AusBonsai

Hi all,

New here and learning heaps. Great site and a lot of knowledge to be gained form the members.

Hi have just been given a Japanese Black pine in an 8 inch pot. Have never had one and been reading a lot about them. Can anyone give me any advice on how to attack the said pine. I have read a bit about soils etc but as this is (the ultimate) pine to have in my collection, I want to take it really slow and make it right. It has already started to be shaped as a informal upright, so I will keep it going that way.

The needles are right into the main trunk, do I need to remove some? I will post some images of it later when I get home. Just would like some thoughts on repotting, and when, training and prunning. The tree is around 10 years old.

Thanks for any help in advance.
Andrwe Prince

Hi Alpharipper , mate when seeking advice it pays to put a pic in so other can see what you talking about .It helps to get the right advice and idea's .

Cheers Alpineart

Many different methods and timing to develop Black pine and the treatment also depends on the tage the tree is at.
Is it fiishe deveoping an din maintenance?
Are you still developing the trunk?
Are you still developing the Branches and developing ramification?


Check the wiki for info on when to do what https://www.ausbonsai.com.au/wiki/index. ... hould_I%3F
Black pine page with so me great links https://www.ausbonsai.com.au/wiki/index. ... Black_Pine

Ken

It is a bit hard without seeing the tree, but at this time of year feed the tree lots of fertiliser and water well!

Whilst it is growing, look at the following website and read everything about JBP.
http://bonsaitonight.com/?s=japanese+black+pine

One thing that I will add is that you should only follow one teacher. Otherwise with all the conflicting advice on the internet, you'll be lost in no time.

Finally Back and finally have images. Any help would be great, remembering that this tree is how I got it.

Thanks in advance for any help. Images from iphone so not the greatest.

I have that same exact pot.

I think this tree needs to be put in a larger pot, much larger, to allow for some growth. Even if you want to keep this as a small tree, the trunk will need to have better taper and thickness for it to acheive the look of an old pine. Aside from that I'm useless on pines haha. Have fun though mate.

-Mo

This has been said a few times before so I think if you search the forum there will be many views on how to progress a JBP.
Some years back I had a couple of pines in similar condition to yours. I kept one in a small pot and I put the rest into bigger pots to grow on.
The one in the small pot is somewhere on this forum, and it really hasnt grown much in the last 15 years. Its troubled me somewhat at times and I am still trying to resolve the styling.

The trees that went in to larger pots I have either killed or am just not getting around to styling (there are two left).

The net result is the same, finally I am going to get a styled tree - somewhere in the next three years !

The best thing to do in my opinion is have more than one and play with different ideas on each.

in your design in the lower part of the tree their should be only one branch coming from any spot--having two or more will probably create a bulb at that spot and give it a reverse taper look-If your lucky enough to get a shoot or two from the base use them as sacrifice branches to help thicken the base

Agree with Guy re not having too many branches coming from the one spot. But also dont chop them all off at once. Its easy to effectively ring bark a pine tree by cutting off all the branches in the one whorl.
I speak from experience.