My year around bonsai work in the Inland Empire, CA

In the last two days, I had to move those bonsai and pre-bonsai around for preparation of coming vacation. Because I did not have a benches and stands for them yet, so it took me long time to do this job combined with set up the water system. Actually, I might have finished the work in half day, but because it was so hot in my area, I had to restrict working in certain time of the day to avoid heat stroke!

I have been using the PVC stand to support the overhead water system. I like this, because I can easily disassemble and stock them. I only use overhead water set up for pre-bonsai stock. Obviously, overhead water set up is not good for the trees due to high risk of fungal infection, but there is no other way around for large amount of pre-bonsai stocks.

I place 4 spay heads for each section.
11.png 13.png 14.png 12.png

Another 2 sections.
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There are totally 6 sections.

Bonhe
 
With the bonsai pot, I have been using the separated water supply unit. For example, there are 2 units for this JBP.
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This unit is really good. I have been already using it for at least 5 years and it still working as a horse! :) You can see lot of mineral deposit to it! How hard the water in my area is!
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Now, I am ready to go on vacation! ;)
Bonhe
 
The neighborhood patroller is taking a nap under the shade of crepe myrtle bonsai! He is fat! :)
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Bonhe
 
Those oak seedlings are needed to trim down, so that the water from overhead heads can get down to the their soils. I have many types of oak seedlings. Every time I found an oak, I tried to get acorn!
Before
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After
4.png
Bonhe
 
With this potted ficus, I use this watering method. The one gallon milk jug was used to hold the water. The cotton rope was inserted into the jug, with one of its end was laid on the surface of soil. It should be worked well.
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Bonhe
 
Came back from vacation and worked on the old JBPs. I placed 2 of them on the discarded turnable chairs while waiting for final placement.
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I will work on the young JBPs in September.

Few questions for you: :)
1. Why does the black pine have that name? ;)
2. Why the bark of the pine turn black with time?
3. Can other kinds of pine's bark turn black?

Thanks and have a nice weekend everyone.
Bonhe
 
Those look like some happy, healthy JBP!!!!
What exactly did you do, they still look rather "bushy"?
Great looking material and thanks for sharing.....:D
 
bonhe said:
Few questions for you: :)
1. Why does the black pine have that name? ;)
2. Why the bark of the pine turn black with time?
3. Can other kinds of pine's bark turn black?
Click to expand...
Why YES! Pinus nigre (black pine, Austrian/European/The), for one.
It will be fun to hear your (anyone's) answers to the first two questions. :D
 
LanceMac10 said:
Those look like some happy, healthy JBP!!!!
What exactly did you do, they still look rather "bushy"?
Great looking material and thanks for sharing.....:D
Click to expand...
Thank you for your comment.
Yes, it looks "bushy" in purpose (to build up its strength). Let say something about its history. I got this tree from my teacher in 2010. At that time, it was in 15 gallon pot and really weak due to unchanged soil for many years.

It was on 10/19/2010. Poor drainage due to root bound. I used very long chopstick to make a lot of tunnel around the trunk base for better drainage. It worked very well.
DSC_1494.jpg DSC_1496.jpg

After removal of dead needles and few wiring on 10/24/2010.
DSC_1659.jpg

It has been giving lot of fertilizer, direct sunlight since then.

It was transplanted to current Japanese old pot on 1/8/2012. It was so heavy that I had to use Hoyer lift to assist me in doing procedure!
Its strength came back very well after that.

It was on 4/15/2012
DSC_0851.JPG

It has been trained as scheduled yearly since then.
It was on 6/27/16 prior to being worked
1.png

Bonhe
 
I work on the old black pine in June to the 1st week of July. It is up to the weather condition in my place. Most of the time, I cut the shoots, candles all the way down to the previous season growth. But in some instances, I won't do that and it depends on the strength of the area of the tree and the number and condition of the shoots it has in that branch.
For example, this branch has 2 new shoots (A) coming out from the last year pruning and their condition is perfect to be kept.
5.png

Instead of cut down to the last year part (B) as usual, I cut the shoots short (1,2).
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By doing that, I should have new buds coming out from these cuts. Hope it makes sense!
After work
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The current pot is relatively big for the tree. It will be transferred into the proper pot in the future.
Bonhe
 
0soyoung said:
Why YES! Pinus nigre (black pine, Austrian/European/The), for one.
It will be fun to hear your (anyone's) answers to the first two questions. :D
Click to expand...
Thank you.
Ah, I want to know what people think first ;)
Bonhe
 
Time for taking care the tamarix again! Tamarix is one of the most aggressive species! It will keep you busy all year around!
Before
1.png

One of the new shoots coming out from no where!
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It was removed
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After trimming and wiring.
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Bonhe
 
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