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Cork bark black pine from graft – removing the original foliage

April 19, 2016 by Jonas Dupuich

Three years ago I grafted cork bark black pine scions onto several young, non-corking, black pines. Once the grafts took hold, I gradually reduced the foliage of the understock. Now that the desired foliage is strong, it’s time to remove the original foliage.

6 year-old cork bark black pine – the tallest branch is the last of the original foliage

After removing the last of the original foliage

That’s all there is to it at this point. After making the cut, I sealed the wound with cut paste.

Wound where the original trunk was cut

After sealing the wound with cut paste

The other two trees from this batch received the same treatment.

6 year-old black pine

After removing the original foliage

Cork bark black pine

After making the cut

Although getting to this point from seed required six years, in many ways this was the easiest part of the process. Cork barks can’t be bent like regular black pines which means I have one chance to get the wiring and branch selection right. At some point within the next year, I’ll thin these trees, select leaders, and wire the branches. In the meantime, I’ll make sure they get plenty of sunlight, water and fertilizer.

For more on the story up to this point, see:

  • Creating cork bark black pine

  • Encouraging grafted foliage
  • Cork bark black pine from graft follow-up
  • Repotting young cork bark black pines

 

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Filed Under: Bonsai Development Tagged With: Corkbark Black Pine

Previous Post: « Black pine from landscape material – follow-up
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Gary R Croft says

    April 19, 2016 at 4:58 am

    Jonas,glad u mentioned cork barks cant be bent like black pines. Got it filed away in my brain now-never saw this written up. Maybe I was inattentive!

  2. Scott says

    April 19, 2016 at 1:09 pm

    Good stuff Jonas. Looking forward to how well the the graft union looks in the coming years. Do you ever plan to create a low air layer to force cork roots?

    • Jonas Dupuich says

      April 19, 2016 at 4:58 pm

      Hi Scott – good question. Typically the goal is to graft as close to the roots as possible. If the root base is good, corking roots aren’t necessary.

  3. Brian mcgrath says

    April 19, 2016 at 6:09 pm

    Hi Michael
    What did you use as your root stock. I have access to contorta or shore pine. Could I use that for understock.
    I tried it with jbp, and was successful for 2 years, and then for some reason, tragedy . I will try again this late fall as it seems to work up here.
    Thank you
    Brian

  4. Brian mcgrath says

    April 19, 2016 at 6:11 pm

    Sorry Jonas
    Brian

  5. Jonas Dupuich says

    April 23, 2016 at 8:48 am

    Hi Brian – thanks for the question. I updated the post to reflect that the cork bark foliage was grafted onto a black pine seedling.

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