A Tale of 32 Japanese Black Pines.
Posted: March 25th, 2014, 2:43 pm
Last Friday 21st march 2014 I purchased 32 Japanese Black Pines all reputedly from 1974; i.e. 40 years old this year.
Knowing the stock and the grower/enthusiast I am confident in the trees provenance.
They varied in size from medium to large but all had very good, old looking bark, reasonably compact in the most part after years of trimming but some elongation due to loss or cutting off of lower branches.
They were all in reasonable but not bullet proof health, but in need of a feed and spray.
I decided to repot a few of the biggest trees but after looking at the roots and the garden soil that they were growing in I decided to repot the whole 32. This certainly soaked up my entire stock of private, top shelf mostly Japanese pots that I have been collecting for 40 years. Found a few curl grubs as well so it was a good move.
Enough soil was removed, but with not too much disturbance, and the roots spread. I very securely wired them into their pots and it will now be a full year before I will do any wiring or cutting off of branches. No foliage was removed for the repot as I want to force the roots to really get going before winter. I will leave them for a year to really get the roots strong before I overhaul all of them.
Grant
Knowing the stock and the grower/enthusiast I am confident in the trees provenance.
They varied in size from medium to large but all had very good, old looking bark, reasonably compact in the most part after years of trimming but some elongation due to loss or cutting off of lower branches.
They were all in reasonable but not bullet proof health, but in need of a feed and spray.
I decided to repot a few of the biggest trees but after looking at the roots and the garden soil that they were growing in I decided to repot the whole 32. This certainly soaked up my entire stock of private, top shelf mostly Japanese pots that I have been collecting for 40 years. Found a few curl grubs as well so it was a good move.
Enough soil was removed, but with not too much disturbance, and the roots spread. I very securely wired them into their pots and it will now be a full year before I will do any wiring or cutting off of branches. No foliage was removed for the repot as I want to force the roots to really get going before winter. I will leave them for a year to really get the roots strong before I overhaul all of them.
Grant
