Corkbark JBP, 'Hachi Gen'

[Brian Van Fleet]

This Hachi-Gen was one of about 8 cultivars I worked with. I bought it because it was cutting-grown. It came from Brent Walston's Evergreen Gardenworks. Here is the description from his catalog:

Pinus thunbergii 'Hachi Gen' (Cork Bark Black Pine) We obtained this cultivar from Ken Sugimoto. As with many Nishiki cultivars, there is a problem with the naming. We are giving it the name supplied by Ken Sugimoto, but we have not been able to find it described in any text. It was reported to us that one Japanese company has it listed as 'Hachi Gen Kyokko', but it does not appear to be related to the well known cultivar 'Kyokko'. It has needles shorter than 'Kyokko' and it does not cork as fast.

It is a cork bark type black pine (Nishiki Kuro Matsu) that forms corky ridges rather slowly, fully developing in about twenty years. Grafts and cuttings develop bark that begins to 'crack' at about three years. The needles have good green color and are quite similar to species needles, not overly long (about three inches full size). It has white buds and is vigorous growing, breaking new buds quite easily. These are cutting grown plants, so there is no graft and the corking will extend down to the surface roots.

I received it in November 2007, as about an 8-year old cutting in a 1-gal can:

Potted it into a bonsai pot in March 2008. Good roots:

By June, it's spring candles were opening up:

In 2009, wired to spread out the branches:

It has a long span of straight trunk without any branches. I worked a long time at incorporating it into the design.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

In 2010, I was considering making the right branch into a cascading branch:

In 2011 I changed my mind and shortened it, and started moving the second left branch around front for use as a future apex:

In 2012, the needles were reducing nicely, but it still looked like 2 trees:

And in 2013, I attempted an air-layer:

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

I gave the air-layer about 18 months, and instead of rooting, it bridged. Worth a shot, didn't work, and I was losing interest in corkers...so in September 2014:

Off with its head. Here is a big lesson in bonsai! Use the best, and eliminate the trouble parts early so you can get on with the design. I lost 7 years on this tree.
It was also thinned out and wired:

Then the needles began to go pale. They were still very stiff, and buds were setting for spring. It hadn't been repotted for 6 years, so I started wondering if the roots were sitting in wet silt at the bottom of the pot. The soil was draining fine, so I hit it with some iron to see if it would improve the color.

It didn't help, so I popped it out of the pot to get a better look. It was in February, so I didn't want to get too carried away, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Some silt settled in the bottom of the pot, and some retraction of the roots, so I moved it to a smaller pot and soil of mostly river sand, and some akadama and lava. It pushed good, but yellow candles in spring 2015:


And later, when this spring's candles opened, I removed many of last year's needles to open it up for healthier needles:

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

It still seemed healthy, but showed really bad color.

Here it is compared to another black pine:

It was about then when Jonas posted about root aphids on his blog. I dug around and couldn't find anything, but thought I'd try a drench in a dilute Malathion solution.

We'll see how it goes.

 

[Giga]

lookin good! hope the color returns-Have you tried an iron based fertalizer?

 

[klosi]

Very nice progress and excellent documentation. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

lookin good! hope the color returns-Have you tried an iron based fertalizer?

Yes, as mentioned in post 3.

 

[Giga]

Yes, as mentioned in post 2.

lol, guess I just picture looked.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

About 10 days after treating with malathion, the color seems to be slightly better:

 

[fredtruck]

I hope your tree continues to improve. I have had similar things happen and have never been able to understand what was going on. Lately, due to the extremely wet conditions we've had, I've come to treat my trees for fungus. I hope this is not causing the yellow needles on your tree.

 

[Txhorticulture]

Maybe magnesium or nitrogen deficiency maybe when the air layer didn't work the tree had to use some stored energy and nutrients to bridge the gap.

 

[0soyoung]

It only happens to the good ones. I really like this tree since you lopped the top.

Try giving it a pinch or two of Ironite if it doesn't continue greening up.

 

[coh]

Brian, I hope you can nurse it back to health! It's a great looking tree.

I've found that for trees that have iron deficiency symptoms, it often takes multiple applications that are pretty strong. Don't know if you applied iron once or more...but it may be worth doing it again.

Chris

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Thanks, I may try Ironite. I use Eco-Vie to add trace elements, fairly regularly and for years. Good stuff.

I went back and forth with Espoma several times about whether or not their Plant-Tone products had any trace elements, and never got a straight answer, so I've been adding Eco-Vie to my fert cakes, and also to my weekly fish emulsion drench about once a month.

 

[Nybonsai12]

About 10 days after treating with malathion, the color seems to be slightly better:
View attachment 80528

Great looking tree, can't believe how nice and tight it looks in this picture. if you chopped earlier as you wish you had, would the image have ended up differently? And where do you go from here? Aside from restoring color, More refining or ready for show?

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

if you chopped earlier as you wish you had, would the image have ended up differently? And where do you go from here? Aside from restoring color, More refining or ready for show?

Here is the plan:
1. Restore health/color.
2. Needle-pull and fan out branches in fall.
3. Repot into a slightly deeper container in the spring. (Shibakatsu)
4. Continue needle reduction next year.
5. Heal the chop, though not critical.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Also in need of some attention. Mostly just glad for its health.

 

[dirk hoorelbeke]

Nice little happier chappy. Do you think it where root aphids or the repot helped you out?

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Nice little happier chappy. Do you think it where root aphids or the repot helped you out?

I couldn't say for sure, because I never saw the root aphids. However, I repotted it in February, but the color continud to decline until I treated the soil for pests in September.

 

[dirk hoorelbeke]

Thanks for the answer, sometimes we just don't know... I found an unhealthy yellow one to, so i was thinking of treating it after the exact same post from Jonas.