We have had 78 days this year with temperature above 25oC in daytime - so it has been great
Ye try do a heavy feeding program and mayb do an experiment with decandling ealier - remember the suggestions to decandle start June with large trees, 1 week after with chuuhin and end june for shohin is all based on the climate in Japan - we have colder climate in the northern Europe - my theory is to decandle a bit earlier then the second flush has more time to pop and grow - thats what Ill try next year, and Ill cross my fingers If it doesnt, Ill revert back to treating it as a singleflush pine
Here’s a Japanese Black Pine I recently styled. Figured I might as well post it here to keep this thread alive. This was very challenging for me…I didn’t cut any of the needles which made it even more tight when wiring. I’m fairly happy with the outcome. We’ll see what it looks like after next growing season!
Hi again. I was wondering whether you had gleaned any more information about whether the trees are JBP or Austrian BP? When I talked to the owner of the bonsai store I got mine from he swore that they were JBP. But all the senior experienced members of my club insist it’s Austrian BP.
Anyway, just curious if you had found out anything more about them.
I’ll post update photos the next couple days. I honestly couldn’t be happier with what these pines look like now! Some of my favourite on the benches. I’m still not 100% sure on jbp but I’ll take a good look at the candles later today and get back to you.
I repotted mine a few weeks ago. I haven’t tried styling it yet (other than bending some branches with guy wires). I’ll wait until the fall or next spring to do my initial major styling, so that the roots have time to regenerate. I’ll try and get a picture of it as it is now (if it ever stops raining here) and post it.
I wasn’t going to do any styling work on the tree this year since I just repotted it recently, but I had an opportunity to attend a workshop with Mauro Stemberger on Thursday, so I took the tree, thinking to just get some advice on styling for next year. But he actually had me do a lot of bending and wiring during the workshop.
We used rebar to bend the trunk more upright, and wired almost all the branches. So this is what it looks like now.
Hi @algae
I tried grafting some Scott’s Pine seedling onto the trunk to lift the nebary above the ugly graft. Apart from that I have only thinned a few shoots after de- candleing last year.
Hi, any updates AndyK? how is your tree doing? may I ask where about in UK are you? did you decandle early this year? have you stopped fertilising?have you tried foliar feeding? I bought a shohin JBP and decandled but it looks like it was a mistake, I can see new buds but little chance to grow this year.
I’m not sure what to do, perhaps start fertilising but it’s worrying to notice that not even Ryan got black pines in Portland, which I believe has similar climate to south UK but with a bit more sun light… have you consider using grow lights or heat mat?
Hi @algae
My JBP has a nasty trunk graft, so in the spring I tried to graft 5 small sylvestrus (Scott’s) plants above the graft. As of now, only 1 looks to have survived. I live in Somerset, and this year did not decandel. I did get lots of buds from that operation last year although it has taken them until this year to grow, so I have pruned back to 2s. I don’t see my trees slowing down in the summer the way they do in Oregon, so I have just pulled back on fertiliser instead of stopping this year.
Next year I will either treat this JBP like a short needle single flush, or maybe try nicking the bud tips in May as a form of decandeling, as it appears that June decandeling for me does not give the tree enough time for a second flush.
As you can see I am muddling my way with this tree, trying to learn what works, and it feels I am still a way off, but that’s all part of the fun right?
If anyone else has UK specific JBP tips, I am all ears.
Thank you for replying, it does look like an interesting project. Did you leave all the old branches? if so, do you think that could be a reason why just one graft survived? has the new buds resulted in long needles this year? I was thinking the same about fertilising that’s why I’m gonna start fertilising, late again, with fish emulsion before applying Biogold to see if I get a bit more grow before winter. This month I will attend a local club hoping to find somebody with experience. since there is so little information about JBP in our climate it will be good to keep this or the post (Japanese black pine and uk climate) active.
Oh yeah. I did some work this year on definitively identifying these trees and they’re 100% Austrian Black Pine. I selectively cut buds on each tree and marked them clearly. Over the following couple weeks I checked back and saw no new bud emerging. It’s now been well over a month. All my black pines that were decandled have tons of new buds. The 12 of these trees that I have do not. Thus, definitively telling me they’re not Japanese Black Pine. So as far as I’m concerned I’m fully confident in saying these are Austrian Black Pine. Now…if only Ryan had Information on the care and development of them. He’s said few times that he’s working on the species and building knowledge to share. But until then I’ll have to trust my gut . I personally don’t know where I can find solid, trustworthy and clear information regarding development of Austrian Black Pines.
If it doesnt, Ill revert back to treating it as a singleflush pine 
