Bonsai Tonight

Removing flower buds from azalea

Jonas Dupuich — Fri, 18 May 2012 11:00:55 +0000

I’ve seen satsuki bloom in most months of the year, but they’re most likely to bloom around May. This is natural as the name satsuki (and old phrase for “fifth month”) refers to the month in which they bloom. Why, then, did my azalea’s single flower catch my attention today? Because I’d previously removed most of the other flower buds – this was one I’d missed.

Satsuki azalea

White blossom

I’ve been removing the flower buds in winter to divert more of the tree’s energy into producing foliage. I can either enjoy the flowers or get great spring growth – I can’t have both. As I’d like to speed along this tree’s development, I’ve been removing most of the buds.

Looking closer at the tree, I found a few others I’d missed. I removed them by gently bending the buds until they came loose.

Securing the stem below the bud

Bending the bud until it breaks away

Azalea flower buds and Spring shoots emerge from the same place. I work carefully when removing the buds this time of year to avoid breaking the tender new shoots.

Bud with new shoots

Bud removed

It’s ok to remove buds that have started to open, but at this point I usually leave them alone so I can enjoy the color.

Deep pink flower with light and dark green foliage

Once the majority of the flowers have bloomed, I remove them with fingers or scissors. I usually do this before the petals fall away as they have in the photo below.

After the petals fade away – stigma, style, and ovary revealed

Air layering a Japanese maple

Jonas Dupuich — Tue, 15 May 2012 11:00:25 +0000

Almost a year ago to the day I wrote about a Japanese maple I’d taken on that was ripe for several long-term projects (see Restoring an old Japanese maple). I started on the first, an air-layer, this past weekend at a BIB workshop.

Japanese maple

I would have layered the tree last year, but I had just repotted it and I wanted the tree to be strong before starting a layer. Now quite healthy, the tree is ready for layering.

Section to be air-layered

The first step is selecting a location for the new roots and removing a ring of bark just below that spot.

Bark removed

Why did I choose the narrow section of the trunk between two bulges that would have left me with a larger nebari? Short answer – this is actually the first of two layers. Once I remove the top of the tree, I plan to turn it on its side and layer it a second time to make a clump-style bonsai. For now, I simply need enough roots to allow me to separate the tree from the lower trunk. That’s the plan for now anyway.

After removing the bark, I applied a small amount of rooting hormone to the upper ring of exposed bark, wrapped the peeled area in moist white sphagnum moss, and covered the whole with plastic.

All wrapped up – layer complete

After preparing layer and minor cutback

I next turned my attention to a significant scar at the base of the trunk.

Large scar

Somehow the wound is actually closing from all sides as the roots below the scar are still alive. This gives me hope that the scar might someday close. To speed up the process, I opened up the edges of the scar and covered the entire area with cutpaste.

Re-opening the wound

Covering the open wound with cutpaste

Covering the rest of the scar with cutpaste

You likely noticed that the “cutpaste” looks more like chocolate pudding than the typical bonsai cutpaste. I used “joint caulk,” a Japanese product whose intended use I don’t fully understand. Junichiro Tanaka has been using the compound for some time on bonsai and has seen great results so I bought a tube and have been using it on all of my trees.

Joint Caulk-A (aka ジョインT　コーク•A)

A few seats away from me, Carol was uncovering some scars that were treated one and two years ago. In the photo below, the upper scar was gouged out last year. The lower scar was treated two years ago and is now almost entirely healed over.

Scars on trident maple

After removing the cutpaste on the lower scar

I don’t expect the huge scar on my Japanese maple to heal so quickly. Even if I planted the tree in the ground, I’d still expect at least 3 years to pass before it closed up completely. As the tree still needs plenty of work, I’m in no hurry.

Jeff’s satsuki azalea

I couldn’t resist posting a photo of the azalea above. Jeff left it in the workshop so we could enjoy the flowers – I hope you enjoy them too. And thanks again for reading. Somehow this is my 300th post. Were it not for your readership and helpful comments, I’d have stopped long ago. Here’s to the next 300!

Best regards,
Jonas

Pine seedlings

Jonas Dupuich — Fri, 11 May 2012 11:00:43 +0000

I planted pine seeds again this year – black and red. The seeds came from Shikoku, Japan. It’s legal to import pine seeds – permits are available from the USDA - and the process is surprisingly simple. Once I got them home, I waited impatiently for late winter to begin preparing them for spring planting.

In past years, I soaked the pine seeds in water for one to three days and then planted the seeds that sank to the bottom of the glass. This year, at the advice of a friend, I scarified and stratified the seeds before planting (thanks “Juan”!). Instead of dropping the seeds into tap water, I poured near-boiling water over the seeds and let them cool and soak for 24 hours. The hot water scarifies the seeds by softening up their hard coating – a necessary step for germination. I then placed the seeds in plastic bags filled with moist white sphagnum moss. I placed these bags in the refrigerator where they were intended to sit for one to two weeks. By stratifying the seeds – placing them in a cold, moist environment that simulates natural spring conditions – I help the seeds break their dormancy so they can sprout.

One thing seemed to lead to another and I didn’t get around to actually planting the seeds for over a month. No matter – the seeds sprouted just fine.

Seedlings rising from the sand

To better gauge the effect of stratification, I planted a number of seeds directly after soaking them for 24 hours. In the photo below, you can see that the stratified seeds, on the left, have germinated much faster and with greater consistency than the un-stratified seeds to the right of the aluminium wire.

Stratified seeds :: un-stratified seeds

Continued warm weather is bringing more seeds into the light each day. It’s been a fun process to watch.

A seedling prepares to cast off its protective shell.

How are last year’s seeds doing? Pretty well. Most survived the seedling-cutting process and are now growing quickly. I’ve found that my pines take about two years to reach the height seedlings in Japan reach in their first year (see Bonsai Today #12 or #20 for comparison).

One-year old seedlings

Not all, however, are as healthy as this. The most vigorous 2-4″ tall – the stragglers, somewhat less. You can see the range of heights below.

One-year old seedlings

More vigorous seedlings

Less vigorous seedlings

For those who missed my posts about collecting and planting pine seeds, check out the following:

Shimpaku cuttings

Jonas Dupuich — Tue, 08 May 2012 11:00:15 +0000

A few months back I grabbed an armful of juniper branches from the green recycling bin at a Bay Island Bonsai workshop. I’d found both kishu and itoigawa shimapku branches and figured I could use them to make cuttings for grafting roots or branches. Although I’d made cuttings many times before, I wasn’t sure about what soil worked best to facilitate rooting or how long to leave new cuttings in the greenhouse before bringing them outside. An experiment was in order.

I tested three different soil mixes outside and in a greenhouse. Despite poor experimental design and uneven care after the cuttings were made, I was surprised to find fairly consistent results. I planted the cuttings in “houseplant soil” (an all-purpose soil mix rich in organic ingredients), perlite, and a mix of perlite and sand. The perlite yielded better results than the houseplant mix, and the sand and perlite mixture yielded better results than perlite alone. Overall, the cuttings I left outside fared better than those left in the greenhouse, but I suspect that’s mostly because the cuttings I left in the greenhouse were watered erratically. Here are some photos of the cuttings after a few months.

“Houseplant soil” (greenhouse) :: perlite (greenhouse)

“Houseplant soil” (greenhouse) :: “Houseplant soil” (outside)

Perlite and sand (greenhouse) :: “Houseplant soil” (outside)

The cuttings planted in perlite and sand fared equally well indoors and out. I wasn’t too surprised by this as Boon Manakitivipart and others recommended this mix and it offers a good balance of drainage and moisture retention. It’s also a sterile mix, unlike the “houseplant” mix I used. Why did I try the houseplant mix? Mostly out of curiosity. And why did I use cell packs instead of larger containers? Simply to save the time of wiring screens into more pots. I’ll repot all of the viable cuttings into bonsai soil this coming winter.

Last year’s cuttings

I shared this story less to encourage the use of perlite and sand than to encourage any amount of research on the topic. Many people are experts at this – are you one of them? If anyone knows of good resources about making cuttings, feel free to share. I used rooting hormone for all of the cuttings and made clean, slanted cuts with a grafting knife. I also planted all of the cuttings at an angle. Are there better approaches to preparing and planting the cuttings? I experimented with small, medium, and large sized cuttings and found that all lived, but there may be good reasons to start larger or smaller cuttings. Any suggestions?

Bonsai pests!

Jonas Dupuich — Fri, 04 May 2012 11:00:45 +0000

If you had asked me, two weeks ago, if my bonsai were healthy and insect free, I would have said yes. At a glance, they all looked great. Looking closer, however, I discovered that one of my pines looked dirty.

Some dirt on the needles – this must mean…

Aphids! Aphids are most commonly found on bonsai with tender foliage, but they are not averse to feeding on pine. Fortunately, they’d only decided to inhabit one of my pines (and I can’t begin to guess why they chose the pine they did as it was surrounded by other pines that were completely free from aphids).

Aphids hanging out between needles

More aphids

Although they deserve swift attention, aphids are relatively easy to spot and eradicate – unlike the far more pernicious pine needle scale. I typically alternate between a variety of pesticides, oils, and soaps when I discover bonsai pests. After spraying, I watch affected trees closely to make sure the critters are truly dead and gone.

With the happy-go-lucky aphids under control, I took a closer look at selected trees in my garden only to find that my prime nemesis of late, the worm – master of camouflage and capable of munching every last variety in my backyard – has yet to vacate the premises. I plucked three from a hinoki that I’ve been spraying regularly for 6 months. I upped the dosage of systemic the tree has been receiving and promised myself I’d inspect the foliage more often. The worm’s camouflage makes it uncannily similar to the shoots it eats.

Tiny, well-camouflaged worm and hinoki shoot

These demented creatures even ventured to munch on my pines last summer. I’d never seen worms eat pine shoots before, but I’m determined to keep this from becoming a habit. (I wrote about them eating juniper shoots in “Juniper Pests.”)

A far more common foe to the pine is the tiny spider mite. They aren’t much to look at, but signs of their presence are unmistakable. Compare the fresh green needles in the photo below with the longer, yellowish needles from last year.

Spider mite damage

Spider mites like hot and dry conditions. They prey on weak trees before healthy ones, but if the conditions are right, they can cause significant damage to any pine in a matter of days. A haunting tidbit from Wikipedia: “A single mature female can spawn a population of a million mites in a month or less.” Yuck!

A simple test utilizing low tech equipment – 1 sheet of white paper – is a good way to spot spider mites:

Hold sheet of white paper below a branch
Tap the branch
Inspect the tiny specs that fall onto the paper

If the tiny specs move, odds are that’s spider mite. Spraying can rid the tree of mites in a straightforward fashion, but once needles are damaged, the tree looks unsightly until the following year’s needles mature and the old needles are removed.

1. Tap the branch over white sheet of paper

2. Check for mites

Before running out to check for bugs, I recommend you read Peter Tea’s account of Aichi-en’s battle against the bugs, “I love the smell of pesticides in the morning.”

Bonsai fertilizer – follow-up

Jonas Dupuich — Tue, 01 May 2012 11:00:34 +0000

Last month I began using tea bags filled with fertilizer to feed my bonsai. Unfortunately, it only took a few days for me to realize that this technique didn’t work well as implemented. The bags started disappearing immediately. Critters tore through some of the bags and carried others away completely, leaving behind the toothpicks that were meant to keep the bags in place. Somehow they removed all of the bags from my best trees and only a few of the bags on the developing trees – I won’t even try to solve that one. Instead, I’ll go back to my time-tested fertilizer method – clumps of cottonseed meal and fish emulsion.

Tea bags intact on a pine forest

Tea bags on an exposed root pine

Cottonseed meal on a pine

More cottonseed meal

I usually start feeding my trees at some point between late January and mid March depending on the weather and the variety. If I’ve repotted a tree, I wait about 4 weeks before feeding it. I start by placing one or two clumps of cottonseed meal and add additional clumps every 1-3 weeks later until the majority of the pot is filled with fertilizer.

Cottonseed meal feeding a recently separated cryptomeria

I supplement the cottonseed meal with fish emulsion (see “Bonsai Fertilizer” for details). Fish emulsion is a great, if stinky, fertilizer that I’m comfortable using on all bonsai varieties. I usually apply fish emulsion weekly, though I might apply it more or less frequently at various times depending on the season, the weather and the variety.

Fish emulsion

Ebihara fed his trees with diluted liquid fertilizer every three days (I don’t know what type of fertilizer he used). Others primarily rely on dry fertilizer that releases food whenever the trees are watered. I haven’t noticed big differences between liquid, dry, or other categories of fertilizer, but I do find that consistent application leads to the best results. And the best results, of course, depend on the goal of the fertilizing program. If I’m trying to increase the size of the trunk, I fertilize a lot. If I’m trying to ramify delicate branches on deciduous varieties, I fertilize very lightly and only after new leaves have hardened off.

As for the tea bags, I haven’t completely given up. I may yet try chili powder or some other caustic agent that’s harmful to vermin but safe for trees. And if I can get this right, I will celebrate and then post the results.

New hinoki bonsai

Jonas Dupuich — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:00:05 +0000

I recently picked up a couple of large hinoki cypress with the aim of developing them as bonsai. They seemed healthy and had good sized trunks so I thought they’d warrant the effort.

Hinoki cypress - Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Tempelhof’

Adding new trees to my collection never seems overly burdensome. I simply remove a few branches and repot the trees. Beyond that, they typically require little more than water and fertilizer for the remainder of the year.

Of course, this changes – sometimes dramatically – a few years down the road. If I find I don’t have the time to give a tree the attention it deserves, I move it along.

Trunk detail

Based on what I could see above the soil line, the tree looked like it had a nice trunk. Finding the rootbase, however, would provide more useful information. As the rootbase was large, I grabbed a large chopstick and got to work.

Key repotting tool – large chopstick

The rootbase, it turns out, started about 6″ below the soil line. When I found it, I noticed a significant graft line. I continued bare-rooting half of the rootball and potted the tree in my standard mix of akadama, pumice and lava.

The graft line

The lower part of the trunk is likely chamaecyparis obtusa, the rest of the tree, ‘Tempelhof.’ As the graft line is striking, I’m considering ways of improving the appearance of the lower trunk. I’ve thought about burying it, creating an air-layer, or simply living with it the way it is. I have no experience air-layering hinoki, and have heard mixed stories about its feasibility, so I remain curious about this option. I don’t think I could actually bury the nebari, which means I may end up living with this line.

After cutback and repotting

I have a year to think about it. For now, I’ll focus on watering and fertilizing the tree, and delay any more dramatic decisions until next year.

Omoshiroi red pine forest

Jonas Dupuich — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 11:00:27 +0000

“Omoshiroi” means “funny” or “interesting” in Japanese. It can be used to convey respect or mockery – which makes it a useful term for bonsai.

During a Bay Island Bonsai workshop hosted by Daisaku Nomoto, I brought in a red pine forest I’d grown from seed. Nomoto found the grove to be omoshiroi. He took some interest in the forest, insisting that I bend two of the trunks down and remove a large branch from the main tree. He wasn’t concerned about the unorthodox character of the composition or the lack of taper – the forest was omoshiroi. I asked if I should wire the rest of the branches – Nomoto didn’t think they needed it. The branches didn’t need a lot of attention because carefully detailed branches wouldn’t match the unusual trunks. I thinned new shoots to one pair per branch and removed the old needles.

Red pine forest – before cutback

After cutback

I’ll wire a few of the main branches when I decandle later this spring. It looks like this forest might be my best candidate for next year’s BIB exhibit, but it’s too early to tell just yet. I’ll know more in fall when the summer growth fills in.

From landscape tree to bonsai – part 2

Jonas Dupuich — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:00:51 +0000

There are only so many ways to make a bonsai smaller – and cutting and bending seem to do most of the work. As my newest pine was almost two meters tall, some cutting was in order. Although I have yet to decide on the future of the tree, it’s clear that I don’t need the top branches in the final design.

Making the first cut

Red-sleeved arms provide assistance

I halved the top remaining branch with my second cut. That was enough to get the tree into the workshop for further refinement.

Halving the top branch

Even after making these reductions, this is still a large pine at over three feet across.

Not a small tree

Once I got the pine into the workshop, I cut some heavy secondary branches and removed old needles. Then I started repotting. I removed the nursery soil from half of the rootball and planted the tree in a mix of akadama, lava, and pumice.

Bare-rooting half of the rootball

The resulting three-branched tree leaves me with several fun options for the future.

Cutback, needle removal and repotting complete

I’ll admit, one hypothesis struck me immediately when I first saw the tree. I don’t know if it’s a great idea, but it’s made me curious. What I do know is that I want to show off the base of the trunk, especially on side B (see “From landscape tree to bonsai“). Hint – here’s a photo of the tree that got me thinking in this direction.

Japanese black pine displayed at the 2011 Gomangoku in Okazaki

From landscape tree to bonsai

Jonas Dupuich — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 11:00:00 +0000

As most of you know, it can be hard to find good material for black pine bonsai outside of Japan. This forces a certain level of creativity. Growing seeds is one good approach. Another is converting landscape trees to bonsai.

I recently purchased a couple of black pines developed as landscape trees in the hope they could someday become bonsai. The larger of the two was taller than I am.

Black pine developed as landscape tree

Black pine

Despite the large size and uninteresting trunk line, the tree possessed a couple of characteristics that made me think hard about working with the tree as bonsai. The base of the trunk is fairly large, and good bark is beginning to develop.

Base of trunk – side A

Base of trunk – side B

A good trunk is a great start for a tree, but branches also matter, and this tree had but a small number of quite large branches. I didn’t have long to think about it, but I knew I had some intriguing starting points so I brought the tree home.

What, then, to do with it? I’m curious to hear your suggestions. I’ll post photos of the initial work later this week.