AusBonsai

I purchased a new ground grown Japanese Black Pine from Shibui, from when he posted his new catalog on his Blog a few weeks ago, http://shibuibonsai.com.au/
He handed it on to Steven at the Conference last week, and Steven delivered to me at School on Tuesday ( Thanks fellas )

I Spent a while studying it and then removed the sacrifice and other branches I knew I would not be utilizing. I cut them all a few inches longer so they can dry out and die back. I will remove the stubs later in the year.
There are Lots of shoots and buds, so hope now with lots of light and fertilizer they will take off and I can start to develop it quite quickly.

Good thing that We have had lots of info about developing JBP recently

PS, This tree replaces one I had lost due to curl grub about 5 years ago, and that tree was the first expensive tree i purchased so was disappointed to lose it. I will repot this one in Diatomite in spring so that will solve the Curl grub issue for good .

Ken

Hi Ken,

Nice trunk line and roots too ( cannot be seen, but given how Shibui has developed grounded trees. )

You are going to have a fun time ahead with this pine. You know how long ago it was potted?

Cheers.

Thanks Daviet. Plenty to work with here
I think Shibui Pots them up in the spring, then sells them the following year, so maybe 18months since potting.

Ken

Hi kc , I have numerous JBP'S from shibui but only 1 larger specimen . Another season on the thread grafts on mine and it should be ready to severe and continue the development . Nice trunk on his one as is with most of Shibui's material .

Cheers Alpine

I would have loved to have seen an expanded photo of this tree Ken. A good time to start wiring its structure you reckon

Hi Ken
Very nice looking tree there , i'm wanting to get my muddy little paws on a JBP with a nice trunk line like that some time having read so much about the way to develop them on the forum lately , apologise for taking this in a slightly different tangent , you said that diatomite will solve the curl grub issue please could you expand a little on this.
regards
peterb

HI KC,
Beautiful JBP mate!! I've been looking at Neils plants for awhile now, and they all look awesome. The day I can afford it, I am a knocking on his door(not literally).
Great shape, nice base......yummy! Your a lucky man I would say. Very
Enjoy!!
There needs to be a little yellow head that shows "green with envy"
Woody

There is

peterb wrote:Hi Ken, you said that diatomite will solve the curl grub issue please could you expand a little on this.
regards
peterb

Hi Peter and thanks for the compliments everyone
Re curl Grub and diatomite. I started using diatomite as the primary component in my mixes for several reasons. One of the main ones was in order to control or minimize the impact of The dreaded Curl grub.
I always had many of them in my posts when i used Organic Bonsai mixes, and after losing a few larger trees, I went looking for solutions
Tried drowning them but that really does not work and with many plants is impossible. chemicals are not really a great idea either. I got a tip from somewhere that Inorganic mixes do not have the problem and "Boons Mix" was b4eing discussed often in the US forums.
I tried to replicate it here, but failed but found out about Diatomite and Zelolite in my searches and gave it a try.
In my initial tests it worked well, but more importantly, NO GRUBS!
I have since used it exclusively and in 5 years, have never had a Curl grub in any of my pots!
See my original thread re this here viewtopic.php?f=12&t=40

Ken

bodhidharma wrote:I would have loved to have seen an expanded photo of this tree Ken. A good time to start wiring its structure you reckon

What do you mean an expanded photo?
Can take some today if you need

Unfortunately I did not get any before work started

Ken

Some additional photos from yesterday
as you can see, the second photo shows the enlarged are at the top of the tree where there was 4 branches and shoots all coming from the same place. this had thickened that are and I will be carving that section to reduce the mass up there.


Ken

Hi Ken
thanks for the info on diatomite , i,ve been using pure diatomite on most of my trees now for 2 years except my azalea has a bit of pine bark and been getting great results didn't lose one tree this last summer and now i have yet another reason to keep on using it , please keep us updated on the carving you do at the top of your tree . just got some carving tools from kutem tools in south africa and they are very good at far less than kaizen etc so would like to learn a bit from more experienced carvers
ergards
peterb