AusBonsai

shibui wrote: ↑July 10th, 2022, 3:50 pm No sinkers in that batch of seed

They were literally in for 10 seconds when I took the shot… I’ll give them a bit longer before I play around with them!
Seed is too hard to come by to give up without a bit of effort. Might be a low chance of success but having no seeds and planting nothing is less likely to produce anything.

Well done, I plant them all even the ones that sink, I have been surprised before. Nothing to lose
Cheers
Kirky

KIRKY wrote: ↑July 11th, 2022, 9:33 am Well done, I plant them all even the ones that sink, I have been surprised before. Nothing to lose
Cheers
Kirky

Thanks Kirky… I’ll be planting them all regardless as you say. Last time the “floaters” surprised me too. As the saying goes “You’ve gotta be in it to win it!”

I was down in my "grow beds" on Sunday, and had planned to pull a few of the original pines from this thread up and move them on to the next step.
Here's a few of the JBP trunks as they have developed. I pulled up 9 pines in total (which was all the ones I have down there) but put 2 back as one of them had a base too big for the pots I had taken with me to put it in and then I actually ran out of mix to pot them up so 7 was all I could manage to bring back with me. I think there's a lot of potential in these and I am happy with how they have started to mature. I'll post some others as I get time to go through the pics.
4 years isn't so long in bonsai!
I also planted out a few of the smaller "Gen 2" JBPs in the place of the ones I pulled out just to keep the ball rolling.

Wow, you're doing well with those Pines!

melbrackstone wrote: ↑July 19th, 2022, 1:51 pm Wow, you're doing well with those Pines!

Thanks Mel. I quite like pines!
Here’s a couple of shots of a Japanese Red Pine I dug out. It turned out to be too big for the pots I took down to put the trees in so I replanted it in the bed. Depending on timing for my next visit I might take down a bigger pot and bring it home or just leave it to grow there for another season.

Wow… these are amazing. What a thread!!
Many thanks for all the time and effort, this is really the most amazing resource for growing pines I have seen for Australian climate. Very inspirational and much appreciated.

The suspense was killing me with the neagari concept, so on the weekend I decided to pull it apart and see what was what. First time trying this technique out, and I would go back for another bite of the cherry, I think it was reasonably succesful ... but I might change a few things too to see if I couldn't get more "rambling" in the roots. The actual exposed roots part will get lifted quite a bit as the tree grows on, there's a lot still under the soil.
I haven't really stopped playing with the roots - I'm thinking about adding a twist to them all in a year ot two perhaps ... we'll see.
It's good fun, I think I like it.

Ryceman3 wrote: ↑August 15th, 2022, 12:21 pm The suspense was killing me with the neagari concept, so on the weekend I decided to pull it apart and see what was what. First time trying this technique out, and I would go back for another bite of the cherry, I think it was reasonably succesful ... but I might change a few things too to see if I couldn't get more "rambling" in the roots. The actual exposed roots part will get lifted quite a bit as the tree grows on, there's a lot still under the soil.
I haven't really stopped playing with the roots - I'm thinking about adding a twist to them all in a year ot two perhaps ...

How long had the tree been growing in that container before you exposed the roots? I've got one that's been going for 2 years now. I was thinking of waiting another 2 before I started exposing the roots

Approximately 2 years. The tube was rock hard so completely full, I didn’t see the benefit of leaving them compressing together in there any longer. I could’ve gone to a bigger tube but I’m OK with where they’re at so left them to develop as above from here. Original post for the tree is on page 9 of this thread.

Checked on the seeds this morning. It will be 3 weeks on Sunday since I planted them, so we are getting in the ball park of the time I expect to see stuff happening ... and there appears to be a bit of action, about a half a dozen are beginning to emerge ... the process is going full circle!
Of the 60 odd seeds I soaked, 50 of them sank after 2 days, I planted them all though (separating the "floaters" and "sinkers") so we'll see how they compare. They went in the fridge (same technique as original) for about 3 weeks before I sowed them.

45 seeds have germinated successfully, including 3 “floaters” so those were a definite bonus.
I sprayed with hydrogen peroxide a week or more ago to help avoid any onset of damping off. Never experienced it, but don’t want to start now so it was precautionary action.
I need to check my notes but I think that is well over 50% success, closer to 75%.

That's good. I'm still waiting for my seeds to show signs of life. They have been in close to 3 weeks I reckon ....

treeman wrote: ↑September 18th, 2022, 5:46 pm That's good. I'm still waiting for my seeds to show signs of life. They have been in close to 3 weeks I reckon ....

Hitting the sweet spot now then (in my experience, but you’d know better than me)… should see some green in the next couple of days.

Stem cut 36 of the seedlings (from seed) today… still a few to go.