Japanese Black Pine longitudinal study; Collaborators needed

[kcpoole]

My tree that has not been fertilised has one candle opening already

Ken

[Neli]

He he he! Ken...they for sure are behaving weird...I check mine every day but nothing is happening yet...but the one I chopped back the branches has nice long buds.

[mtarros]

Hi,

I have not really seen any change in the one that is getting fertilised.
The other one had a quick flush of growth but also stopped once the weather got colder.

I have been a bit slack with keeping track of them.

[Grant Bowie]

Nothing here yet,

We have just had 4 days of minus 7 degrees at around sunrise and this morning was a balmy minus 4 degrees!

Grant

[Tambrand]

Hey folks,

Tropics here, with pronounced Dry season from after Christmas until sometimes June. Then we get our 152 cm of rain.
Lowest temperatures are from Christmas until March or so - 20 deg.C but our highs remain around 30 to 33 deg.C and lower all year for less than an hour to half an hour.
We cool down to the lower 20's from 5 to 6 in the evening until often 8 a.m [ no heat waves].

All J.B.pines were grown from seed, just packets from Japan and 1 from Morgan and Thompson [ UK ] oldest is from around 1987 or so. The UK one is from 1992.
No refrigeration was needed, as I suspect the seeds came out of refrigeration when packaged. Out of 31 seeds about 25 or so, and a few dying from adaptation [ weird needles - twisted ].

Soil is as seen in Bonsai Today articles, but too chicken to do the seedling root cutting part.
So just silica based gravel and home made compost [ 70 to 80 % inorganic by volume ]
Pots are simple earthenware open shapes.
Seedlings started around Christmas, in a simple sterile Canadian peatmoss/perlite / 5mm gravel mix. Small pocket seed trays. This allows the seedlings to be transferred will all the soil into 10 cm clay pots, and a mix of gravel and compost.

Then just follow the Bonsai today articles.

However, we ended up with healthy, micro 1.5 cm candles developing [ the English suggested removal of all those extra and I mean plentiful candles - chuckle ]

Discovered last year by accident that pines do well for us in cement pots. They are porous and handle the rain well, as does the Chinese glazed porous Bonsai pots. The bottom of the clay pot stays porous.

Now learning about trunk thickening and needle reduction,as it works in a tropical climate.

Fertiliser has been 1/3 strength Lawn Fertiliser - Phostrogen or Miracle gro, plus additions of compost to the soils surface. Our active insect and bacteria situation, prevents cake build-up on the soil.
Also grains of Blaucorn.

Not sure what I can give to you guys, save, J.B.p from seedlings need no temperatures below 19 to 20 deg.C, however, on our side tropicals and Chinese sub-tropicals do stop growing from Christmas until around February's end. Must be the shorter daylight.

Hello G.M [ Neli to you other folks ] your surprise has almost ripened, hope I can post to you with the book later on in the year.
What happened to the SA forum ? Busy house building.
K [ Tambrand ]

* You guys do know that the P/K have conversion factors to do to see the actual P and K and not P205 or K20.
Was taught this by an Australian chap here [ is it Paul ?]

[Neli]

Baba K ,
Nice to see you here. SA bonsai forum closed...the owner went out of the bonsai business and closed the forum. We are now posting on FB.
Now You have done it again! Going to make me buy JBP seeds. I have been trying halipensis also. Good for tropical climate.
I new it was you even before you said GM...

[Tambrand]

Hello again,

I forgot to say, exposure is full sun for the 3 year and older trees, the year old and second year, are in a sun from 6 a.m until almost 1 p.m, and am now testing cuttings. Followed the help from the fellah on this forum, and got a few cuttings [ sterile Canadian peat moss / perlite and gravel ]. Lost the earlier attempts, in the repotting, trying again. Soil fell off of the roots.

G.M., have you tried cuttings?
It is getting difficult for me to get the seed packets from Japan and the other folk on Amazon.com, sell open pack seeds, Bought 49 only 17 came up and one died.
Cuttings hopefully will allow me to test and test and test, until hopefully, I master.

What gave me away, the big mouth or the Tambrand tree ? -
The tamarind tree [ or we say it, Tambrand ] is doing very well, and I am just allowing it to heal the large 2.5 cm cuts. Should be able to show in another three years.
Glad you guys survived the loss of your forum.
Wishing you well.
Baba K [ Tambrand ]

[Gerard]

I took photos last week but did not post them. The bud swelling on the fertilized tree was definitely much more prominent. This morning I arrived home from the Gold Coast convention to find that the non fertilized tree has begun its bud swelling but a huge surprise was the candle elongation on the fertilized tree in only one week I have lots of candles between 1 and 3 cm.

[Neli]

I am checking every day...I can see something but not too sure yet...they are just too tiny to be sure...

[Grant Bowie]

Checked mine today but no swelling yet on either the fertilised or un-fertilised pines.

Will do another fert on the number 1 pines this week and also start the ferts on the no 2 trees.

Grant

[kcpoole]

Both Mine have small Candles opening and I cannot pick the difference between them

Ken

[Neli]

This study is very helpful. It will be a good thing on the end to make a spread sheet vertical column...budding...decandling...second flush...and horizontal column different areas of Australia. It will be a good reference tool on how climate influences JBP

[Grant Bowie]

This study is very helpful. It will be a good thing on the end to make a spread sheet vertical column...budding...decandling...second flush...and horizontal column different areas of Australia. It will be a good reference tool on how climate influences JBP

Thats the idea; but it will also show the influence of fertilising in certain circumstances.

Grant

[Neli]

Yes Grant,
It is a fantastic learning tool...it will also be interesting to note when each pine was repotted...since I feel that will be a factor in the vigor of the tree....and the type of fertilizers used....so much to learn from this.

[Grant Bowie]

Both my no 1 and no 2 pines have very swollen and plump buds; but no hint of green around the bud/future candle to indicate the start of elongation yet.

The repot of all the pines in Autumn seems to have set up the pines very nicely for the spring growth season.

I continued to fertilise the no 1 pines and started to fertilise the no 2 pines today.

grant