parhamr contest entry thread

[Bonsai206]

Any updates? I wish I was on this board to join the contest back when it started.
I have 20 one year seedlings (more like 14 months old), and I'm interested in your process. I just put them into 5" nursery pots not too long ago, but now wish I had net pots or colanders. I wonder if I should disturb them again...

Nice job!

 

[parhamr]

I’ll count this as my end of the growing season update. They’ll likely still put on a little more vascular tissue but this is about it. These are some of the biggest saplings. I have two more that are slightly larger that I haven’t yet photographed.

Tree 1, full and detail:


Tree 2, full and detail (reverse). It needs the wire taken off but I think I’m a bit too late in the season for that. I’ll wait until next year.


In 2020 most of my JBP were in suboptimal growing locations in the back yard. I only recall fertilizing them twice with a meager amount of a 5-4-4 granular organic that’s produced locally. It’s nothing special — cottonseed meal, blood meal, bone meal, and composted manure.

Most of my trees are in the front/side fenced area and the JBP will all be there for 2021.

 

[thomas22]

I’ll count this as my end of the growing season update. They’ll likely still put on a little more vascular tissue but this is about it. These are some of the biggest saplings. I have two more that are slightly larger that I haven’t yet photographed.

Tree 1, full and detail:
View attachment 335891 View attachment 335892hb

Tree 2, full and detail (reverse). It needs the wire taken off but I think I’m a bit too late in the season for that. I’ll wait until nex

In 2020 most of my JBP were in suboptimal growing locations in the back yard. I only recall fertilizing them twice with a meager amount of a 5-4-4 granular organic that’s produced locally. It’s nothing special — cottonseed meal, blood meal, bone meal, and composted manure.

Most of my trees are in the front/side fenced area and the JBP will all be there for 2021.

Nice job on these. I like that on tree 1 you have two strong growing low branches that you could use as a sacrifice branch and a new trunk. I haven't noticed too many trees in the contest with the two strong growing low branches, A few of mine have moderate growing low branches but not as strong as yours.

 

[parhamr]

Okay here are my other two largest saplings. These have not yet received wire and they were in a better position in the yard than the above trees.

Tree 3:


Tree 4:


These tree numbers aren’t a system I’ll be sticking with, but they’re just for grouping here in this season.

 

[parhamr]

Here’s my various saplings on the southwest side of the house

 

[PeaceLoveBonsai]

Lookin good @parhamr !

Here’s my various saplings on the southwest side of the house

 

[parhamr]

Ugh I could be doing better at shooting photos. I took all 12 trees that were in colanders and gave them a seasonal checkup.

On all of them I reduced the top escape branch down to the one strongest leader and plucked a little bit of the needles to reduce shading of lower foliage. On around half of them I pruned the lower branches back to interior shoots or semi-mature buds.

For only a few trees did I add new wire. The trees that had previously been wired needed the wire removed so it wouldn’t be swallowed into the tissue.

I still have another 20 trees in 4-inch pots that could go into colanders.

I’m not in a hurry to get moving on these trees this year because we’ve had a late and long winter. Overnight lows are still definitely cold enough as to suppress growth. The buds on all my trees are gently swelling but mostly waiting for the temps to improve.

 

[Johnathan]

Pictures!!!!

 

[parhamr]

Well I haven’t done much with them but they continue to thicken up in the colanders

 

[parhamr]

Proof of age:


I removed the sacrificial leader as it has done its work for the purpose of this contest. These remaining lower growths will keep the sap flowing and there are a bunch of healthy latent buds ready to take over. Exciting!

 

[PeaceLoveBonsai]

Well done @parhamr !!!

 

[parhamr]

This is just a functional update. Here are 15 of the 16 trees I have remaining from this crop.



One quarter are pretty interesting, one quarter are mediocre, and the remainder deserves to be split between the compost bin or growing out to larger trees.

 

[River's Edge]

Some of your baby pine are asking for wire for Christmas They are anxious to join the movement and find direction in their life. They are grateful for the healthy beginnings but pining for advancement.

 

[parhamr]

Some of your baby pine are asking for wire for Christmas They are anxious to join the movement and find direction in their life. They are grateful for the healthy beginnings but pining for advancement.

You got it! I pulled them out of the rain to dry out a touch before wiring.

 

[bwaynef]

They are grateful for the healthy beginnings but pining for advancement.

Literally. Pining.

 

[parhamr]

Well I’m wishing I had done this wiring a year ago and done some seasonal pruning this year, but ugh there were some complications in my life.

Here’s the current slate of trees after a touch of work. They’re in no particular order and these name labels might not be consistent in future posts.

A: twisty and goofy. Unconventional and free form. It’s not necessarily compelling right now but it has good overall vigor and could still become something. There are great lower buds. I cracked the trunk quite a bit, which is either the beheading it needs to transition to lower growths or this is what will kill off sap flow and send it all downhill. It’ll remain in the lot.


B: one of my thickest trees from the lot. Its lower trunk is fully past the point of creating interesting and tight movement. If I can get the lowest branch to take off I might be able to do a hard chop and transition to a small design. At present, it’s feeling a bit like this will be a taller design with more sparse branching. This is one of my keepers, I suspect.


C: one decently placed lower branch and then a decent amount of movement and vigor above that. It is interesting in the round but not amazing in 2D. I’m iffy about it but still willing to see how it responds to intensive styling work.

D: this is the tree from post #70 and I think it’s in my top 3 for design potential, health, and branch placement. The big branches might be possible to remove next year in the growing season. For now I think they’re needed to continue sap draw. This tree has some (not much) trunk movement and the potential for great low branching in a shohin size




E: very similar to D in size, branch placement, and available buds, but maybe a slightly larger scale. It’s good but probably more of a top 5 sort of specimen. I made a big chop and like its vigor and capacity for growth.


F: this one has some exciting potential for a chuhin sized tree with decent trunk movement and branch positioning.



G: this one had natural desire for a short formal upright so I’ve been pushing it along that path. Of these four branches — two sets of bars — I think the left side wins the first node and the right side wins the second node. This tree feels like it could be in the top 3 for suitability in meeting the contest requirements and expectations.

 

[parhamr]

H: I thought this one was destined for the compost bin but this year it finally figured things out and took off with vigor. It’s not that interesting but what it does have going for it is the potential to become a cascade and it retains healthy lower buds.


I: this one was also destined for the compost bin. It’s not interesting and not the most vigorous. Maybe the angle at which it exits the ground is all it has going for it.


J: this one has a lot of vigor and is among the thickest. There is some lower movement that isn’t quite apparent at this angle. It is a candidate for a chop, but not necessarily the most compelling. It’s definitely a top 10 tree but I’m skeptical if it’s a top 5 specimen. Wire would help to push it along.

K: this one is a bit of an exciting balance between healthy lower branching and buds plus a small amount of movement and opportunity for taper. It’s okay. At present it needs work, but I suspect this could grow out into a decent chuhin tree. I haven’t yet wired this one and it needs some.


L: meet the ugliest tree in the group. It has deep-ish wire scars and bulges. It has obtuse crotch angles. It has odd proportions. The best attribute is its low branches that are viable to take over.


M: another mediocre tree. It needs wire. The low branches could for taper and movement.


N: this tree appears to be my number 1 candidate for fitting the contest goals and requirements. It is loaded up with energy and those lower buds are primed to go. So long as this chop doesn’t cause a runaway problem with water logging the roots and so long as the winter is good enough, this tree isry promising.



O: another tree with thickness and vigor but inadequate movement. Hmm.


P: another real oddball. The very first two branches could take over pretty nicely if I were to remove the whole thick and funky shaped portion. It’s a real builder project but it could produce a conventionally nice tree using the bulk of its foliage as sacrifice.

As I’ve been looking through this I’m starting to realize a critical follow on to my methods might be to graft! Why wait for latent buds and adventitious tissue to work their magic when I could “just” bolt on the right branch in the right spot

 

[rollwithak]

Today I transplanted 12 seedlings into more of the colanders. For these, I trimmed the tap root and spread the roots out flat and radiating from the trunk.

I’ve started marking the rims of colanders with oil pencils: white for control and yellow for trimmed tap roots. More to come…

Where did you purchase these colanders?

 

[rollwithak]

Oh! Epsom salt, too.

How do you administer these and in what intervals and quantities? Epsom salt?! Really?! What does that do for the plant?

 

[parhamr]

Where did you purchase these colanders?

Local Asian grocery stores

How do you administer these and in what intervals and quantities? Epsom salt?! Really?! What does that do for the plant?

A generous culinary “pinch” for each. Like a small handful. Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate, and very water soluble. What it does is supplements the soil with both magnesium and sulfur. What I understand is it’s generally not possible to overdose the plants, but I don’t have a source.

Where I live, the tap water is about 8.2 pH and total dissolved solids is amazingly low — around 25 on whatever scale is common (ppm?). I have to provide correction for the pH and all of the missing compounds. By missing I mean both what isn’t present and what has also been leached away by watering.