So, my wife ordered me three Kishu seedlings . . .

[orangeyeoman]

Match the media for now please.

Cheers
DSD sends

Thanks. Not sure any of my potting soils look anything quite like this, but will try.

 

[yashu]

Thanks. Not sure any of my potting soils look anything quite like this, but will try.

From the photos it looks like peat and pearlite to me but but it’s hard to be sure from a photo.

as far as winter care, I place my cold hardy trees against my foundation on the south side of my house where my septic pipe comes out. The ground stays a tad warmer there and extends my season for a week or two.

 

[orangeyeoman]

From the photos it looks like peat and pearlite to me but but it’s hard to be sure from a photo.

as far as winter care, I place my cold hardy trees against my foundation on the south side of my house where my septic pipe comes out. The ground stays a tad warmer there and extends my season for a week or two.

Nice. Thanks.

 

[yashu]

Nice. Thanks.

…that said… I bought my Kishu whips in January and they stayed in my climate controlled (35°+/-) garage for that winter in a window and under grow lights.

 

[orangeyeoman]

…that said… I bought my Kishu whips in January and they stayed in my climate controlled (35°+/-) garage for that winter in a window and under grow lights.View attachment 450981View attachment 450982

Nice set-up.

When you say peat, do you mean coconut coir stuff, or the spaghnum peat moss?

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

At least put these junipers on the ground, mulched in. Water as needed and before cold snaps.
Cheers
DSD sends

 

[Paradox]

Got it. Thanks. Do you do anything to protect them in the winter, or just leave them aboveground in their pots?

I am really sorry to be contradictory to the information you have been given BUT
I am also in NY, out on Long Island. We are quite a bit warmer than in Maine. We are zone 7 vs 4/5 as the Mainer stated.
You dont want to put your trees on the south side of your house here. They will get too warm during some of the warmer days of winter and could pull them out of dormancy too early. If you can you should bury the pots against the foundation on the North side of your house preferably, east side if North isnt possible. Bury the pots up to the rim and then bury the rest under mulch or leaves for the winter.

That said, once you put them in pots this year, I wouldnt lift them from the pots again in the spring. I would leave them be until 2024 at the earliest before you mess with the roots again. I wouldnt do anything else to them this year but next fall (2023) you can wire them and put some shape into the trunks. The reason I say leave them be is because they were just shipped to you, out of whatever/where ever they were growing in before and they are likely a bit stressed from the experience. Get them in to pots now and protect them when winter comes. See how they recover next year.

Also Id put them in a spot with morning sun and afternoon shade if you can for now and be very careful of watering with the heat we are having right now. Make sure they get water when they need it (when the soil is almost dry). Get some wood chopsticks and stick them in the soil in the pots and leave them there. Pull them out once a day and check them, better yet check them in the morning and again in the afternoon. When they are almost dry, the trees need water.

 

[penumbra]

I am really sorry to be contradictory to the information you have been given BUT
I am also in NY, out on Long Island. We are quite a bit warmer than in Maine. We are zone 7 vs 4/5 as the Mainer stated.
You dont want to put your trees on the south side of your house here. They will get too warm during some of the warmer days of winter and could pull them out of dormancy too early. If you can you should bury the pots against the foundation on the North side of your house preferably, east side if North isnt possible. Bury the pots up to the rim and then bury the rest under mulch or leaves for the winter.

That said, once you put them in pots this year, I wouldnt lift them from the pots again in the spring. I would leave them be until 2024 at the earliest before you mess with the roots again. I wouldnt do anything else to them this year but next fall (2023) you can wire them and put some shape into the trunks. The reason I say leave them be is because they were just shipped to you, out of whatever/where ever they were growing in before and they are likely a bit stressed from the experience. Get them in to pots now and protect them when winter comes. See how they recover next year.

Also Id put them in a spot with morning sun and afternoon shade if you can for now and be very careful of watering with the heat we are having right now. Make sure they get water when they need it (when the soil is almost dry). Get some wood chopsticks and stick them in the soil in the pots and leave them there. Pull them out once a day and check them, better yet check them in the morning and again in the afternoon. When they are almost dry, the trees need water.

Exactly^^^

 

[misfit11]

I wire and bend lots of little junipers. Wiring before they get thick and hard lets you put good bends and twists into what will eventually be a trunk. Note the wiring and bends on the trees above but I've found that even tighter bends give wilder, more natural looking trunks when they've thickened.
J. chinensis here grow almost as fast in pots as in the ground. Typically it takes a year or 2 before I even see any noticeable growth so be prepared for a loooong development period if you are aiming at thicker trunks.
Use sacrifice branches to help increase trunk thickening. Junipers look great with dead wood features so look at sacrifice branches as potential jins - I've also taken to wiring the lower sections of sacrifice branches so the resulting jins won't all be straight.

Shibui has got some great advice here. He's one of the folks on here that offers sound advice and has the trees and experience to back it up.

Last year I twisted up a couple of my Kishu cuttings that I had rooted to make some "Yamadori Style Junipers" that Jim Gremel popularized here in the US. They have a long way to go, but such is bonsai... I like what Shibui has to say about using sacrifice branches to thicken the trunks. Sage advice right there. I've got mine in pond baskets that allows for 'air pruning' of the roots so hopefully they remain manageable while the trunks thicken. Here's a link to the thread on my Kishus which also contains a link to a thread about the process of creating Yamadori Style Junipers. https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/yamadori-style-junipers.47653/post-819449

Good luck and keep us posted of your progress!

Cory

 

[yashu]

I am really sorry to be contradictory to the information you have been given BUT
I am also in NY, out on Long Island. We are quite a bit warmer than in Maine. We are zone 7 vs 4/5 as the Mainer stated.
You dont want to put your trees on the south side of your house here. They will get too warm during some of the warmer days of winter and could pull them out of dormancy too early. If you can you should bury the pots against the foundation on the North side of your house preferably, east side if North isnt possible. Bury the pots up to the rim and then bury the rest under mulch or leaves for the winter.

That said, once you put them in pots this year, I wouldnt lift them from the pots again in the spring. I would leave them be until 2024 at the earliest before you mess with the roots again. I wouldnt do anything else to them this year but next fall (2023) you can wire them and put some shape into the trunks. The reason I say leave them be is because they were just shipped to you, out of whatever/where ever they were growing in before and they are likely a bit stressed from the experience. Get them in to pots now and protect them when winter comes. See how they recover next year.

Also Id put them in a spot with morning sun and afternoon shade if you can for now and be very careful of watering with the heat we are having right now. Make sure they get water when they need it (when the soil is almost dry). Get some wood chopsticks and stick them in the soil in the pots and leave them there. Pull them out once a day and check them, better yet check them in the morning and again in the afternoon. When they are almost dry, the trees need water.

This is much more applicable to OPs circumstances. Better to take advice from people in similar climates. If I put my trees on the north side of my place they’d all be dead. I have no natural barrier and I catch the north wind blowing directly out of the White Mountains, I’m just a short distance from Mt Washington… known for some of the worst weather on the planet. It’s true that I’ve had plants suffer some damage with freeze thaw cycles but I don’t know that anything has come out of dormancy early unless I started doing the “bonsai shuffle” with them.

I always understood that there needed to be a certain number of “degree days” for a plant to come out of dormancy rather than a couple warm days and they suddenly “wake up”? Either way, freeze thaw cycles are not a good thing to put the plant through.

 

[Paradox]

This is much more applicable to OPs circumstances. Better to take advice from people in similar climates. If I put my trees on the north side of my place they’d all be dead. I have no natural barrier and I catch the north wind blowing directly out of the White Mountains, I’m just a short distance from Mt Washington… known for some of the worst weather on the planet. It’s true that I’ve had plants suffer some damage with freeze thaw cycles but I don’t know that anything has come out of dormancy early unless I started doing the “bonsai shuffle” with them.

I always understood that there needed to be a certain number of “degree days” for a plant to come out of dormancy rather than a couple warm days and they suddenly “wake up”? Either way, freeze thaw cycles are not a good thing to put the plant through.

The biggest concern is a tree waking up too early in the late winter/early spring even after getting the proper number of hours. You can get a sudden freeze or snow storm that can kill the tree if it starts growing too early.

The south side of my house can get very warm on warm, sunny days in February or March followed by a freak freeze or snow storm. The north side of the house is much more stable in temperatures because doesn't get sun.

It's always wise to think about differences in climate when giving advice. My weather here is very different from someone in Florida or Michigan, or Maine depending on the season

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Shibui has got some great advice here. He's one of the folks on here that offers sound advice and has the trees and experience to back it up.

Good link back to a @Smoke thread.

Wondering about your comment above, though I’m sure it was good natured. Imho there is a place for everyone at this party.

Anyways, of late it seems to me the more threads one has posted, the newer the person is on this forum. Others with lots of experience don’t seem to have time to post…they are too busy working on trees


Speaking of junipers, here’s a photo of one we finished wiring and cleaning just in time for this years PBM exhibit.

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[orangeyeoman]

The biggest concern is a tree waking up too early in the late winter/early spring even after getting the proper number of hours. You can get a sudden freeze or snow storm that can kill the tree if it starts growing too early.

The south side of my house can get very warm on warm, sunny days in February or March followed by a freak freeze or snow storm. The north side of the house is much more stable in temperatures because doesn't get sun.

It's always wise to think about differences in climate when giving advice. My weather here is very different from someone in Florida or Michigan, or Maine depending on the season

Thanks for all the advice. I'm in a rowhouse in Brooklyn. My backyard has a huge pine in the yard to the south, so only the north side of my yard gets sunlight, and only for a few afternoon hours at that. I figured for winter I'd tuck them down by my fence, and mulch up around the pots. For winter it will be pretty much all shade, and out of the wind.

 

[orangeyeoman]

Good link back to a @Smoke thread.

Wondering about your comment above, though I’m sure it was good natured. Imho there is a place for everyone at this party.

Anyways, of late it seems to me the more threads one has posted, the newer the person is on this forum. Others with lots of experience don’t seem to have time to post…they are too busy working on trees


Speaking of junipers, here’s a photo of one we finished wiring and cleaning just in time for this years PBM exhibit.

Cheers
DSD sends

Wow. That is a sweet tree.

 

[yashu]

Good link back to a @Smoke thread.

Wondering about your comment above, though I’m sure it was good natured. Imho there is a place for everyone at this party.

Anyways, of late it seems to me the more threads one has posted, the newer the person is on this forum. Others with lots of experience don’t seem to have time to post…they are too busy working on trees


Speaking of junipers, here’s a photo of one we finished wiring and cleaning just in time for this years PBM exhibit.

Cheers
DSD sends

What a great tree!!!

 

[Paradox]

Thanks for all the advice. I'm in a rowhouse in Brooklyn. My backyard has a huge pine in the yard to the south, so only the north side of my yard gets sunlight, and only for a few afternoon hours at that. I figured for winter I'd tuck them down by my fence, and mulch up around the pots. For winter it will be pretty much all shade, and out of the wind.

Remember, the sun is always predominantly in the southern sky even in winter.

If the spot you describe is shaded and protected by wind, it should be OK

 

[penumbra]

Anyways, of late it seems to me the more threads one has posted, the newer the person is on this forum. Others with lots of experience don’t seem to have time to post…they are too busy working on trees

Wishing that were the case, but I just can't stay away from this site.
Right now I should be busy with one of my many plant projects. Oh well, at least I am kind of retired.

 

[orangeyeoman]

OK. Got them into the smallest pots I had. Now I could use some advice on wiring the trunks.

Here's Kishu 1. It seems to have two trunks, one of which has a main leader (not sure if that's the correct term), and a second long leader, and the other, slightly narrower trunk that has no discernible leader.

And Kishu 2, also with two trunks, one of which has a long leader, and one a shorter one.

And finally, Kishu 3, which has one trunk, with a lot of small branches.

The trunks of 1 and 2 seem moderately flexible. 3 is so short that there's not as much to bend, so feels stiffer.

What kind of movement do you think I should be going for? A simple S-bend? A heavy twist? Just a bend at the bottom? As I got these unexpectedly, I hadn't really put any research into this until last night. I was more worried about getting them potted, and not killing them Day 1.

 

[yashu]

OK. Got them into the smallest pots I had. Now I could use some advice on wiring the trunks.

Here's Kishu 1. It seems to have two trunks, one of which has a main leader (not sure if that's the correct term), and a second long leader, and the other, slightly narrower trunk that has no discernible leader.

And Kishu 2, also with two trunks, one of which has a long leader, and one a shorter one.

And finally, Kishu 3, which has one trunk, with a lot of small branches.

The trunks of 1 and 2 seem moderately flexible. 3 is so short that there's not as much to bend, so feels stiffer.

What kind of movement do you think I should be going for? A simple S-bend? A heavy twist? Just a bend at the bottom? As I got these unexpectedly, I hadn't really put any research into this until last night. I was more worried about getting them potted, and not killing them Day 1.

The Bonsaify video posted earlier really has the best advice. No matter how you wire them now it will change and you will rewire them so I’d say just have fun with it. Lots of bends, lots of twists. There are several videos on the Bonsaify YouTube channel about small Kishu since he sells them. They are all worth looking at.

 

[orangeyeoman]

The Bonsaify video posted earlier really has the best advice. No matter how you wire them now it will change and you will rewire them so I’d say just have fun with it. Lots of bends, lots of twists. There are several videos on the Bonsaify YouTube channel about small Kishu since he sells them. They are all worth looking at.

Thanks. Seemed like he was looking at mostly keeping them small, though. I'll have to go rewatch again.