Japanese Black Pine longitudinal study; Collaborators needed

[Grant Bowie]

The 2 trees look fine.

I fertilise by watering the soil, allow to drain and then fertilising the soil and splashing some fertiliser over the foliage.

Please Fertilise tree no 1 and not number 2.

Are you saying you would fertilise no 1 with both Powerfeed and Seamungus? Yes, if that is okay by you.

Grant

Thanks for putting together a spreadsheet. I was going to put one together for myself.

Regards Ray

I haven't used Seamungus at all; let alone in combination with another so it will be interesting to see the result. As I said in the thread it is your tree and your choice of fertiliser.

Grant

[Neli]

I have decided on the 3 middle ones top shelf. They are more similar.


The smaller one here

and this one:

[Grant Bowie]

Nice Bonsai!!!

[Grant Bowie]

OK,

I have fertilised my No 1 pines and not my No 2 pines. I will note it down for 1st June to kick off the trial on my trees.

I have almost got the spreadsheet sorted and will send it out for comment when finished before I really finalise it.

It is colour coded into 3 sections; 1st spring flush; 2nd summer flush and 3rd late summer flush for those who can achieve that in their climate. From experience when I lived in Sydney I achieved a 3rd flush of buds every year but not necessarily the elongation and setting of those buds in Autumn. Maybe more fertiliser will help.

Grant

[kez]

Fertilised 1 of the 2 pines I have chosen for this study today as well, looking forward to what participating in this study brings

Kez

[Neli]

Thank you Grant! Can we do other procedures as normal? Like repotting, candle pruning cut back to old needles?

[Grant Bowie]

Thank you Grant! Can we do other procedures as normal? Like repotting, candle pruning cut back to old needles?

Repotting is OK as long as you do both no 1 and 2 to keep them even as possible in treatment.

Candle pruning/complete candle removal will be at your normal time but the fertilising around it will be varied. We will withdraw fertiliser from the one we have fertilised through winter (No 1) say one month before decandling but fertilise the no 2 up till the day we decandle and see if there is any significant difference.

Needle plucking and tidy up will be your normal routine but I am still working out whether to vary bud selection. A young tree should not be bud selected till autumn whereas an older tree may benefit from bud selecting as they emerge in mid summer. (Gets a bit complicated and we can't test for everything in this short study)

Grant

[shibui]

I've picked 3 pairs to help give me a check on the results here.
First pair: #1 was decandled last summer but is otherwise similar in age and shape. Hope they will be a reasonable match.

pine study 1A 2014 5.JPG

pine study 2A 2014 5.JPG

Second pair - the B team:

pine study 1B 2014 5.JPG

pine study 2B 2014 5.JPG

And the 3rd pair - a couple of very young seedlings:

pine study 1C&2C 2014 5.JPG

Will feed the 1s tomorrow then wait for the spreadsheet to see if I can use results from all 3 pairs or whether I have to pick one of the pairs.

[Ray M]

Hi shibui,
I hope Grant doesn't mind me making comments here. This is Grant's study and I don't want to interrupt it at all. It just struck me as I was reading your post, it would be most interesting to see what happens with older trees compared to younger trees grown in the same conditions.

Regards Ray

[Grant Bowie]

Hi shibui,
I hope Grant doesn't mind me making comments here. This is Grant's study and I don't want to interrupt it at all. It just struck me as I was reading your post, it would be most interesting to see what happens with older trees compared to younger trees grown in the same conditions.

Regards Ray

Yes,

There are lots of variables that can be studied.

There are major differences when treating and growing nursery stock vs established bonsai and too much for one study.

However feel free to do one. I did have a number of people offer to participate with seedlings; there is already a study of seedlings going in in the Canberra Bonsai Society.

Grant

[Grant Bowie]

Black Pine Longitudinal Trial GB0514 SAMPLE ONLY.pages.zip

HI all,

Here is a sample of the spread sheet that can't be altered.

I will send out a version to those participating via PM with the notes rows cleared and that can be changed/altered to suit the dates etc in the participants area.

Comments welcome at this stage.

Please read the notes under the final page of the spreadsheet as well please.

Grant

[Neli]

I tried to open all the files...some dont open some are pictures...no spread sheet, just a picture of one. I can make one I guess from the picture manually.
Am I doing something wrong?

[kcpoole]

I tried to open all the files...some dont open some are pictures...no spread sheet, just a picture of one. I can make one I guess from the picture manually.
Am I doing something wrong?

Grant will send out the real spreadsheet diretly to us

[Grant Bowie]

Black Pine Longitudinal Trial GB0514 SAMPLE ONLY PDF.pages.zip

Here is another try.

I have an Apple Mac and it seems to not convert to PDF totally as it is still listed as PDF. pages and zip.

Don't know what all that means. If I have to I will export to another computer with Microsoft; save it as a PDF and resend.

Grant

[Grant Bowie]

If that doesn't work I will cut and paste.

Grant