Tim's JBP Thread

[TimIAm]

Until now I've been posting in R3's Pine Project thread and think it's time that I stop posting over his excellent work and start my updates in a new space.

This is definitely a learners attempt at growing pines. But, I'm hoping through my ignorance others will learn as I do and maybe in 5 years time I won't have killed every single one of these trees.

Where I started: 6 month old seedlings

I got these mid-April. Unfortunately they were way overcrowded and I had to do an emergency repot. You can see about a third of the bottom has died off due to lack of sunlight.

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At the same time I did some root work as they all needed to be moved, I thought that they were being disturbed anyway. Come spring, I was lucky with the first round of spring growth almost every one of them budded at the lowest point even though needles were already dead.

1 year old seedlings:

At the beginning of Spring, I was happy that the majority of the seedlings had survived. I lost about 10 out of approximately 140 due to repotting. I thought they may have enough space until the next repotting window but I'm getting worried this may not be the case. They have already put on considerable Spring growth and some of them already have another round of green appearing at the head, so I guess over the next couple of weeks there is more growth coming (assumption)? I'm concerned that I may have underestimated the growth and they may be back in the situation where they are again overcrowded.

I'm not just concerned about crowding at the top, but if they are growing really well, the tray may be too shallow?


My question: Looking at the pictures below, when do you suggest I repot?

I'm thinking the options are:
- Now, it's not too late
- In Autumn, it's already too late and Autumn is fine in Sydney, Australia to repot JBP
- They are not overcrowded yet; Spring next year?

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[shibui]

All 3 of your options are good.
JBP seedlings are resilient, even at 1 year old they can cope with root pruning almost all year round so it is not too late this year.
Autumn seems to be a good time to repot any JBP so the seedlings can be done then too.
there's still plenty of space for those to grow for another year but I suspect they would grow a bit faster if they each had more space or a separate pot. If you leave them together, make sure you feed regularly as they will be competing for limited nutrients.
The tray is only too shallow if you can't water enough to keep them happy.

[TimIAm]

With the goal of developing the lowest growth and having a sacrifice up top, when I have growth like the examples below, should I cut so there is only one leader? Is the best time to do this now or at the end of the growing season?

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I also need help understanding some of the terminology, I've watched several videos and tried search but still not sure I understand correctly:

1. Is what I'm asking about above, are they candles?

2. At the beginning of spring, I had one round of growth, which was about 2 inches on each of the seedlings, now the seedlings have had another round of growth where most of them have put out these long straight extensions (candles?). Is this what people refer to when they talk about "flush" with pines?

[TimIAm]

18 month update

I wanted to post regular updates with the trees and mark each update against a picture. I found it a bit tricky with the 5 year contest on Bnut to count months against when the seed first sprouted to try and work out an exact age against the pictures that were posted.

Although these trees are 18 months and look a reasonable size, they were quite crowded and shaded when I got them. I'm mentioning this as I think someone in Sydney could get better results if the seedlings were better spaced and had more access to sunlight during the first Summer growing period.

I did separate these out into individual pots and I'm glad I did because they have really thrown out a lot of roots. Most of these now have roots out through the bottom of the pots. Weeds are a bit of a pain and every 8 weeks or so I need to do weeding on 100+ trees which takes a while.

I have already applied wire and some low bends to a handful of trees that were starting to thicken up.

I planted 3 trees in taller, slender pots in an attempt to do exposed root style.

Next steps after winter growth will be to wire all of the trees for low movement. Each of these trees has had 2 rounds of root work, there was initial root work when I purchased them and secondary root work when I moved them out of the Anderson flats into individual pots. About three of the trees didn't settle into their pots and died during the last 6 months. Although they didn't make it, the root spread on these trees was great, a good sign for the rest of the trees.

All of the trees have good low budding options. Not sure if I just got lucky, but almost every tree had lost their needles for the bottom 30% due to initial lack of sunlight, but all of the trees still put out new buds at the lowest points when they were later exposed to sunlight and they are all looking green and healthy.

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Below is a picture representing what one of the average trees looks like at 18 months:

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[TimIAm]

2 year update

These pines are now approximately 2 years since they sprouted.

I am very happy with how these are progressing. Compared to some of the youtube videos of 3 year old trees they are already looking comparable. I think the conditions in NSW are very favourable to growing JBP. My trees are slightly behind what R3 achieved and I put that down to the poor start they received - I've mentioned this above - I think I could get even better results if they had better initial conditions, but they are already doing great.

Why I think they are doing well:
- Had their roots worked at least once and some twice
- Lots of low down growth that is still strong and healthy
- Still flexible and haven't missed the window to be wired (I've already wired some)

They currently range in height from 30cm to 50cm. So, some are stronger than others. But they all doubled in height this Spring growing season.

Future plans
I am aiming to keep them settled at least until either Mid-summer or pre-Spring. The majority of them haven't been wired and there is a lot weeding to be done. Because they have all started putting roots out of the bottom of pots and I want to leave them grow strong during this period. When the time comes I will pull them up, remove weeds and do wiring. At some point I need to make a decision on when do the first pruning to maintain low growth, taking note of when R3 did his around December at a similar age to my trees https://www.ausbonsai.com.au/forum/view ... 74#p272274

I will post the next update when I do the work mentioned above.

I am considering selling some of these off to fund a new batch of trees. I'd like to keep repeating the process and gain knowledge in developing good stock.

Example of one of the wired trees:

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Healthy root growth appearing at the base of the pot:

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Wiring down low, just to put movement into the base of the trunk. You can also see there are plenty of buds and growth low down:

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Height of this tree if it wasn't wired is around 50cm:

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[stork]

Another great thread to follow yours look so he healthy. I’m envious of your work.

Are you feeding them heavy at this time of year?

[TimIAm]

I'm not giving them anything extra, just what I give all of my trees. I give them Powerfeed about once every two weeks and then a slow release fertiliser which gets topped up about 3 times a year.

[Ryceman3]

Looking good Tim!
Keep at it, I think you're on a good path to make some nice trees in the not-too-distant future.

[TimIAm]

2.5 year update

Around Christmas I cut back any side branches on every tree so that there is only a single trunked sacrifice and low down growth. This has resulted in very strong growth around the base of the trees and many new buds appearing towards the base. I suspected this would slow growth slightly but would help maintain vigour down low and give me plenty of options to develop going forward.

I assume at some point in around 12 - 18 months time I may need to look at removing the current sacrifice branch as they will get to a point of being too thick. This is why I am hoping to maintain a strong growing base.

I am not so concerned at the moment about what options I have with branching, just that I have options. I have also wired the base of most of the trees to get initial bends.

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Close-up of vigorous growth around the base:

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The negatives since last update

I did lose a handful of trees over the warmer months. Having 100+ trees all piled together is different from having a bench with 100 trees, separated nicely in pots where you can see clearly the needs of the individual tree. I would say the biggest problem was improper watering due to crowding, when I assumed all of the trees were getting watered, some were missing out.

The second problem was with wiring. I assume some trees died from being wired when the weather was too hot. I have put the thickest gauge wire I think it suitable for this size tree but that means some disturbing of the roots and having to use pliers to hold the wire at the base while I twist to avoid damaging the tree. I think this created a compound problem between heat, disturbing the roots, minor damage to the trunk and some trees may also have had poor watering (see above). I am now down to about 90+ trees, but the survivors all look healthy enough.

Last problem is Sydney heat. I've heard some people encourage others to have trees out in full sun, but Sydney sun is both a blessing and a curse. The blessing is the extended growth we get here, but the hot days can be scorching regardless of how well you water. On top of that we have times where it can be 10 days of below 24 then 3 days of above 35 degrees. I don't believe constant "full sun" is always the best advice (esp. for new / inexperienced growers) and depends on your location. Growing in full sun in Sydney metro needs a bit of work to mitigate the worst days.

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Fortunately the scorching was restricted to the top of these sacrifice branches and will be gone in a year or so when I pluck the sacrifice branch.

Ground growing

Today I put about 30 trees into a grow bed. The growth I've had so far has been excellent and I believe they are in a great state at 2.5 years. I just want to get some experience with working on ground grown JBP and the challenges that come along with that.

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Future plans

Next steps are quite straight forward. Just make sure the low down growth stays healthy, keep growing the sacrifice and then assess again in 12 months. Before the next 6 months is up I will also need to remove the wire at the base of trees.