Japanese White Pine JWP Literati progression

[Adair M]

It’s stll JWP season here in mid-October.

So, I pulled this one out, and gave it a cleaning up. Which means I pulled all the yellowing and brown needles. And any hanging down.

As well, I went through it, and “balanced it”. What does that mean? Back in the spring, some buds (candles, shoots, twigs, whatever) were stronger than others. The really strong ones, I “broke”. That means “pinched”. Shortened. But I made sure to break the candles in places where it would still have needles. (One year I was fooled by pollen cone buds! I broke off all the needles and only had pollen cones!). I didn’t have to break very many candles, maybe a half dozen.

But some shoots grew out significantly stronger than others. We want them all to be at about the same strength. The ones that were stronger grew longer, and produced more needles. So, I’ve pulled extra needles from the stronger shoots to weaken them somewhat.



I forgot to take a Before picture. Later, I’ll post some pictures from earlier this year and years past.

Next, I’ll remove the wire. This tree is growing rapidly! My plan is to lower all the branches. I think that will make it look older. The trunk is just beginning to split and crack up. Once it does, it will be a LOT better.

Oh, it’s a Zuisho JWP airlayer I purchased from Julian Adams about 3 years ago.

 

[GSCarlson]

Beautiful tree, yes. But it doesn’t seem sparse enough to be literati.

 

[0soyoung]

Beautiful tree, yes. But it doesn’t seem sparse enough to be literati.

I agree in this case and tend to agree in general.

Literati that I find most interesting tend to be 'arty' and to appear as if they were painted with a calligraphy brush - smooth curves, sudden ruptures, blots. The line of the trunk is generally the point.

To my taste, this tree is presently featuring foliage instead of trunk line. My eye tends to hop from pad to pad to apex instead of following on the trunk-line.

 

[LanceMac10]

tree is awesome, but how about posting it in a "thumbnail" format?

And since I'm here, having some Guinness and PBR, do you think the "extra" foliage could help expedite mature bark growth?


…...and you know better...….landshark for scale......

 

[Adair M]

Tough crowd! Lol!!!

Here it is with all the wire removed. Except a guy wire, and one wire that’s trapped by the guy.



And, I probably removed half the foliage when I thinned it:



Now, this is a project tree. It’s WAY too young to be a literati. For now. Good literati have to go thru all the stages: youth, adult, mature, old before becoming a true literati. Of course, I’m going to try to accelerate that, but it still takes time!

And, I have a final image in mind:



To get there, I’m going to have to drop the left branches. A lot!

The lowest right branch is too heavy. It forks not far off the trunk. The plan is to Jin the heavy fork, and keep the small one.

Next step is to wire it out again. Bring down the primary branches. I foresee a number of guy wires.

 

[Nybonsai12]

Really like this tree. I think JWP make the best literati. Rare here in the US as well. Looking forward to updates.

 

[bonhe]

I agree in this case and tend to agree in general.

Literati that I find most interesting tend to be 'arty' and to appear as if they were painted with a calligraphy brush - smooth curves, sudden ruptures, blots. The line of the trunk is generally the point.

To my taste, this tree is presently featuring foliage instead of trunk line. My eye tends to hop from pad to pad to apex instead of following on the trunk-line.

I totally agree with you.
Thụ Thoại

 

[Adair M]

I agree in this case and tend to agree in general.

Literati that I find most interesting tend to be 'arty' and to appear as if they were painted with a calligraphy brush - smooth curves, sudden ruptures, blots. The line of the trunk is generally the point.

To my taste, this tree is presently featuring foliage instead of trunk line. My eye tends to hop from pad to pad to apex instead of following on the trunk-line.

Don’t worry, Oso, I’ll be working on one next week that will blow your Sox off! Lol!!!

 

[0soyoung]

Don’t worry, Oso, I’ll be working on one next week that will blow your Sox off! Lol!!!

Who?
Me worry?

 

[Potawatomi13]

Beautiful tree, yes. But it doesn’t seem sparse enough to be literati.

Agreed.

 

[hemmy]

Guinness and PBR

You mix them?!

And I like the tree, no matter what ‘form’ you consider it.

 

[LanceMac10]

You mix them?!

And I like the tree, no matter what ‘form’ you consider it.

No, though they do become acquainted in my belly!!

Thanks for the "beer for scale"!! @Adair M

 

[Arcto]

Adair, have you considered tilting the tree more upright?

 

[Adair M]

Beginning to wire it out. I have placed a little wire on the lowest two branches. Not completely wired out yet, and I haven’t “set” anything. My main goal is to wire that lowest left branch down more, make it more of a “drop” branch. (Where’s @Dav4 when you need him? Probably drinking beer in Budapest...)

So, I know I will need a guy wire, but before I placed the guy, I wired the structural branches of the two lowest branches. Then, worked on the guy.

Here’s the result, so far:



Like I said, I haven’t “styled” it yet.

Here are some detail pics of the guy wire. I used 22 gauge copper for the guy.



On the picture above, I looped the wire around the heavy anchor wire that’s on the back, and brought it under towards the front. I used a bit of airline tubing for cushioning.



Here you can see the other end. I used a piece of screen window spline as cushioning. I cut a piece, bend it into a U shape, and carefully snip off half of the bottom of the U. This allows each end of the wire to poke out the bottom of the U.

To tighten the guy, I first twist the wires snug. Then, I apply pressure to the branch, which opens some slack in the wire. And I twist until the slack is removed. DON’T try to tighten by just twisting the wires, they will break, all you do when you twist is take up slack. Applying pressure to the branch creates the bend (and slack), twisting the wire takes up the slack.

Doing it this way, you can use very thin wire for guy wires. I’m using 22 gauge.

For those who prefer the pictures in thumbnail form, I’ll put them without caption in the next post.

 

[Adair M]

Thumbnails:

 

[Adair M]

Adair, have you considered tilting the tree more upright?

All options are available! Lol!

 

[dirk hoorelbeke]

I'm a big fan of taking time to let the tree mature before making bigger decisions. Clean work as always. Looking forward for the maturing bark.

 

[Adair M]

So, before I cut it off, I thought I’d give the heavy lower right branch a chance. I guy wired it down.

I’ve also styled the lower left branch, and the lowest back branch.



What do think? Too much? It’s not completely wired and styled yet. I was thinking of pulling a bit of the front part down some more to obscure a bit of the trunk. It’s kinda straightish there.

 

[CasAH]

Looks better to me. If you can pull it around to hid the straight portion of the trunk to some degree, I agree it would really help the design.

 

[barrosinc]

What would boon say??