Small, old, JBP

[Adair M]

This is a JBP, guesstimated time be about 70 years old.



I wired it a year ago, and decandled it last June. This fall’s work included pulling old needles, thinning summer candles, pulling a few new needles for balance and cutting back.

 

[AndyJ]

This will look brilliant in spring Adair!

 

[Orion_metalhead]

Nice little pine!

When you say "thinning summer candles," you mean you removed candles you know you dont want for next year? Is there a specific reason you remove them now as opposed to letting them add energy to the tree next spring and then pruning them?

 

[cmeg1]

Pretty serious Pine tree!
Wow,man.Nice one

 

[Adair M]

Nice little pine!

When you say "thinning summer candles," you mean you removed candles you know you dont want for next year? Is there a specific reason you remove them now as opposed to letting them add energy to the tree next spring and then pruning them?

After decandling, new buds form, and develop into candles. Which produce new (summer) shoots. On terminals where three or more new shoots (candles) grew, I thin down to two. Next spring, each of those will send up a spring candle, which I will remove in early to mid summer.

 

[MrWunderful]

@Adair M , i was recently at a workshop with Jonas and I asked him about bud selection in fall, and he said he never did it (I assume he reduced to two at decandling). Since you both share the same teacher, I am curious as to why you are choosing to do it (unless I am mistaken as to what I heard). Any thoughts?

 

[Adair M]

@Adair M , i was recently at a workshop with Jonas and I asked him about bud selection in fall, and he said he never did it (I assume he reduced to two at decandling). Since you both share the same teacher, I am curious as to why you are choosing to do it (unless I am mistaken as to what I heard). Any thoughts?

Perhaps he thought you were talking about the undeveloped buds at the very tips that will grow into candles next spring. I don’t touch those in fall.

I do reduce the number of “summer candles” or “summer shoots” that grew after I decandled last summer. After decandling, it’s common to get three new candles (adventitious buds) to grow to replace the candle that was removed. I let all three grow until fall (now), and then remove one, leaving two.

Brian Van Fleet does it differently. He will pinch off one of the developing adventitious buds before it has a chance to grow out.

 

[MrWunderful]

Perhaps he thought you were talking about the undeveloped buds at the very tips that will grow into candles next spring. I don’t touch those in fall.

I do reduce the number of “summer candles” or “summer shoots” that grew after I decandled last summer. After decandling, it’s common to get three new candles (adventitious buds) to grow to replace the candle that was removed. I let all three grow until fall (now), and then remove one, leaving two.

Brian Van Fleet does it differently. He will pinch off one of the developing adventitious buds before it has a chance to grow out.

I must have been mistaken then, thanks for the clarification. I was referring to these:

 

[just.wing.it]

Nice Pine Tree!
How tall is it?

 

[Adair M]

Yeah, those are next year’s buds. Leave those alone for now.

 

[Adair M]

Nice Pine Tree!
How tall is it?

12 to 14 inches. Something like that.

 

[Schmikah]

12 to 14 inches. Something like that.

That's nuts. Someone put some serious effort into putting the age on that one.

 

[LanceMac10]

Great tree, do you feel some branches on the viewers left are a bit too vigorous, comparatively speaking?


Heck of a tree regardless.

 

[Adair M]

That's nuts. Someone put some serious effort into putting the age on that one.

Boon imported 13 of these in 2003. At the time they were “approximately” 50 years old.

They were originally collected as seedlings from the Tokyo area. Then container grown. For 50 years. Then Boon obtained them (in exchange for working on the man’s collection).

Boon imported them in 2003, and sold them. I obtained mine from one of Boon’s students. Boon knows the whereabouts of 3 or 4 of them, the others he’s lost track of.

So, the best guess is about 70 to 75 years old. Growing in a container produces really good bark!

 

[Orion_metalhead]

Ive noticed with my deciduous that they are getting bark texture even after only a couple years. I expect the same with conifers as well.

 

[Stan Kengai]

Ive noticed with my deciduous that they are getting bark texture even after only a couple years. I expect the same with conifers as well.

It's not just bark texture, but the scale of the bark features. A JBP in the landscape would have bark plates 10 times larger than those on this tree and the furrows would also be considerably deeper. These features can only be achieved by many years of slow growth.

 

[Orion_metalhead]

It makes me wonder why there is so much focus on ground growing and field growing. Yes you get thick trunks fast, but at the expense of other desireable features.

Adair's tree here is an example.

 

[Schmikah]

Boon imported 13 of these in 2003. At the time they were “approximately” 50 years old.

They were originally collected as seedlings from the Tokyo area. Then container grown. For 50 years. Then Boon obtained them (in exchange for working on the man’s collection).

Boon imported them in 2003, and sold them. I obtained mine from one of Boon’s students. Boon knows the whereabouts of 3 or 4 of them, the others he’s lost track of.

So, the best guess is about 70 to 75 years old. Growing in a container produces really good bark!

I'm just stunned that it has such a beautiful taper (I thought i saw a bit of inverse taper on the upper 3rd but I think that's one of the back branches) with the ridiculous amount of bark age in a 12 inch tree. The only thing that bugs me is that piece of bark/something that is sticking out from the trunk just above the nebari on the left side.

 

[Schmikah]

It makes me wonder why there is so much focus on ground growing and field growing. Yes you get thick trunks fast, but at the expense of other desireable features.

Adair's tree here is an example.

Preach.
I think its the lack of people looking at the long game. To be fair, however, I mix it up (I have bald cypress specifically because I know I can bulk that guy up very quickly) but there seems to be a push to try and catch up with japan as quickly as possible without realizing the length of time that is necessary to make high quality pieces.

 

[Nybonsai12]

I think its the lack of people looking at the long game.

I think it's the whole "it takes 70 years in a pot to look like this" thing.