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A visit to Miyakonojou

February 21, 2014 by Jonas Dupuich

In the small town of Miyakonojou in southern Kyushu lives one Mr. Fukunaga, a bonsai hobbyist. He’s been growing bonsai for several decades – mostly black pine, white pine, and Japanese maples with some other varieties here and there. Conifers filled his front yard.

Fukunaga's garden

Mr Fukunaga’s garden

White pine

Twin trunk white pine

Some of the trees were not small.

White pines

Hiding behind large white pines

In such a garden, I looked to the trunks and roots to tell the trees apart. As is common in many Japanese bonsai gardens, a number of the white pines had gone a while since their last repotting.

White pine

White pine

Roots pushing tree out of pot

Roots pushing the tree out of the pot

The approach is popular as repotting infrequently helps keep white pine growth in check. I also learned a little bit about developing black pines. Lesson 1 – seedling cuttings produce roots that are the same size and shape.

Roots

Likely evidence of tree made by seedling cutting

Lesson 2 – growing pines in containers can keep surface roots under control – a big plus when fitting trees into small show pots

Roots

Container grown black pine with modest nebari

Growing pines in the ground can have the opposite effect.

Black pine

Pine developed in the ground.

Wait, what?

Roots

Whole lotta roots

As I walked through the front yard it became fairly easy to tell which trees were developed in the ground and which developed in pots.

Black pine

Field grown pine

In Fukunaga’s backyard, I got to see some of the trees in development.

Fukunaga's backyard

Fukunaga’s backyard

Most of the space was filled with younger white and black pines. Two greenhouses housed the deciduous varieties.

White pines

Young white pines – about 15 years old

Mr. Fukunaga had a blast talking about how he made these trees. Most of the black pines are now roughly 30 years old. They were entirely container grown in colanders.

Mr. Fukunaga

Mr. Fukunaga

It was fun to see the movement, and in some cases the bark, of these pines. Branch work was rudimentary as the focus to date has been on the trunks.

30yr-old black pine

30 year old black pine

30yr-old black pine

Look like a fun project?

More from Mr. Fukunaga’s backyard coming soon.

✕

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Filed Under: Excursions Tagged With: Black Pine, Japan, White Pine

Previous Post: « Registration open for International Bonsai & Culture Biennale 2014
Next Post: Mr. Fukunaga’s maples »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Adair Martin says

    February 21, 2014 at 7:00 am

    Wow! Truly awesome trees! What a great opportunity to see him working on them. Jonas, we really appreciate you sharing your experiences.

  2. Keith says

    February 21, 2014 at 8:22 am

    Tremendous thanks for this look at development methods. Andy Rutledge once had a series of photos showing old pines still being developed, but the photos were removed. Thanks again for sharing openly! Looking forward to more great articles.

  3. Patricia Tatich says

    February 21, 2014 at 8:26 am

    The quality of the trunks and the health of the trees speaks to the value of using containers where there is sufficient air passage to the roots.Hope to hear more on on using these type of containers for other types of trees. Thank you for sharing…..pt in the Adirondacks

  4. Mac says

    February 21, 2014 at 9:53 am

    Going to go out and find me some colanders today!

    Thanks Jonas. Is Mr. Fukunaga strictly a hobbyist? I know we hobbyists get carried away sometimes but the back yard of trees in development kind of looks like he may sell from time to time. Perhaps keeping the best for himself and selling not so hot material.

    Looking forward to the next issue of Mr. Fukungaga’s work.

  5. Jonas Dupuich says

    February 21, 2014 at 10:01 am

    Thanks Mac. And yes, Fukunaga is strictly a hobbyist – much like many of us who occasionally sell trees from time to time.

  6. Jeremiah Lee says

    February 24, 2014 at 12:02 pm

    Great pics as usual! Thank you so much for sharing, I think we can learn alot from these pictures. Do you think the bark quality was better from ground growing or container?

  7. Jonas Dupuich says

    February 24, 2014 at 12:27 pm

    Thanks Jeremiah – I didn’t seen enough of the ground-grown pines to know if there’s much of a difference, but it’s clear that the container grown trees can produce great bark. I’ll say more about container grown pines soon.

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