the inner edge on the pot., next tucking gently around nebari, finally back filling and patting down the lot. Fterwards misting more frequently until the moss grows. (One may sometimes need screening to hold the birds at bay until the moss begins to grow.). btw lay it on thick so the final after pat down is 1/8” ( btw credit Rick Garcia of Satsuki Azalea Bonsai fame for these thoughts.)

I’ll pop into the yard and take a couple photos of some recently done moss jobs on little satsuki….

Chinzan and George Drake (Huang 2-5-71) done two weeks ago.


Korin and Chinzan done 3 weeks ago.


Kagane Nishiki build up using long fiber Sphagnum and Kanuma covered with Yamagoke


cheers
DSD sends

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

The wiring question got lost!

Certainly you can wire. If you do it now likely branches may not set until next spring.

Azaleas are fun to hone one’s wiring skills. I wire pretty much of the year, but stop, except for minor work, in August/ early September as the trees are putting on vascular tissue fast and the bark is soft, so it’s easy to damage the bark unless one has ’soft hands’. Also the wires cut in awful darn fast….

Wiring here routinely begins in late winter as the trees come out of dormancy and before the leaves push too much…. and the wood softens for its hardened winter state.

cheers
DSD sends

 

[Berra]

The days are getting longer quickly here in Scandinavia. Still freezing temps, but my trees are in a greenhouse set to +4C.

This tree has already begun putting on spring growth, so I did a repot. Last time I did this was 2020 when this thread was started. The tree had little to none fine roots back then. Today it was difficult to even get it out of the pot due to a big root ball.

I did chop away at the edges of the rootball with a chopstick, but the area of the shin was not compact at all (tried with chopstick) so I didnt do anything about it.

Thanks for all the horticultural advice in this thread, leading up to a more healthy satsuki

I have a feeling I might have overpotted the tree now, but it might just be that I compare the new pot to the old? There is about 4 litres of kanuma below the tree now in the pot.

Will apply chopped Sphagnum soon

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Really Nice News! So good to see this .

My personal rule of thumb is about 2.5 cm free space all around when up potting a large azalea. Looks like you are close from the photos.

The only tiny red flag is the shin being loose. Yet as long as it’s percolating well around the trunk all should be ok.

If not, time to take out Ye Olde trusty drill and drill 5-6 7mm holes around the base to promote drainage and fertilizer penetration through that impermeable “top lid” into the shin.

Well done!

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[Berra]

Thanks @Deep Sea Diver ! Free space is now an inch (more or less) to the sides. However, it is about 2 inches of free space below the roots and this is what concerns me a bit from a root rot perspective.

I could move it into a slightly lower pot, but then there would be less space to the sides. What would you do?

Also, do you mean drilling from the top, downwards? I had thought you would do that by drilling below the shin right into it.

 

[Glaucus]

It is in kanuma soil, it isn't just going to root rot. Root rot is mostly because roots die because of lack of oxygen. Or fungal disease because of stale standing water.
With overpotting with kanuma, your main issue would be if the water doesn't drain away through the fresh kanuma along the sides quickly, passing around the root ball in the center, and not hydrating the actual roots.
If somehow you were going to get root rot, it would be because of the old kanuma that you didn't remove in the root ball you already had.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Thanks @Deep Sea Diver !

Free space is now an inch (more or less) to the sides. However, it is about 2 inches of free space below the roots and this is what concerns me a bit from a root rot perspective.

That is large. When a large gap occurs folks often use large size Kanuma/pumice to fill. It raises the perched water table.

We just up potted a big Juko and had to do this at my volunteer job. Since azaleas tend to be fairly shallow rooted from the gitgo,likely the wont normally be many roots down that deep… but no worries if you did proper repotting

The potted depth of the large satsuki we have is just under 3.5“ If you are close to this you should be ok with a trunk that size. I think you could expand the height and girth of the foliage in the future as the tree is now a bit out of proportion…. due to the pushing back you had to do of-the foliage earlier to get better backbudding.

I could move it into a slightly lower pot, but then there would be less space to the sides. What would you do?

See above

Also, do you mean drilling from the top, downwards? I had thought you would do that by drilling below the shin right into it.

Let me back up a minute to go over the surface treatment part of the repotting process.

When repotting a satsuki one needs to chopstick out the surface down to the friable media. This removes the media that gets built up a bit and clogged from dead moss, dirt in the air, fertilizer etc. This includes chop sticking down between the roots and removing moss and dirt from all the nooks and crannies of the trunk down to the friable soil.

Then soil is backfilled to the actual surface level, thus the actual surface level is restored and normally, also the drainage. If not and the non friable media is still on top, it acts like a table top and shuttles the water down the sides on the pot. Precisely as @Glaucus discussed.

If you did do these steps, and the core is still not draining, then it’s time to drill. It‘s actually easier top down. Often folks find drainage issues while the tree is still potted anyways. I measure the depth of the media, then put a tape around the drill bit at just a bit less then the depth as a guide. Then drill slowly and let the bit find its way on a slight diagonal towards the center. Gently pull out the bit, then back fill by dropping small Kanuma particles in the holes.

Peter Warren showed this idea, but with digging holes into the shin with a chopstick and backfilling. I didn’t like that, so I switched to a drill and more holes.

Drilling is not ideal, but a not properly draining media is worse.

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[Berra]

Right I mostly cleaned out the sides of the rootball and didnt work the surface that much. I think I should lift the tree out tonight and redo the surface of the rootball work then. And while I'm at it I will see if the other pot is a better fit size wise. Thanks so much for the help!

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Use a light touch. Your root ball is fairly thin from being in the flat pot previously.

cheers
DSD sends

 

[Berra]

Previous repot was more or less a slip pot into the larger pot. Yesterday night I did a proper repot and used the slightly smaller pot. It is now more or less 1 inch to all sides. Maybe 3.5 cm kanuma below the root ball instead of 5 as with the larger pot.

Didnt touch the shin itself rather than trying out with a chopstick from above to see it was easily reachable.

It will now go back in the greenhouse

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Interested to see how this tree is recovering from the repot?

cheers
DSD sends

 

[Berra]

@Deep Sea Diver It seems to be doing ok so far. This year I built a bench for the deciduous trees, it gets sun from early morning until maybe 1.30pm and after that it is shaded by the lilac hedge behind.



Some pictures on the tree from this morning attached.

I did go back and read your suggested plan of actions from July 31 2022, you suggested to do a basic layout wiring this year, after repot. So I think I will attempt that. Some branches are still reluctant to back bud, as you already commented on in older posts.

The immediate plan is to remove flower buds as they start swelling.

 

[Berra]

Btw, when you say structural wiring, you mean tertiary branches etc to not disturb the roots to much?

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Btw, when you say structural wiring, you mean tertiary branches etc to not disturb the roots to much?

Sorry couldn’t find that quote… but tertiary wiring and maintenance pruning would be ok in late June or July if the trunk is stable. We normally do these jobs shortly after removing the flowers and stems.

Dead, stray growth or any growth coming from the bottom of the branches can be done when convenient.

Finally if the temperature go above 32C, it would be wise to move the azaleas to a more sheltered place and mist frequently. Nyohosen, in particular, is one of those cultivars that doesn’t like the heat.

cheers
DSD sends