Japanese Black Pine - Pollen cones every year

[Scott Roxburgh]

I have a Japanese Black Pine that is from 1974 seed, pot culture all its life.

The two years that I have had it, it is has always grown really fat buds that open into pollen cones in winter, flowering in spring.

I have repotted it into a Pumice and Akadama mix over two sessions. It has been fertilised heavily with organics, and fish emulsion weekly for the two years, but has not been fully decandled as I have been told that the pollen cones can be a sign of a weak tree.

The few really strong branches that I have decandled do not have the pollen cones forming.

Are pollen cones a sign of tree weakness or just an old tree?

Should I decandle this year even though it is growing the pollen cones again?

Do I need to fertilise more/less?

Any other suggestions?

A link to the tree two years ago:
http://aijoubonsai.wordpress.com/2011/0 ... y-adopted/

JBP Front (resized).jpg

JBP Side (resized).jpg

JBP side 2 (resized).jpg

JBP back (resized).jpg

JBP non-decandled branch - bud (resized).jpg

JBP decandled branch (resized).jpg

[Jow]

What are the spring candles like?

If they look strong i would de-candle it. I believe some trees just tend to flower and some will flower more when weak. I have one that flowers and i de-candle with no ill-effects.

It all depends on if the spring growth is strong.

Joe.

[kcpoole]

to me it looks like it is well recovered, to be strong and healthy.
I am not a pine expert at all, but woudl be happy to start work on it

Ken

[Chris H]

Scott
Some of my JBP get these pollen flowers every year. Steve thought I didnt fertilize enough so I bumped up the programme but they still came.
I thought perhaps it was a characteristic of a particular varietal strain.

Cheers
Chris.

[Scott Martin]

Scott,

I have some that flower every year, others that only flower after being worked and others that never flower. They all get treated pretty much the same in regard to fertilisation, potting mix etc. The treatment obviously varies after repotting initially until the tree regains its strength.

If they do flower I still decandle based on the strength of the growth and the tree in general. I've never not decandled because of flowering, I have skipped decandling because of the weakness of the tree/branch/growth.

Cheers,

Scott