My 20-$25 Shimpaku from NEB 2008

[Japonicus]

Time for a dedicated thread for the 1st Shimpaku I owned.

Oct. 8th 2008
I carried this one around with me in fear it would get snatched up if I set it down. Pretty good sized area NEB is.
Tag read-shimpaku 20 or $25 and the fella at the register questioned the cost, and I said I had not
switched any tags, and asked what the cost should be. He replied that he couldn't sell it for anything other than the price tag read.

I've inverted the pot and cleaned around the root ball at least once in the last 11 years I've had this.
IT HAS NEVER BEEN REPOTTED and no telling how long it was in this green nursery can it came in when I got it,
that it still calls home. It is ripe for potting up.



May 8th 2011
Folks, take the _#$%* tags off. It will permanently crush fibres ruining a trunk line.



Oct. 7th 2018 before and after thinning ^

Jan 16th 2019 ^


Oct 18th, 2019


I found the pot style I';d been searching for this year at the Monastery in Conyers, Ga.
Where I used to get my bonsai soil the "Masters Blend" from bonsaimonk.com.
When I inquired about why they closed the e-store she said it was from shipping $50 pots, the nit picking and chore to ship a pot.
Anyway after being rushed along and held to the clock I came away with this nice top hat of a Chinese pot.

My plans are to pot up this Spring once new shoots are actively growing.

 

[Japonicus]

I started cleaning up the bark this weekend
some minor thinning and pruning and a small run of wire.















I Iran out of 12 gauge copper wire and had to use 10 on a couple branches, but before a 1st potting up, I'm keeping the tree
on the heavy side.
Was my 1st endeavour at cleaning any of the flaky bark off other than to get at the moss now and then.
I know it's not a great job, and have some walnut oil on the way to help bring out any colour exposed.
Really didn't want to do much on this going into Winter before potting up, it should do fine.

@AdairM I haven't cut the rim down yet. Has been a nice handle the last couple days and secured 2 "guy wires" on the right.

 

[just.wing.it]

Cool tree!
I like the twistyness of the trunk....
Will make a great candidate for a spiral Shari some day.

 

[sorce]

I've inverted the pot and cleaned around the root ball at least once in the last 11 years I've had this.
IT HAS NEVER BEEN REPOTTED and no telling how long it was in this green nursery can it came in when I got it

I just wanna .....

I've inverted the pot and cleaned around the root ball at least once in the last 11 years I've had this.
IT HAS NEVER BEEN REPOTTED and no telling how long it was in this green nursery can it came in when I got it,

Let's emphasize...

11 years I've had this.
IT HAS NEVER BEEN REPOTTED

Thank you!

Sorce

 

[Japonicus]

I just wanna .....




Let's emphasize...






Thank you!

Sorce

Yeh but it was never grown out...just sayin'
Would have done much better in someone else's care, and then in anothers care died, yet it lives and no brown
I removed maybe 10 brown parts of needles in the time I've been up to my sleeves in it this weekend.
Watering is dragging its feet some but not pooling too too long. It's ripe to pot.

 

[Japonicus]

Cool tree!
I like the twistyness of the trunk....
Will make a great candidate for a spiral Shari some day.

Thanks Mike! The twisty ness was not my doing but it is pretty cool.
If only the branches down low weren't so small.
I don't like the straight ness of the lowest branch on the right, but it's possible
that I might be removing both the left and the right lower branches.
The 2nd or rather 3rd left branch is multi level and guy wiring down. We'll see.

 

[Orion_metalhead]

How long will you leave the wire on your juniper? I have some wire on mine I did about 2 weeks ago. I hear junipers will swell in autumn going into winter and I don't want to see the wire bite in.

 

[leatherback]

Yeh but it was never grown out...just sayin'
Would have done much better in someone else's care, and then in anothers care died, yet it lives and no brown

I am not sure but.. If my memory serves me right then.. @sorce is often making the point we repot too often. I would venture a guess he was emphasiszing... Do not repot so often people! Plants will be fine.

You did well, looks like the plant went from a youngster to a muscularized trunk

 

[Japonicus]

Will make a great candidate for a spiral Shari some day.

Sure will. This is just from peeling some excess fibres down, not intentional, but could be a starting point.

You can apply something like walnut oil to the cleaned area, and the cinnamon color will really pop!

Like this? Sorry had the camera focused on foliage last pic, but yeh, thanks for the tip.
Should reduce any mites that may've been under the old shaggy bark cleaning it off
+ adding the oil to the trunk and most branches. That's where I was going with the "more sanitary" statement.

 

[Japonicus]

How long will you leave the wire on your juniper? I have some wire on mine I did about 2 weeks ago. I hear junipers will swell in autumn going into winter and I don't want to see the wire bite in.

Sorry for the delay. I really don't check wire through the Winter, but I will as I move each tree
into the cave, and again in March when I'm bringing them out. I've removed some wire from one
small procumbens I twisted a bit back in, oh, August probably. Twisted parts snug up quicker
as opposed to bends, so it depends. I normally feed high N 2x/month and lower N alternately through the growing season.
2 weeks ago, began tapering off with 7-9-5, has only frosted 1 or 2 nights so far. Last week fish, so my growth has slowed some too.
I'm sorry, that's just not a one size fits answer to your question, but this shimpaku will probably not have much
wire removed before March. I'm not wiring it out till next Fall.
Thanks for ringing my reminder though to check it

Can you tell me about the air line buffered guy points,
how they will do (or how will the wood change) over the Winter, say on the top side of a branch?

 

[Japonicus]

This morning. Water not passing well, nursery can beginning to crack from UV exposure over the last 12+ years around the rim.




Prepped 2 more pots in case the lotus pot didn't work. Well it did NOT, nor did the OTHER 2!!!




I removed more than I wanted, then after deciding to use the pot this corker is in it was way too big and roomy.

So I ended up removing a tad more on the front and back of the root ball to make it fit in this one.
This is out of my comfort zone, and I didn't have enough room left to pitch it to the left any more.
I will be fretting over this one all Spring.

While I had the corker out of the REB-14 mica pot, it was super easy stepping it down to the REB-12.
Alpha, the procumbens here, my oldest bonsai, got repotted back into the REB-14 mica pot it was in
with the planting changed...up a bit.

I'm considering putting the shimpaku in the ground in this pot and mulching it,
then bringing it out after the Summer solstice. There just wasn't a pot in my grasp that fit the needs.

 

[Japonicus]

How long will you leave the wire on your juniper?

I took it all off today except the one guy wire on the left mid ways up.
I wanted to get it all off while the roots were firm in the pot it was in.
Not really biting in. A few smallest branches were getting pretty snug, no tracks really.

 

[Hartinez]

View attachment 293952
This morning. Water not passing well, nursery can beginning to crack from UV exposure over the last 12+ years around the rim.
View attachment 293954

View attachment 293955
View attachment 293953
Prepped 2 more pots in case the lotus pot didn't work. Well it did NOT, nor did the OTHER 2!!!

View attachment 293956

View attachment 293958
I removed more than I wanted, then after deciding to use the pot this corker is in it was way too big and roomy.
View attachment 293959
So I ended up removing a tad more on the front and back of the root ball to make it fit in this one.
This is out of my comfort zone, and I didn't have enough room left to pitch it to the left any more.
I will be fretting over this one all Spring.
View attachment 293960
While I had the corker out of the REB-14 mica pot, it was super easy stepping it down to the REB-12.
Alpha, the procumbens here, my oldest bonsai, got repotted back into the REB-14 mica pot it was in
with the planting changed...up a bit.

I'm considering putting the shimpaku in the ground in this pot and mulching it,
then bringing it out after the Summer solstice. There just wasn't a pot in my grasp that fit the needs.

I don’t know @Japonicus but I think you’ll be ok. I hope I’m not wrong, but your shimp looks awfully healthy and I would be surprised if you had health issues. If anything, I think you’ll be rewarded for freeing up the roots a bit. I’d imagine all that healthy foliage will drive strong root growth.

 

[Japonicus]

I don’t know @Japonicus but I think you’ll be ok. I hope I’m not wrong, but your shimp looks awfully healthy and I would be surprised if you had health issues. If anything, I think you’ll be rewarded for freeing up the roots a bit. I’d imagine all that healthy foliage will drive strong root growth.

sure hope so, but that's way yonder more than 50% removal, and the pot's not a great fit 1st potting up, seems awfully snug.
That's the "out of my comfort zone" mention. I really like an inch of growth room for the roots all the way around.
I use deeper pots than most with my watering limitations with work.

The healthy foliage is precisely why little to no thinning was done last year in anticipation of this moment.
Just carried that green nursery can up to the street for rubbish collection tomorrow.

 

[Japonicus]

Rewarded, in the rough, but rewarded.
Potted up 4 months ago, breathing a little sigh of relief.
Lighting totally different from previous pics, soil needs refreshing, trunk needs cleaning, insecticide, cleaning up...
but healthy.

 

[leatherback]

Love how this tree is aging gently.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Nice trunk line. You really need to prune it back to encourage interior growth. It’s getting heavy up top, and leggy down below, and that won’t improve on its own. I’d start at the bottom by cleaning up the stuff growing in crotches, stuff growing down, and pruning multiple shoots back to pairs which are closest to the trunk. Keep growth close to the trunk, and remove growth on the outside of the profile. As you work your way up the tree, get more aggressive so the tree ends up balanced in density from bottom to top. If you do it now, you’ll likely have enough growing season left to see it fill in by winter.

Here is a recent article showing my work on an Itoigawa of a similar size, but one I’ve been able to keep relatively dense and compact.

Itoigawa Shimpaku summer work

I last wired this one 2 years ago, and the wire was digging in. It had also gotten fairly dense, and as is the case, weak areas got weaker, and strong areas got stronger. So this work was to remove…

nebaribonsai.wordpress.com

 

[Arnold_K]

@Japonicus

You did an excellent gardening-job on this.
You have got something, wich is very rare in bonsai, and that is patience ...
Don't get me wrong, your tree is perfect!
And the pot is perfect as well.

For my liking the crown is a bit too massiv for the relatily slim trunc.
And i would get rid of two or three of the lower branches ...
You have such an amount of option for the designing, cause there are so much branches.
Here my quick virtual as an draft of my imaginations ...

 

[Arnold_K]

And this would be the tree within the tree ...

 

[Japonicus]

Nice trunk line. You really need to prune it back to encourage interior growth. It’s getting heavy up top, and leggy down below, and that won’t improve on its own. I’d start at the bottom by cleaning up the stuff growing in crotches, stuff growing down, and pruning multiple shoots back to pairs which are closest to the trunk. Keep growth close to the trunk, and remove growth on the outside of the profile. As you work your way up the tree, get more aggressive so the tree ends up balanced in density from bottom to top. If you do it now, you’ll likely have enough growing season left to see it fill in by winter.

Here is a recent article showing my work on an Itoigawa of a similar size, but one I’ve been able to keep relatively dense and compact.

Itoigawa Shimpaku summer work

I last wired this one 2 years ago, and the wire was digging in. It had also gotten fairly dense, and as is the case, weak areas got weaker, and strong areas got stronger. So this work was to remove…

nebaribonsai.wordpress.com

Thanks Brian! I will check out that link ASAP awesome, thanks man.
I know it's needing cleaned up and am underway on that chore bit at a time.

As for pruning, I wasn't going to go at it as aggressively as you mentioned observing the insult per year rule.
You're right, it cant correct on its' own, so I will probably meet you a bit more than half way on that.
Here's my question on that though, ...
this will remove a chunk of runners you're aware. What does this mean for the health of the tree
in particular, 4 months post potting?