AusBonsai

When I repot pines I take as much soil off as I can, however, I collect a some of the soil with the white mould in it and crush it then spread it on the new soil before I sit the plant back in it. Pines need this white mould to grow so this ensures it is present in the soil.

Josh

It's looking really good now Luke! Can't offer any advice, but will be following this post with interest, as I've got a couple of radiatas I dug from Mt Crawford forest in June, one of which is a little bit similar to yours (although not so many cool curves in it). Are you going to any of the workshops coming up in Adelaide??

Bek wrote:It's looking really good now Luke! Can't offer any advice, but will be following this post with interest, as I've got a couple of radiatas I dug from Mt Crawford forest in June, one of which is a little bit similar to yours (although not so many cool curves in it). Are you going to any of the workshops coming up in Adelaide??

Hi Bek,

Yes I am going to a workshop with Grant Bowie this Sunday, although I won't be taking this tree. Quite possibly will be taking a huge callistemon

Cool! I may see you then - I'm going to the morning session. Not sure what to bring yet though!

So I finally got around to re-potting this radiata today.

I let it dry out for a few days prior to make it easier to bare root. After getting the tree out of the foam boxI was surprised to find quite a bit of mycorrhiza which I made sure I put some aside to put in with the new mix. Being I had let it dry out I could get a lot of the soil loose by literally dropping the tree onto the ground rootball first. After about 10mins work with a root hook I had the tree bare rooted. It was now time to soak in a bath of Rhizotonic. (I did have photos of all these things but my sdcard shat itself and is telling me the photos are corrupted. I realised this and grabbed my other camera.

Whilst soaking I prepared the new foam box with 100% pumice and some wire to tie the tree down.

I was unable to locate a suitable bonsai pot in time so I decided to pot into a foam box again for the next 12 months or more.
In the meantime I will look for a suitable pot.

I was surprised at the root mass actually, I thought they would all be big roots but there was quite a few finer roots too. I did saw the tap root stump off which protruded below the roots from when it was originally dug. I also trimmed about 10% of the roots to help fit into the box at the new planting angle.

Now the time has come to pray to the bonsai gods that it survives its first repot before thinking about some more wiring/needle plucking in autumn

It must be radiata night
I bent the crap outta mine tonight and will repot in the morning

Nice tree Luke and it should go gangbusters now.
I did a thorough job on the roots on mine last year and got rid of the stump under the trunk then. The pot today was full of nice fine roots

it is always a good idea to have that extra year in a grow box after major root reduction anyway. Now you knw how much root is there you can look for a pot just the right size and pot up next year

Ken

kcpoole wrote:It must be radiata night
I bent the crap outta mine tonight and will repot in the morning

Nice tree Luke and it should go gangbusters now.
I did a thorough job on the roots on mine last year and got rid of the stump under the trunk then. The pot today was full of nice fine roots

it is always a good idea to have that extra year in a grow box after major root reduction anyway. Now you knw how much root is there you can look for a pot just the right size and pot up next year

Ken

You're a brave man Ken!!

I've been told by numerous people to do one thing at a time with pines. ie if you are working on roots/re-potting don't touch anything above the soil line ie needle plucking, wiring, bending, candle snapping etc.

I had another Radiata at a workshop with Grant Bowie just last weekend and he echoed this saying that radiata's are known to have weak root systems unlike JBP.

May the bonsai Gods smile upon you and your tree recovers well.

My tree is in need of a tidy up and re-wire but I am not willing to risk this all in one go as it is too much of a shock to the tree (and I was gentle on the roots)

Luke308 wrote:

kcpoole wrote:It must be radiata night
I bent the crap outta mine tonight and will repot in the morning

Nice tree Luke and it should go gangbusters now.
I did a thorough job on the roots on mine last year and got rid of the stump under the trunk then. The pot today was full of nice fine roots

it is always a good idea to have that extra year in a grow box after major root reduction anyway. Now you knw how much root is there you can look for a pot just the right size and pot up next year

Ken

You're a brave man Ken!!

I've been told by numerous people to do one thing at a time with pines. ie if you are working on roots/re-potting don't touch anything above the soil line ie needle plucking, wiring, bending, candle snapping etc.

That is why it took off very little roots . I had to remove some to get in the pot, but hopefully that will not be a problem
My way of thinking is that the trauma of collection would be far wors than what it got last night. or at least I hope do

Ken

I can't wait until Sunday as I am taking this tree to Mauro's workshop for round 2. Looking forward to seeing the progress.

Second time this tree has met Mauro, and I am very happy with it's progress. I was hoping being the second workshop and we had the framework done I wouldn't have to pull all old needles off but I was wrong

I spent the first 30 mins needle plucking, then the rest of the workshop wiring. I learnt so much from Mauro's approach after having been told to take the wheel and not be afraid to make a mistake wiring. Once I did this I was surprised I got it right most of the time. Near enough is not good enough with Mauro which suits me to a tea.
Mauro has told me to not let this grow wildly to maintain shape and to cut and candles to try and force back budding and ramification. I hope to see him again in the next 12-24 months with this tree.

So I had a play around on paint whilst bored at work to see what it would look like without the first right hand branch. The first left branch is a lot thicker, and with the dramatic change in direction I like this option of it removed.

Any thoughts positive or negative are welcome.

For me I think the tree will become unbalanced if the right branch goes.

I think that if you wait untill autumn, follow the process of candle cutting over summer that Mauro has laid out and give the tree a chance to start the ramification and needle reduction process you will be looking at a different tree and be more happy with the direction

kez wrote:For me I think the tree will become unbalanced if the right branch goes.

I think that if you wait untill autumn, follow the process of candle cutting over summer that Mauro has laid out and give the tree a chance to start the ramification and needle reduction process you will be looking at a different tree and be more happy with the direction

Im not planning on chopping anything just yet, but Mauro did suggest that may suit the tree better. I have just done the virt to get an idea of how it will look if I were to go that direction.

I appreciate your thoughts though, will be interesting once it has had a chance to recover, and bud back which direction it goes.

I would keep it for now you never want to limit future optionsbut this would still work without that branch

I like what you're thinking there Gerard!!

I am wanting to compact the apex in the future too but I think this looks better again.