AusBonsai

Hi Guys,

I have 2 JBP's out of 10 in my collection that seem to be going in a sideways direction and i'm a bit lost as to why this is the case.

As they both seem to having the same issue i'll just post one.

first week of feb they where cut back one by peter odin the other by myself and they bounced back really well and put on good growth before winter.
I was away for 6 weeks and i had someone water / look after them over june / july and when i got back they didn't look perfect but still looked okay but as this is my first winter season with JBP's i wasn't sure if the older needle drop off was normal. They have since gone a little more backwards. But seem to be budding well as we get into spring.

A back branch seemed to have some die back but i assumed this was due to shading of that branch due to it being to the south of direct sun and near a wall i have since rotated and moved it location after facing 1 way for 6 weeks. The rest im at a bit of a loss ?

too much water over winter?, too much rain? shock from the decandle in feb? totally normal and it will bounce back over spring as it puts more and more candles out?

The confusing part is the other 8 all same soil mix , watered the same amount and trimmed the same way are going really well.

ideas?

the old needles are dying off, and look like some are yellowed?
I think ( do not quote me) but that may be nutrient deficient?

Some pine Guru may want to confirm, but the new candles look good to me.

Ken

hi there,
i cannot put a definitive cause of the needle yellowing. but i would not be too concernd with it as the tree looked healthy enough with all the new buds. i'd just cut off all the yellow needles at their base along with most of the older needles. this next step is more important, you'd need to bud select, pick two buds to keep and cut the rest off. i usually keep two stronger buds on low branches and two weaker buds up the top. then just let them grow out to regain the tree's strength.

ｒｅｇａｒｄｓ

bonsaisensation wrote:hi there,
i cannot put a definitive cause of the needle yellowing. but i would not be too concernd with it as the tree looked healthy enough with all the new buds. i'd just cut off all the yellow needles at their base along with most of the older needles. this next step is more important, you'd need to bud select, pick two buds to keep and cut the rest off. i usually keep two stronger buds on low branches and two weaker buds up the top. then just let them grow out to regain the tree's strength.

ｒｅｇａｒｄｓ

Second this.

Mo

New buds look OK which is reassuring.
Perhaps insects such as mites have played a part?
It is advisable to remove a lot of the old needles in Autumn, it allows more light for new buds to form and removes a hiding place for the critters.

Thanks everyone ! i took it to confirm it looks good and the consensus was the same as here, time to remove all older needles and cut back to 2-3 buds depending on location on the tree.

here is the result. Opinions would be great! to make sure im on the right track for a change!

Once the buds start to elongate / burst into needles i'll remove all the older longer needles?
Cheers

Daniel

The soil mix is probably too fine/wet and the pot is too big for this (unhealthy) tree.
Shake off the old soil and plant it in an open mix in a small pot (just big enough to take the roots) and it should recover.
Removing needles will only weaken it. Removing ANYTHING is a mistake!

Thanks for the ideas the oil mix is quite open i.e. 50% akadama, 25% river stone, 25 % organic

I think the dead needles was more me not doing what i should have and cleaning it up in april/ may so you combine that not touching it over winter i had a huge accumulation of dead needles more so then a tree in poor health. It remains to be seen, but hopefully the advice i got from the bonsai nursery is correct and it should grow strongly over spring

It's aliveeee!!

Sorry to bring back an old thread but i thought it may be helpful for reference for people with similar issues.

After significant bud selection and thining out, i fertalised and waited to see what would happen. I saw it slowly coming along left for a 4 week holiday and came home to a healthy pine.

hopefully this helps someone out that too much growth and buds can choke the plan due to lack of light, so thinning and significant bud selection is a must!

No problem at all opening old threads again to update them.
Good result on your tree and shows that although it looked tatty, there was nothing major wrong with it originally

Ken

Who watered for you while you were away? I'd guess that it may have been getting too much water for the soil mix.

I also think it might have been the period of being left alone to grow that helped it along.

What are your plans for this tree now?

Hi Scott,

My gf would come once a day to water the gardens, roughly the same as how i water it now, maybe it just needed a womans touch

It a very free draining mixture so i think the watering was okay it may have reacted badly to the decandling and then as it pushed lots of new buds instead of selecting them i just let it run so it was just crowded with yellowing needles and new buds.

Future plans would be to tie the current branching down to start showing better form. I also need to grow out the lowest branch further to the left and continue to improve ramification. On the next repot i need to tease out that root on the left of the trunk as its starting to cross the main drunk line.

any suggestions im totally open to!

Hi badabing888.

Please keep updating this as I am constantly learning about my JBPs from all you guys. I need to get my ass into gear and work on mine this week. Lots of growth and too many branches.
Thank you for keeping this thread alive.

Regards,
Julz

Hi Guys,

Just doing a little update on this thread, if someone could critique my candle cutting of this tree it would be great.
I did it last year with okay success and i want to see if im on the right track. I was a bit cautious this year perhaps after killing another tree last year

This was done around xmas time but its taken me some time to get the photos up.

I only got the first pic after already starting the to cut the top