A Japanese White Pine

Hi Dave,
Great looking tree!
Question. The branches on the daughter trunk are not as downsloping as the main trunk. Is that on purpose? The reason I ask is that I was confused when I first looked at the images if it was a branch or another trunk. Of course when I looked closer I could tell it was a 2nd trunk. Are you not following the angles of the main trunk with the branches of the daughter trunk because it's younger? or is there no rush in adjusting them? Also, there looks to be a few branches exiting the same position at the 2nd whorl on the daughter. I assume you're watching there and will ultimately remove one or two of those?
I don't mean to be annoying, just curious.
I killed my 1st JWP and haven't tried again so I can't say too much!
Best,
Ian
 

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iant said:
Hi Dave,
Great looking tree!
Question. The branches on the daughter trunk are not as downsloping as the main trunk. Is that on purpose? The reason I ask is that I was confused when I first looked at the images if it was a branch or another trunk. Of course when I looked closer I could tell it was a 2nd trunk. Are you not following the angles of the main trunk with the branches of the daughter trunk because it's younger? or is there no rush in adjusting them? Also, there looks to be a few branches exiting the same position at the 2nd whorl on the daughter. I assume you're watching there and will ultimately remove one or two of those?
I don't mean to be annoying, just curious.
I killed my 1st JWP and haven't tried again so I can't say too much!
Best,
Ian
Click to expand...
I honestly never really was bothered by the slope on the branches in that smaller trunk. It's such a small part of the tree, it really doesn't have more volume than any of the larger branches, and I suspect much of what is bothering you visually is related to that plus the 2 dimensional limits of a photo... that tree is 40 + inches tall, and there's more slope there than you realize. I think as that trunk develops and carries more visual weight, the branching will become more defined and may develop more slope. There probably are several branches exiting at the same level, but they're needed right now. It'll be dealt with if needed as the trunk gets bigger.
 
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tanlu said:
Would you mind sharing your feeding regime? I’ve been trying to figure this out for my JWPs which are all on their own roots (if that matters here). Most are in development.
Click to expand...
I start feeding in mid June here in MI by placing containers with plantone or hollytone on the soil surface. I also will apply fish emulsion every one to two weeks. The solid feed is refreshed every month or so and I’ll continue that along with the liquid feed through October and into November if it’s warm enough.
 
I’ve been using hollytone for my pines too, which seems to be quite beneficial and cost effective, so I’m glad to hear you’re using that too. Do you place that into tea bags? Also, what differences/benefits have you noticed in your pines from the fish emulsion. I ask because I know lots of growers use it as a supplement, but I haven’t heard convincing arguments for it, yet.

One mistake I’ve been making is simply sprinkling it on the soil. I suspect that it’s causing the soil to hold too much moisture, now. My pines are in pumice, turface, and lava rock. I’m wondering if I’ll have to take them out of their pots next spring to sift out all that fertilizer residue to improve drainage next year.
 
tanlu said:
I’ve been using hollytone for my pines too, which seems to be quite beneficial and cost effective, so I’m glad to hear you’re using that too. Do you place that into tea bags? Also, what differences/benefits have you noticed in your pines from the fish emulsion. I ask because I know lots of growers use it as a supplement, but I haven’t heard convincing arguments for it, yet.

One mistake I’ve been making is simply sprinkling it on the soil. I suspect that it’s causing the soil to hold too much moisture, now. My pines are in pumice, turface, and lava rock. I’m wondering if I’ll have to take them out of their pots next spring to sift out all that fertilizer residue to improve drainage next year.
Click to expand...
Historically, I've tried to keep the solid ferts off the actual soil surface by either placing it tea bags or beer can bottoms with holes cut into them that allows water to percolate through. Any solid feed in direct contact with the soil surface will gum it up, and it doesn't matter what the soil components are in the mix. Lots of my project trees are in pond baskets and I have periodically dumped some hollytone onto the soil. Invariably, when they get re-potted, it looks like much of the mix throughout the soil mass is straight broken down ferts.

I've been using fish emulsion for at least 15 years so it's hard to remember bonsai life without it, honestly. Like hollytone, it's cost effective and unlikely to harm the trees, and all my trees- deciduous and evergreen- grow well with the regimen. My soil mix for my conifers is APL... I add a bit more pumice to the mix for the JWPs and junipers. I was amazed at how much mycorrhiza I found colonizing the pots of many of my pines, including this one (there's a pic above of myc all over the soil surface when I pulled it out of winter storage). I never saw this when my trees were mainly in a turface based mix, so either the removal of turface or the addition of Akadama has made the difference. Ultimately, I think it's a combination of the right soil and fertilization program that works the best.
 
Yep, when I check soil moisture on my trees, I’ve noticed a lot broken down fert in the depths of their pots, which isn’t ideal. The good news is that water still drains out quickly, for now. I may lift them out of their pots next spring to that sift out.

As far as soil mixes go, I’ve been looking for something that takes years to begin to break down and am happy with my current mix. I should have clarified that the drainage isn’t currently an issue. I was concerned that it would become one in a couple of years, which would be easily prevented if I had put the hollytone on containers.

I have found that any time I use akadama it breaks down within a year or two. I’ve recently heard about there being a mixture of minerals in akadama that benefit some bonsai species. For a while, I thought it was just people following Japanese bonsai conventions that didn’t seem so evidence based, but I’ve recently found a semi-hard fired akadama that I may start incorporating it into my mixes my to see how my trees respond next year.
 
tanlu said:
Yep, when I check soil moisture on my trees, I’ve noticed a lot broken down fert in the depths of their pots, which isn’t ideal. The good news is that water still drains out quickly, for now. I may lift them out of their pots next spring to that sift out.

As far as soil mixes go, I’ve been looking for something that takes years to begin to break down and am happy with my current mix. I should have clarified that the drainage isn’t currently an issue. I was concerned that it would become one in a couple of years, which would be easily prevented if I had put the hollytone on containers.

I have found that any time I use akadama it breaks down within a year or two. I’ve recently heard about there being a mixture of minerals in akadama that benefit some bonsai species. For a while, I thought it was just people following Japanese bonsai conventions that didn’t seem so evidence based, but I’ve recently found a semi-hard fired akadama that I may start incorporating it into my mixes my to see how my trees respond next year.
Click to expand...
I grew all my trees in a Turface/lava/pumice or bark mix for probably 25 years. They all seemed to do well. I now grow my best and most refined trees in an inorganic, akadama based mix because it seems to offer the best results for those trees long term.
 
Dav4 said:
I grew all my trees in a Turface/lava/pumice or bark mix for probably 25 years. They all seemed to do well. I now grow my best and most refined trees in an inorganic, akadama based mix because it seems to offer the best results for those trees long term.
Click to expand...
Apologies for the typos in that post. I have a young kid and am always oscillating between daddy duties, so sometimes don’t get a chance to edit.

I think your JWP looks quite healthy foliage-wise for an older tree compared to many refined non-grafted JWP in Japan I see in photos which always seem to severely lack back budding so the foliage is only at the edges of long spindly branches. Maybe they’re under-fertilized?
 
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