JBP progression

[mwar15]

This is a JBP I bought from a older club member in May of 2018. She said the tree was too big for her. The tree was field grown on the southern Oregon coast. She bought it in the late 80’s from the grower. This is a progression and this is why I love this forum. I can look back in a decade and see the progress.

I believe Her techniques are less up to date. She doesn’t wire trees anymore. The tree has had some structure set at some point. She said she repotted the tree within the last 5 years. The soil is mainly quality potting soil with pumice. It appears compacted. Wires holding the tree in the pot have rusted and broke.


When I brought the tree home I didn’t want to do too much work to as it was going from a coastal environment to a hotter climate. I wanted to give it time to acclimate.

I wired some of the branches out to open it up. I pulled some of the old needles. I did not do any candle pruning in 2018. It was fertilized and moved to the sun around the first of the year 2019.

The tree is very leggy. It has a lot of old bark on most of the main branches.

In June I started candle pruning. I started at the bottom and after 10 days went to the middle and 10 days later went to the apex. I pulled needles in the same sections. Mainly on the bottoms of branches.

 

[mwar15]

This fall I cut all the old wire off. I reached out to a couple members here to get some direction. And would like to thank @Brian Van Fleet .
Here are the 4 sides
Front
Left

right

back

from this I started wiring and trimming. I’m glad I found About 5lbs some 3/8” copper wire at the local junk yard and a hot brush fire made it soft for me. It took about a week to wire it out as it rained on and off

 

[mwar15]

I got the bottom half wired out, the branches aren’t in the final position. The overall height of the tree is too tall.



I felt like with big copper I could lower the top and add some movement.


After front




I am happy with the new top. Next up lower some of the main branches.

 

[mwar15]

Last picture.

Moving forward: see how it reacts come next spring/summer and the summer of 2021. After that probably a repotting after that. probably will need a slight change in new front and planting angle.

 

[mwar15]

I took the wire off and repotted it today, I need to decide on the apex. I’ll wait until the fall and see how it reacts to the repot. I think it will grow well as it was in potting soil and 30 year old clay

 

[mwar15]

Rewired this tree last fall(2021). Grafted 16 scions today. I am hoping to reduce the leggyness and get it more compact.

 

[mwar15]

This tree has slowly declined. I believe it was due to lack of vigor due to never letting it grow to gain energy, constantly candle pruning and poor soil. I made the decision to repot it in straight pumice in a pot that is a little larger than what it was in. There was minimal roots and lots of compacted organic soil.

 

[WavyGaby]

How many of the scions took?

That's a big root reduction but it sounds like you had to do it. I hope it improves!

 

[mwar15]

How many of the scions took?

That's a big root reduction but it sounds like you had to do it. I hope it improves!

3 scions took

 

[mwar15]

I cut off unnecessary branches, cut dead branches and thinned branches. We worked on the angle and front. The front from where I took photo is a little more clockwise.
Before
After

Plan for once I wire it.

It will get fired this fall and then candle pruned next year, if it continues to grow as well as it did this year.