Bonsaify | Great Fall Results for a Field-Grown Black Pine!

Eric revisits one of his vigorous and large Japanese Black pines.
In November, thinning of JBP allows more light and air to reach the remaining needles while also refining the structure of the tree further.
00:00:30 - A Quick look back at what the tree looked like after decandling and thinning 5 months prior in June of 2023.
00:00:45 - Eric will use this opportunity to thin out excess needles. The result of the type of cutback done in the summer is a bit different than standard decandling technique.
00:01:20 - Eric adds towels to the surface of the soil to make cleanup easiter.
00:01:35 - Eric begins thinning with the bottom needles on the crown portion and removing excess small buds that are smaller or weaker than others.
Recommended Tools:
Tweezers -
Scissors -
Eric alternates between fingers and tweezers for the thinning process.
00:03:00 - Some of the branches have put out stronger adventitious buds from the older nodes than the growth from the needle buds. Thinning will come first before pruning decisions.
00:04:30 - Eric explains the plan for needle pulling that takes into account the planned decandling for the following summer. Leave some needles in place low on the new summer growth, pull the needles in the middle of the shoot and some of the ones on the outside of the rosette of needles around the new bud.
00:06:00 The result - needles at the tip and base of the shoot.
00:06:15 - In some cases where decandled branches are weak and there are better side branches that have emerged, Eric removes the weak older growth in favor of the side branches.
00:08:02 - Eric begins checking wire to make sure it's not biting in. The most common place where wire starts to cut in is on the underside of a shoot right near the junction with the larger branch. Eric then uses the remaining wire to tweak a few branches and spread them out.
00:09:30 - The technique used in June has created a more compact dense result than using standard decandling technique.
00:10:00 - Eric contemplates starting another sacrifice branch to heal a wound near the top of the tree. The options currently are not ideal, but Eric thinks using a bud in the middle of the current crown will end up being best.
00:11:05 - Eric shows how the towels on the soil surface helped speed up the cleanup process.

[@Bonsaify]

There are three previous videos of this same tree:
June 2021: ua-cam.com/video/0xjgufBbrR8/v-deo.html
Nov 2022: ua-cam.com/video/Y5Mcpam9LnQ/v-deo.html
June 2023: ua-cam.com/video/KVQ1dAIcHxA/v-deo.html

[@asianangie7209]

It is already super pretty!

[@wmarian5027]

1great to learn about fall work. Thanks

[@bonsairohayhu]

Awesome!!!

[@DarthMasiah]

excellent

[@davidlahr7226]

Damn! I love this pine! How long you grew it in the field?

[@Bonsaify]

Actually, it was field grown by Lone Pine Gardens in Sebastopol, CA. It was probably 15 years old when it was dug up, so probably 20 or so now.

[@yoteslaya7296]

You need to put that pine on a diet

[@Carter-ho9xx]

That's a big ass tree

[@HellcrushPlays]

(algorithm food)

[@TheBonsaiZone]

Good stuff Eric!!

[@brucedeacon28]

👍👌🙂

[@paolomh113]

Great follow-up! Seeing more of this process, particularly on a Shohin will be awesome. Thank you very much.

[@OjaiBonsai]

Awesome tree. Thanks from Ojai California

[@koenvanmeerbeeck8724]

super educating...thanks

[@robertobreglia9224]

It's a beautiful black pine and i very appreciated your job!👏👏👏👏

[@humanbeing2796]

Did you get growth like that in SF? If so that's a lot of growth for such a cool climate.

[@Bonsaify]

Actually, it lives in the east bay. So a little hotter. But, I have a friend on the avenues in SF that gets just as good results!