Pine01 | Cooks' Trips

Pine 01
Japanese Black Pine [Pinus thunbergii/Pinus thunbergiana]

April 21, 2024

FEBRUARY 12, 2024. I bit the bullet and did the top chop, so now I declare the trunk complete. It’s time to work on the branches and the exposed roots that look so bad. I’ll work on branch placement right away, mostly thinking about the second one on the right and those above that one. I’also have to tweak the twigs along the branches that are already placed OK. That and bud pruning are all I need to do at this time. I can’t safely repot the tree again this year, so I’ll have to be content with piling some moss and really small soil stuff around the roots this year. I will definitely have to pot it lower in the soil next year.

JUSt A notE: I’ve added a photo gallery below, before the old section I did for photos years ago. The old ones are still there, but it’s not a convenient way to see things in detail.

October 11, 2023

JANUARY 16, 2024. Overall the tree didn’t grow as well as I hoped in 2022; in fact it sort of suffered. In part that was because I decandled it in July 2022 after some rough root work when I repotted it. I decided it needed more grow room, so in February 2022 I slip potted it to a larger container. It seemed to like it, and I left it alone during the summer; no decandling. It was very healthy in the fall, so I plucked needles pretty drastically and pruned some of the extra growth. I left the tall growth at the top, but I’ll cut that off this spring. It’s time to be serious about the branches.

October 2, 2022. I just finished pulling needles (not enough) and doing a little pruning for the winter on this tree. It really grew well over the summer in spite of the rather vicious root pruning I did during the repot. It looks awful in the pot though, so I have to address that. I’m going to leave it in this pot for another year, so that next year (2023) I’ll hope the top candle (now healthy and standing tall) will grow like a boss and thicken the upper portion of the trunk. This will never be a stocky pine like so many are today, but it will have a certain grace that I like. If I have good light and remember to do it, I’ll get a photo tomorrow. overall though the tree looks like it does in the photo below (March 2022), just with a silly looking stretch of new growth above the visible apex.

March 31, 2022. Once again, I’ve just kept working on the tree but not making notes. As well as I can remember, I haven’t done much, even though the poor thing has had a rough year or two. In 2019 we went to Ireland late in the growing season, and I left everything on the ground with the sprinkler system running twice a day. The deciduous trees loved it, the junipers tolerated, but the pines almost drowned. One of them (the George Muranaka one) didn’t survive at all, in fact. This one lived but had a rough time recovering. The next year I didn’t do anything to it at all, just fed it a lot and watched watering more carefully. That was 2020, of course, so the lockdown meant we didn’t travel so I could take better care of things altogether. The tree lived on one of the brick columns at the end of the driveway, so it got good sun and was far from drowning! Then we moved to Caldwell Crossings in the fall, and the tree moved with us.

Last year (2021) it did really well. The yard has good light for the conifers, better thand River Oaks, and the tree got some better color. It was even healthy enough that I felt confident in decandling it again. I probably waited a little late, but it hasn’t harmed the tree at all. The only problem it developed was due to a little carelessness on my part; I covered it with a tarp during a late freeze and broke off the top candle. I was counting on that one growing wild this year to help bulk up the upper part of the trunk. I’ll just have to rely on the stub and its neighbors.

This week I repotted it, and so far (two days later) it seems that I did a fair job of it. I’m not happy with the potting depth, but I was afraid to go too far with root pruning. There was far too much root growth, including a circling tap root that was as thick as my little finger. Surgery was required. All the new root growth was at the bottom, so most of that went away in the trim. I hope I haven’t killed the tree! I’ll just have to repot again next year to take care of the planting depth. Meanwhile I’ll have to mound up some soil around the part I want to go below soil level in the future. While it was out of the pot, I had a good look at it looking up into the branch structure. In a couple of months, when growth is going well, I’ll have to cot back the branches on the back (too much spread) and I want to add some guy wires to hold down the first two branches from the front.

It’s going to look atypical, but I like it.

December 17, 2018. Oh, boy. This tree had a summer, all right. I had no trouble with needle cast at all, I had lots of new buds that developed nicely, decandling wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be, and things were growing well up until the OHS Convention at the end of July. Unfortunately, all three of my pines were over-watered while I was gone, though at least this one suffered the least damage. I didn’t kill it, at least. Many brown needle tips, though. Honestly, some of the needles had more brown than green by the end of summer. This weekend I removed dead needles, pruned a few things, wired a branch or two, and cut most of the surviving needles in half. This is the time of year to remove all of last year’s needles anyway, and did some plucking. But I left a lot of this year’s needles on because I want to let a lot of sun inside to prompt more new buds. It’s still a slightly funny tree skeleton, but it’s looking better all the time.

Just for grins, here are before and after pics, both front (first) and back views. As always, I see what is needed better in a photo than when I’m looking directly at the tree itself. On the first right branch, where I’m trying to make it look like there are two levels, I need to add or adjust wire to make two flat pads, and both of those pads need to be shorter. (That’s why I need the new buds to pop inside.) the first branch on the other side needs the same treatment. I’ve gotten some wire on the potential next branches on both sides and on the back, but they need some more growth before they have discernible pads. I removed a lot of fussy new growth from the apex, so that refinement just needs to be continued in 2019.

2018. March 23. This one is growing well, and I’m on track to attack the new growth with copper fungicide as soon as I see needles emerge. The candles have been extending for a month or so, and it won’t be long until I see new green. Today I tried to wire the branches down a bit — maybe a lot — to get some green down below the half-way mark. As it ended up, it looks terrible. The candles had extended far enough that they now post away from the trunk because I moved the branches down at such an angle. And because I moved the secondary branches inward at the same time, the poor thing looks like a refugee from a tree battle standing around with its arms akimbo. I think that will be its new name: Akimbo the Persistent!

July 21, 2017

2017. July 21. Candles cut and needles plucked. It’s growing well, but I’m not all that happy with it. I wonder if I should have left it as it was when I bought it–slanting with branches angled backwards, like the grafted white pines I saw at Brussel’s. But. I think I’m committed to this like it is. I really hope to get a super candle off the top next year. It won’t have to be repotted, and that should mean it grows better. That should thicken up the growth above the chop and make things look better. I’ll cross fingers and toes.

2017. March 26. Six weeks later, it seems to be doing great. In fact, it has buds “bustin’ out all over.” I hope that’s not a sign of the poor tree struggling to survive. I’m fertilizing it with HollyTone in teabags, and so far I’m occasionally hitting the needles with a little fish emulsion. Maybe I’ll mix up a little of the blue stuff in a spray bottle now that the candles are extending so nicely.

2017. February. I repotted it at what will be close to its final angle and placement, using “Boon’s mix”–equal parts of akadama, lava rack, and pumice. I tossed in a little bit of charcoal and a soupçon of pine bark just for old times’ sake. It’s in the rectangular heavy tan ceramic pot I got from Jane years ago, the one the first Trident was in. I”m going to let one of the candles at the top grow out as far as it wants to this year, hoping to eventually make this a slightly taller tree. I’m not going to ever get a squatty little monster out of it, not before I die anyway, so I’m going for tall and “elegant.”

Sort of.

2016. No changes in potting this year. I did wire it in January, started propping up the pot to the next new planting angle I’m considering along with the wiring. In late June, I conducted my very first candle-cutting. The tree survived.

2015.03.19. Repotted under Brian Van Fleet’s watchful eye in 50/50 akadama/lava rock. Took 30 minutes to really clean the old soil out of half of the root mass. I was really happy to so so many white feeder roots. What I had done wasn’t all bad.

Moved it from my box to a 10″ plastic grow pot, straightened up the planting angle. Brian also told me to get some copper fungicide for the needle cast. And I need to let it really dry out between waterings and give it more sunlight.

March 29, 2014. Was all that happy with the planting angle so waited a week and repotted it yet again. Bad thing to do, but it appears to be living. Hard to tell. Watching candle extension with at least some hope of success.

March 9, 2014. Got it out of the pot (Soggy mess) and trimmed the roots like crazy. Put it in a box in a 60/30/10 haydite/organic/akadama mix. Seriously thought about putting it in the ground for a year or two till it gets healthier, but chose the box as a compromise.