Pitoon's - Six Year Japanese Black Pine Contest entry

[Pitoon]

I saw this contest last year but didn't bite at it until recently when I got some seeds last month into the fridge.


So here's my entry.......

1oz of seeds was purchased from @Bonsaifurliife He purchased them from Lawyer nursery when they were closing. He shipped them out to me 29MAY19, and I got them 31MAY19.

On 07JUN19 they were soaked in warm water and on 08JUN19 they were re-soaked, then placed in the fridge 09JUN19.



On 12JUL19 I pulled out the seeds from the fridge, just a few that were cracked has some mold and they were discarded.







Here i'm getting the workbench set up





Trays are 50 count and I will be planting 10 trays (500 seeds) in total.





For the growing medium I will be using sifted NAPA 8822 and play sand (purchased from HomeDepot) as a top dressing.






One large soup spoonful of DE, followed by another large soup spoon full of sand, and then covered with a small spoonful of sand for each pocket.







Here's the ten trays laid out after bottom soaking. Hopefully they will sprout within the next couple weeks as our weather has been fairly hot these days. I still have I would say another 1500 seeds back in the fridge so I may plant another 10 trays this upcoming weekend.

 

[Fonz]

Welcome to the contest, although for you it's the 5 year pine contest now
That setup you got there looks very neat.

 

[Pitoon]

Welcome to the contest, although for you it's the 5 year pine contest now
That setup you got there looks very neat.

Thanks! I'm really behind on the power curve compared to everyone else. I checked out your thread. What type of fertilizer are you using? I noticed you switched from teabags to cut pvc pipe? Why so?

I believe that everyone doing this contest will be steps ahead regarding JBP growth and development with everyone sharing info on the same subject in different parts of the world.

 

[Fonz]

Thanks! I'm really behind on the power curve compared to everyone else. I checked out your thread. What type of fertilizer are you using? I noticed you switched from teabags to cut pvc pipe? Why so?

For now I'm using a regular granular garden fertilizer. (NPK 9-3-6). This one to be precise: https://dcm-info.com/en/products/fertilisers/dcm-mix-3

Not sure why I switched to the PVC pipes, guess they're less work to refill

 

[Pitoon]

We've been having some crazy heat here in Maryland that has been producing some violent storms. We were expecting to have some severe weather roll through so I had to cover up the seed trays, hopefully it doesn't come our way.

 

[Pitoon]

500 more this morning, total seeds planted now at 1000.

 

[Ryceman3]

I’m a little curious about the timing of your entry. I am in Australia and am also about to sow my next batch of JBP seeds, as we have just moved past the middle of Winter and are entering Spring. This is pretty normal for JBP... which makes your timing the opposite right? Just wondering if you have sown JBP in Summer before, and if so how did it go - I’m thinking pretty well considering you have got 1000 more on the go!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for experimenting and your entry is very interesting to me given the differences in timing from everybody else and the fact you have such a large sample of seeds going in. This should give a good indication for rates of success.
All the best with them, I hope they go well for you. I’m watching your thread with interest!

 

[Pitoon]

We keep getting thunderstorms on the forecast. After investing so many hours my worry is having a storm wash out the sand and DE from the tray cells. So I built an overhead cover to protect them. This should also provide some shade on the hotter days to come.

 

[Pitoon]

I’m a little curious about the timing of your entry. I am in Australia and am also about to sow my next batch of JBP seeds, as we have just moved past the middle of Winter and are entering Spring. This is pretty normal for JBP... which makes your timing the opposite right? Just wondering if you have sown JBP in Summer before, and if so how did it go - I’m thinking pretty well considering you have got 1000 more on the go!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for experimenting and your entry is very interesting to me given the differences in timing from everybody else and the fact you have such a large sample of seeds going in. This should give a good indication for rates of success.
All the best with them, I hope they go well for you. I’m watching your thread with interest!

This is my first time planting JBP seeds. As of now they've been in the sand for 14days.

 

[Pitoon]

I was getting a bit concerned about the seeds germinating as most of the threads I read their seeds were germinating at the 10-12 day mark. On 29JUL19 I finally saw some seedlings which put mine at around 17days to germinate. As of this morning I counted 6 seedlings out of 1000 seeds planted.

 

[Pitoon]

We just had a massive thunderstorm roll through......luckily I put the roof over the seed trays early this morning.

 

[JPfagus]

How are the JBP seedlings doing?

 

[Pitoon]

Not as good as I expected. Out of the 1000 seeds I planted maybe 50 germinated. Lost a lot to fugus, birds, and squirrels. Only have about 10 left that are about 2 inches tall. I still had seeds in the fridge and noticed a lot were sprouting so I planted them. These are indoors until spring.

 

[Pitoon]

Figured I'd post an updated pic of the seedlings. Got more seedlings coming up. Makes me kind of wish I started the seeds inside verse outside. They seem to be growing fast and strong. They are under a LED red/blue combo grow light 24hrs non stop.