Undigging - re-potting black pines

 The ubiquitous black pine. 

I can use that word for now. Because it's true. Many, many decades ago that wasn't so true. Pine material was, in the past, rather hard to find here in the central valley. Sure, there were trees that had been around for a while that would come up for sale, but they were rather expensive to purchase. They also might have been for sale for a reason; they weren't very good! I started bonsai in 1984 and didn't own my first pine tree until the 2000's. Why? First, they were expensive. Second, they were mysterious and I didn't know how to work on them. Third, and most important, conifers don't bud on old wood.

What does that mean, conifers don't bud on old wood. On a pine there are three kinds of buds.  Terminal buds, adventitious buds and needle buds.

Terminal buds appear at the terminal of untrimmed naturally growing branches

Adventitious buds grow out of old needle fascicles or branches pruned back short. The squiggly line represents dormant adventitious buds ready to pop when heavily pruned. Notice that I have left all this needle growth on the branch. New people always want to remove this as soon as they work over a new piece of material. They want to "clean it up". Don't clean up pines until your branch is built. This may take twenty years. These needles growing on the branch are the only way you can cut back a pine and have new buds. Remove them all and after that year's growth they are pretty much done for adventitious growth. Please don't remove them until someone knowledgeable with pines has looked at your structure and can give you some guidance.

Needle buds grow out of the base of a pair of needles, usually after pruning stimulating budding.

Terminal buds are the ones we most often encounter but are the most dangerous. These buds continue the linear growth of the branch by elongation. If not pruned back leaving only a few needles pairs the branch will just get longer and longer with growth out on the ends. Remember those trees I talked about that come up for sale by members, these are the kind of problem most of them have. Long unpruned branches with no inner growth and a pom pom out on the end. These types of problems are very difficult to overcome due to the older wood having no adventitious buds to sprout. If you own one of these types of pine, put a for sale sign on it and unload it at the next yard sale. Someone will like it, buy it,  and soon learn that fixing it is almost impossible. Like all things bonsai, one has to learn the hard way as to why you should learn early how to discern great material. In my workshops I try to point out the things one should look for in buying great material and then how to prepare it for the future.

So now on to the project and how it has progressed. These were two-year-old bare root seedlings that I purchased for this project. I'm 70 years old, hope I get to see them with one-inch trunks?

The one-year growth mark is easily seen here.

All the seedlings were wired with 2 mm wire and all were bent wildly.

Here are the seedlings all wired and ready to plant. 10 of them total.

I planted all the seedlings in the ground. I felt that having just ten and, in my backyard, I could control them and build nice plants.

The seedlings planted in the ground.

The problem.

I have wonderful ground here sandy loam on top of a crappy clay under story. Water just does not soak in very fast, sure it soaks in overnight but daily watering was pooling around the trees and a couple drown. Pines don't like having wet feet so this year I dug all of them up.

 First, I had to decide what I was going to grow them in. I decided to plant them in cut down one gallon nursery containers. I built a stand assembly for my battery 90-degree grinder. Put a cutoff wheel in it and just spin the pot and the blade does the rest, easy peasy.

After I cut them down, I had to cover the holes to accept the soil that would fall right thru the holes. This was accomplished with some extra-long plastic stitchery canvas I bought years ago.

All the trees were prepared for planting by fixing the wire. Last year when I bent them some of them had loose places in the wire from bending in the opposite direction of the twist of the wire. If you go against the twist the wire will open up and take the shorter route leaving a big space between the wire and the stem. Most of this was on the outer ends of each tree and only needed to be unwired and rewired tightly and paying better attention to how I bend them. You can see how much larger the trunks are this year. After the growth I got on my show potted pines this year with good fertilizer, I am anxious to fertilize these as heavily and let them go.

This little one still has some green in the needles and a good terminal bud. It was drowned in the ground. The above ground planter and mulch should dissipate water much better.

Now this one has no green, no terminal bud, and no hope. I am praying for a miracle that just maybe one of the adventitious buds may pop. I'll share it here first.

So now I have all the pines in a planter. The planter needs some work, and I won't be able to really prepare it properly until the neighborhood Home Depot gets bags of walk on bark to help fill the planter. The clay planters have two-year-old bareroot trident maple seedlings in them. I'm learning more and more about pines, and they don't seem to be so mysterious anymore. I now find them pretty bullet proof, and they take to bonsai training very well. Maybe in a couple years one of you might purchase one of my pines.

Paying it forward

"I will take the support I have had and try to pay it forward whenever I can" 

I am sure most everyone has had the experience of someone paying for your coffee at a Starbucks drive thru, or McDonalds. It's that feeling you get when you do something for those that have less experience than you but offer it to them asking for nothing in return.

Such was the case last Saturday. I noticed in an internet post that the Fresno club was having a Bonsai beginner workshop at a local Library location. I decided to go and take pictures with the express purpose to write this post and thank those that came to partake of the expertise. The post said that the workshop would be headlined by a Fresno member Mike Saul. I met Mike Saul sometime around 1994, he may remember that date more clearly. Nevertheless, Mike has always been on the forefront of giving back whenever he can.

I went to the event and most of the usual suspects were there. Many of the same people that come to my small learning group. These suspects are those that I wish to talk about.

Mike Saul the handsome chap with the cap and glasses. World renown retired Fresno surgeon and tireless worker at the Fresno Collection of trees in Shen Zen Gardens at Woodward park.

Mike is going over the pruning back of a root ball on a classic style Mother Daughter olive. He has trimmed these roots properly by trimming them back short. Olives are tough trees and they recover from this type of trimming very quickly.

Mike has prepared the pot with wire to tie the tree in and all that is left is to place the tree and soil in. But wait.....

As I approach the table, Mike begins explaining that he will be using a method I have used for 30+ years. I tie my trees into the pot directly on the bottom with no soil. I tie them in hard which forces the roots to bend and grow outwards building great nebari (root spread). Mike has explained that he will be using that method due to how shallow the pot is.

Mike does not know it but that pot is a rare, now out of business Tongrae pot. The company stopped making pots a couple decades ago and the factory was in Korea. These older ones like this are a unique shape and not seen much anymore. I used to have a gray one just like this and somewhere along the line I got rid of it. Mike may have got this from someone I sold mine to, who knows.

The tree is now tied into the pot, and he has started to backfill it with the soil.

This guy, center of picture, trying to look busy. Tim Robinson. Tim has belonged to the club for the better part of the last century. I think I was in the club for nearly 20 years before I ever met him, and that was 22 years ago!

Here Tim is explaining the attributes of the soil he has recently started to package and sell with beginners in mind. It is pre sifted and available in gallon bags and 4-gallon plastic jugs. The next time you see him ask him for your free sample bag and tell him Al told ya. Tim is always ready to offer a suggestion on how better to improve your tree.

David Soho always ready to help out with bonsai improvement. David bombed out on the standup comedian circuit! He found bonsai much more relaxing.

Here he coaches a guest by explaining about wire on a branch.

Mark Stamper explaining the high points of bonsai pottery and the importance of wire in the pot. 

David Remmer. David is a key figure within the Fresno club. He is responsible for making sure the correspondence with the members is on time and informational. Without David, I would have never known about this workshop. He makes it happen. He also has a knack for getting the libraries for the many workshops throughout the year. 

I too, was asked a million questions as well as being led to people that needed help for which they felt I could offer a different approach. There were about 22 students attending this workshop and I think it was very helpful to the burgeoning bonsai community. Thanks Mike, for making sure these kinds of workshops prosper. A big thank you to all these people that give back to the community with their help and expertise. They give it freely and ask nothing in return. That's paying it forward.