Japanese Method for JBP - trunk development

[RobertB]

I saw this crazy looking photo of a Japanese black pine on a YouTube video on how to grow and care for Japanese black pine. I believe it was a Bonsai Focus film. It was being translated from Japanese to English.



Looks like multiple escape branches all over base. I'm just wondering how this was accomplished. De-candeling early while young.
I guess this is it later on as this was the next shot they showed.


Anyone every tried this way?

 

[Adair M]

I saw this crazy looking photo of a Japanese black pine on a YouTube video on how to grow and care for Japanese black pine. I believe it was a Bonsai Focus film. It was being translated from Japanese to English.

View attachment 186367

Looks like multiple escape branches all over base. I'm just wondering how this was accomplished. De-candeling early while young.
I guess this is it later on as this was the next shot they showed.
View attachment 186368

Anyone every tried this way?

They used to do it this way back in the 1980’s. I haven’t seen it done so much recently. I think it was all the scars on the lower trunk were ugly.

 

[RobertB]

Do you know how they accomplish this? I would assume they decandle for a few years starting maybe 2-4 yrs. I don't know or pretend to know. Just very interested in. Just another route to try for myself and learn from.

Thank you for the response!

 

[thumblessprimate1]

Do you know how they accomplish this? I would assume they decandle for a few years starting maybe 2-4 yrs. I don't know or pretend to know. Just very interested in. Just another route to try for myself and learn from.

Thank you for the response!

I think an old member had pines developed this way. He isn't active, and all I could think I remember was he had Jason in his username.

 

[Adair M]

Do you know how they accomplish this? I would assume they decandle for a few years starting maybe 2-4 yrs. I don't know or pretend to know. Just very interested in. Just another route to try for myself and learn from.

Thank you for the response!

Well, I can’t read the Japanese, but from looking at the pictures in the old magazines, they started with a seedling cutting. Then every year, they would let the whorles form. If there was only a single spring candle, they would decandle it, forcing a whole lot of summer candles.

They would let all the side branches grow unchecked. If the tree tried to create branches, they would remove the side shoots, keeping only the Center shoot for each branch. So each branch became a sacrifice branch.

The idea was to build a trunk with a lot of taper.

If a section of the trunk began to swell and create reverse taper, branches from that level would be removed.

Essentially, the trunk would get built with taper, but it was all scarred up, and then, if you wanted branches, those you had to graft on.

One of the features we look for in JBP is the quality of the bark. These trees did have nice taper, but the trunks had no useable low branches nor attractive bark. They were mostly scars in various stages of development.

 

[RobertB]

Over time does that make the bark even more interesting, long term, way after the scars heal?

 

[hemmy]

Do you know how they accomplish this? I would assume they decandle for a few years starting maybe 2-4 yrs. I don't know or pretend to know. Just very interested in. Just another route to try for myself and learn from.

Thank you for the response!

Bonsai Today #12 shows a similar process for this ‘sumo’ trunk. They cut back the main stem in year 2 if it is vigorous and also cut back in year 3 to get those lower adventitious buds/branches. But they also grow it in a container for the duration and it took 33 years for 4” of caliper

 

[Adair M]

Over time does that make the bark even more interesting, long term, way after the scars heal?

I don’t know, I haven’t seen an old one that I know was produced this way. “Good bark” on pines means plates of bark, with deep fissures. Callous tissue will eventually bark up, but it has a differejt texture all together.