Chojubai in development

[Shibui]

I mostly take cuttings in spring but summer and late summer are also good.
Easier and quicker to separate suckers that pop up from the roots.
Root cuttings grow too so any time you repot save any thicker roots.

 

[River's Edge]

Pics today... when do you guys take cuttings of this? They need a haircut badly.

View attachment 497424


This one had all the trunks die but one little sprout in the center survived. All this growth is from this year alone.
View attachment 497426

I tale cuttings almost anytime during the growing season.The developmental approach I use is to cut back after the extensions reach five or six inches. I cut back to the first three set of leaves each time. This can happen two or three times during the growing season with healthy vigorous plants. This ensures that I am not dealing with thorns in the developed tree! The cuttings root easily provided there is enough time left in the growing season. Also as previously mentioned it is easy to use root cuttings for propagation when repotting. Michael usually in the past grew his plants for five or six years prior to beginning development with cut back. They were typically in 2 gallon pots at that point.

 

[Maiden69]

@Shibui @River's Edge thanks for the advice. I will experiment with a few cuttings now, and leave a few shoots to elongate for thickening.

My idea with this one was to allow the area with the mesh to fill up with roots, then remove the mesh and allow the soil to erode hopefully getting a lot of suckers out of those exposed roots like Onuma does in Japan.




Onuma's tree.

 

[River's Edge]

@Shibui @River's Edge thanks for the advice. I will experiment with a few cuttings now, and leave a few shoots to elongate for thickening.

My idea with this one was to allow the area with the mesh to fill up with roots, then remove the mesh and allow the soil to erode hopefully getting a lot of suckers out of those exposed roots like Onuma does in Japan.

View attachment 497532


Onuma's tree.
View attachment 497531

That looks like a neat process that provides plenty of root shoots for propagation. not sure of the pure lava medium giving the " best" results though. Would require lots of watering and constant fertilization. Drys out quickly and very low CEC for my climate and time available for watering.

 

[Maiden69]

That looks like a neat process that provides plenty of root shoots for propagation. not sure of the pure lava medium giving the " best" results though. Would require lots of watering and constant fertilization. Drys out quickly and very low CEC for my climate and time available for watering.

I agree... Mr. Onuma grows everything in pure red lava. I'm sure the watering is on point. I'm definitely using the standard akadama/pumice on this one. Onuma also develops many of his trees by air layers, including his JBP. I know it will be hard to replicate here because of the weather and the fact that I am not attending to my trees all day and rely on an automated watering system, but it is something that I am going to give it a try.

Both of Jonas's articles in Bonsai Tonight

Onuma's mini-sized bonsai - Bonsai Tonight

Photos from a visit to the amazing garden of Kazuo Onuma in Shizuoka, Japan.

bonsaitonight.com

Onuma's mini-bonsai growing techniques - Bonsai Tonight

Growing techniques from Kazuo Onuma for developing chojubai, shimpaku juniper, and Japanese maple.

bonsaitonight.com

 

[roberthu]

What kind of soil mix do you have the Chojubai in? I have had trouble with them especially the red ones. The first few died I think due to too small of pots. The 2nd batch died for reason I don't know for sure but guessing over watering. They were in perlite and peat mix and I think the roots degraded over time. By the time they died, the trunks were wobbling in the pot making me guess that the roots died. I should have pulled them out and checked...
Local bonsai nursery told me they plant Chojubai in 1:1:1 mix which is the conifer mix which surprised and made me think these little guys while love a lot of water, also need really good drainage to have the oxygen exchange. What are your takes?

 

[Maiden69]

Those are in akadama/pumice as it was what I had at the moment. They get watered 3 times a day in the peak of summer, dropping down to 2 in a week or two once we start seeing 80's during the daytime.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Pretty much do similar to @River's Edge as far as cuttings go. Actually stuck some in early Feb and put these in the cold greenhouse. 1/2 dozen pushed roots

For wintering over, the larger quince cultivars seem to do well outside nestled into the garden bed with a number of other trees huddled together.

However the Chojubai and Toyo Nishiki both seem to do best in our area in the cold greenhouse or if nothing else a cold frame.

At one of Michael Hagedorn’s intensives he mentioned he used small pumice and composted manure 4:1 as a grow mix for these and other cuttings and pre bonsai. We use similar but those in some sifted small akadama for 4:1:1.

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[roberthu]

Pretty much do similar to @River's Edge as far as cuttings go. Actually stuck some in early Feb and put these in the cold greenhouse. 1/2 dozen pushed roots

For wintering over, the larger quince cultivars seem to do well outside nestled into the garden bed with a number of other trees huddled together.

However the Chojubai and Toyo Nishiki both seem to do best in our area in the cold greenhouse or if nothing else a cold frame.

At one of Michael Hagedorn’s intensives he mentioned he used small pumice and composted manure 4:1 as a grow mix for these and other cuttings and pre bonsai. We use similar but those in some sifted small akadama for 4:1:1.

Cheers
DSD sends

Are you referring to the composted manure you can find in big box stores? The Black Cow or something like that?

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Yes, the feed lots mix bark and such in it.

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[Maiden69]

Chojubai doing its thing... also, I noticed a LOT of backbudding lower down the main trunk. I think I may be setting up the cloner and see if I can root a few cuttings indoors as the extensions are almost 12" long right now if not more.

 

[erich_raudebaugh]

I've taken Michael Hagedorn's seasonals and I can tell you how he develops them, I have several myself and the process works well. For the first several years, you can just let them grow, but wire the main stems for movement. Prune away some of the branches that clearly don't belong, unless they are low on the trunk and will add thickness.

You can move them into larger pots as they get bigger, one thing to keep in mind is if you want a clump or a single trunk, they will all eventually sprout suckers which can be used to form a clump, or if you want a single trunk, cut the suckers off as low as possible, and use them as cuttings.

What Michael does is to prune them twice a year, summer and fall as the leaves drop. I have a shohin clump I'm trying to keep small so it might get pruned 3 times a year. I wire new suckers that I want to keep as soon as they harden, after that directional pruning works fine.

Finally, each repotting soak the rootball with Zerotol to kill any nematodes, although I've been using a targeted pesticide that seems to work fine. Many years ago I lost all my quince to nematodes, so preventing them is key.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Nice

In addition to clip and grow - which is focus clipping so new growth will go to open areas, up, down, left and right and try not to repeat the same angle - the weirder shape the better.

Cuts vary, 1-3 internodes at odd times

Michael also wires the long span of internodes to make more variability.

Last time there (Feb) I collected about 12-18 cuttings and stuck these in the small pumice/composted manure 4:1. Of those 6 are alive, with 5 thriving. I’ll wager an early fall or mid spring strike would do even better.

Here’s a couple of these guys


Cheers
DSD sends

 

[yashu]

My temps are touching upper 40’s at night now and I’m not sure if that’s what’s causing the yellow and dropping leaves. This is all new to me so I’m trying to figure out what’s normal. I also don’t know of any chojubai in a similar climate except maybe @William N. Valavanis but I’m not really close enough to go see his garden and pick his brain.

 

[Maiden69]

I’ll wager an early fall or mid spring strike would do even better.

Problem is identifying fall here in TX... today is the first day we had high 70's during the day, yesterday we were at 94. This is the forecast for this month... I guess may be, we are finally entering "fall" weather? I'll try a few cuttings and see how they fare, probably use @leatherback Jelle's method with the big ziplock bag. I bought some 11"x14" bags from Amazon, I think my medium pots should fit inside no problem.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Fall sets in early in Maine. Likely the plants are getting “it’s time to abciss.” signal.

Many of our trees are all starting to drop leaves, or change color. Maples, oaks, elms. Our chojubai aren’t yet,

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[Maiden69]

Chojubai doing its thing...



The bigger one upfront is one of my Scasrffs Red Japanese quince. I really need to do some soji on all the trees.

 

[Darth Masiah]

i was looking through this guys mini bonsai blog and saw he picked up a longevity plum that came from Onuma
https://fwnt1093.muragon.com/tag/?q=長寿梅

this is the youngest material ive seen of his so far. is this what 10 years of cutting back low every year does, while keeping it in a round pot so the roots will circle, while also letting escape roots grow into a grow bed/tray/another pot?



this was the only other pic i could find before the development stage Jonas takes pics of, and that Onuma shows on his youtube.