Cork bark Pinus thunbergii

[Potawatomi13]

Possibility of fellow club member with cold greenhouse and willing to house for Winter may exist for you?

 

[Scorpius]

If you get decently hot in the summer and you can protect them from cold below 20 degrees you guys will be alright with corbark jbp.

 

[Cruiser]

6/24-26. High temperatures, intense sun that came on quickly. Kept pines in full sun. Covered the sides of the pots to keep temperatures down around roots. Older needles appear to be yellowing.

Since it was so hot, the temptation to water the trees was strong, especially for the one that had substrate added to its pot. But when I checked moisture levels, the added pumice was dry and the original rootball was still wet. So I did not water.

Piggy-backing off a comment in another thread…
I believe this is a good example of a possible complication from adding new substrate when slip-potting. If the added medium differs from the original, it will have different drainage properties and could give a false impression of moisture content actually around a trees roots.

 

[Scorpius]

6/24-26. High temperatures, intense sun that came on quickly. Kept pines in full sun. Covered the sides of the pots to keep temperatures down around roots. Older needles appear to be yellowing.

Since it was so hot, the temptation to water the trees was strong, especially for the one that had substrate added to its pot. But when I checked moisture levels, the added pumice was dry and the original rootball was still wet. So I did not water.

Piggy-backing off a comment in another thread…
I believe this is a good example of a possible complication from adding new substrate when slip-potting. If the added medium differs from the original, it will have different drainage properties and could give a false impression of moisture content actually around a trees roots.

Ran into this problem more than once myself. If a tree is new to me and in moisture retentive substrate I tend to remove as much as I can in the spring when repotting while still leaving the core rootball intact.

I hate, hate, hate, nursery soil for pines. It holds so much water and doesn't allow gas exchange.

 

[Cruiser]

Experienced some drainage issues a few weeks ago. Water was not getting to the interior rootball for one of the trees.
Unfortunately, it lost part of a major branch. A half dozen holes were poked into the root mass to get water into it. I was able to prevent complete loss of the branch.
I realize now that my fear of over watering led to under watering.

To better gauge if the trees need water I’ve started lifting the pots and judging based on their weights.

 

[Cruiser]

Found these tiny mushrooms growing on the bark of one tree. It has been very wet and mild here recently..
There does not appear to be any rotting. Perhaps some organic matter is building up in the bark folds and crevices.

 

[0soyoung]

Found these tiny mushrooms growing on the bark of one tree. It has been very wet and mild here recently..
There does not appear to be any rotting. Perhaps some organic matter is building up in the bark folds and crevices.

I tend to believe that fungi doesn't grow on healthy tree bark. Lichens (alga-fungi symbionts) yes, but those mushrooms aren't lichen-like.

I'm not sure about this case, but most of the fruiting bodies seem to be like armpit hairs. So, I'm very skeptical about the idea of organic material accumulating in bark fissures. To me, it seems much more likely that there's is dead tissue beneath that bark plate framed by the mushrooms. I don't want to believe that any more than you do, but (after spending a suitable length of time in denial) I think I would pop that plate off and look closer. And, I imagine I would wind up 'cauterizing' that area with my butane torch with it in mind that this is an effective treatment of 'rot fungi'. So doing, I've maybe just created another bonsai feature - if I'm wrong, it eventually gets cut off which is pretty much the only alternative treatment.

The other path is to 'hope, hope, hope' that it isn't true. If it turns out that the mushrooms are back next year ...

 

[Cruiser]

I tend to believe that fungi doesn't grow on healthy tree bark. Lichens (alga-fungi symbionts) yes, but those mushrooms aren't lichen-like.

I'm not sure about this case, but most of the fruiting bodies seem to be like armpit hairs. So, I'm very skeptical about the idea of organic material accumulating in bark fissures. To me, it seems much more likely that there's is dead tissue beneath that bark plate framed by the mushrooms. I don't want to believe that any more than you do, but (after spending a suitable length of time in denial) I think I would pop that plate off and look closer. And, I imagine I would wind up 'cauterizing' that area with my butane torch with it in mind that this is an effective treatment of 'rot fungi'. So doing, I've maybe just created another bonsai feature - if I'm wrong, it eventually gets cut off which is pretty much the only alternative treatment.

The other path is to 'hope, hope, hope' that it isn't true. If it turns out that the mushrooms are back next year ...

A good point.
I can’t think of any benefit to having them there, other than it looks cool.
We need a mycologist to chime in.

 

[Cruiser]

I think it’s Mycena adscendens, commonly known as the frosty bonnet.

 

[Cruiser]

A club member helped me repot this tree. 1st one in 15 years. It went into 1:1:1 aka lava pumice.
Roots looked mediocre. No surprise given how broken down, wet, and organic the previous soil was.

I know everyone’s thinking it so I’ll just say it……that graft union looks silly. It’s like the trees wearing corset.

 

[mwar15]

View attachment 474136

A club member helped me repot this tree. 1st one in 15 years. It went into 1:1:1 aka lava pumice.
Roots looked mediocre. No surprise given how broken down, wet, and organic the previous soil was.

I know everyone’s thinking it so I’ll just say it……that graft union looks silly. It’s like the trees wearing corset.

Did you do a half bare root?

 

[Cruiser]

Did you do a half bare root?

No. We only cut the bottom third off the root mass and cleared a bit of soil from the top surface.


Here it was before work.

 

[Scorpius]

That's some nasty soil. Keep close tabs on the moisture content of that nursery soil this year. It doesn't take much for root rot to take hold with corkers. I find their root systems considerably weaker than regular JBP.

 

[0soyoung]

That's some nasty soil. Keep close tabs on the moisture content of that nursery soil this year. It doesn't take much for root rot to take hold with corkers. I find their root systems considerably weaker than regular JBP.

You have corkers on their own roots?

 

[Cruiser]

Repotted another corker.
The front. Chonky bark. Flaunt it if ya got it.



The moss is there to cover the graft. The rock is also, and for visual stability.


The back. Not bad. The rock, moss, and jbp root stock widen the base of the tree.
Needles partially obscure the trunk. Sort of reminds me of a burlesque dancer seductively hiding behind fans. The primary branches have a dynamic limb-like flow.


There weren’t a ton of roots to begin with, but there was good growth into the pumice that was added to the pot last year.
Roots only were combed out. Virtually none were cut. No bare rooting, although old organic soil was combed out. I did not see any mycorrhizae n the old soil.

 

[Cruiser]

Third corkbark repot.

The old soil appeared to be all bark sprinkled with fertilize balls. It supported a dense metropolis of mycorrhizae.
Basically the whole pot was colonized creating a compacted and fibrous substrate around the roots. Little wonder why the tree had drainage issues last summer..






Not much of the root mass was removed. Only some chopstick-combing to remove old substrate, separate roots, and break up substrate density.

The goal for this tree is to get it bigger. I basket-wired it into an anderson flat. The idea being to give it more growing space in a shallower setting.
The new substrate is a mix of pumice, diatomaceous earth, and fir bark. Chunks of the previous mycorrhizae rich soil were also incorporated into the new mix, along with some 5-5-5 organic fertilizer.

 

[Cruiser]

A fourth corkbark has joined the collection.
Another Dewire tree, ‘Ondai’ variety.
It comes with two long leaders and lower growth retention.






The nursery repotted it last year (August 2022) into a large container of dark sandy soil that seems to retain a lot of moisture.


The tree’s had a decent growing season but does not appear vigorous. Shoot extension is good at the apices and there’s even a cone forming. The bottom branches could use more energy.



Osmocote plus was sprinkled onto the soil. I may also start giving bi-weekly fish emulsion.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Ondae gets good corky bark pretty fast, but the growth pattern is very angular. I didn’t have good luck summer candle-cutting so the needles got longish, but it is a good cultivar. Have fun with It.

 

[Cruiser]

Ondae gets good corky bark pretty fast, but the growth pattern is very angular. I didn’t have good luck summer candle-cutting so the needles got longish, but it is a good cultivar. Have fun with It.

My goals are to grow the tree larger, get it into better substrate before the root mass spreads too much, and remove a leader to prevent more swelling where the two originate.
Given that the pine was repotted last August, what do you think is the best order of operations?

My presumption is to remove the smaller sacrificial leader this Fall. Then let the tree grow until repotting in Spring or late summer ‘25.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Sounds like a good plan.