@Satsuki and Other Trees in Mack's Garden 17
Renewal April 7th, 2013
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Repotting of pine, cherry and mountain maple trees
Apart from satsuki trees, I would like to introduce how I repot the pine, cherry and mountain maple trees in February. It is said in Japan that February is the best season when we repot pine trees, or that they never die if we repot them in February. I repotted them with a friend of mine on 10th, and by myself on 11th and 12th.
Section 1. Pine trees
I haven't bought any pine trees since I began to have a strong interest in bonsai in 1972 when I got married. It is because I have kept a lot of black pine trees which I have grown since the seeds. But I disposed of one fourths of them because they didn't have good styles or good roots (nebari) and gave one fourths of them to some friends of mine. And I have two trees which I dug out from the rocks in the garden of a junior college where I had a regular job in 1974. Though all of my black pine trees are about 41 years old, I cannot distinguish them now because all of them don't have the same nature: their length, thickness and colours of needle leaves, and bark are subtly different each other.
My brother gave me two white pine trees which he had dug out when he had cultivated a small mountain to make a tea field about 30 years ago. But they are weak and don't have good style. And about 25 years ago a friend of mine gave me "Nishikimatsu" which has very strange bark.
A. Before repotting
I pruned all black pine trees and Nishikimatsu on February 1st and 2nd because I had to repot them this year though I always prune them in November or December.
I mixed the mountain soil with Akadama half and half. I paid 2,000 yen for six bags of middle grains of Akadama but didn't pay any money for the mountain soil because I brought back five bags from the bottom of cliff of a mountain near my native place where a lot of red pine trees are growing. Though it is the best soil for pine trees, I always mix it with Akadama to make water run through it well and make it keep water for a while.
And I pruned three cherry trees and two mountain maple trees lest I should grow them tall and wide.
B. Repotting of black pine trees
It is the just time to repot pine trees when we can see the root coming from the bottom holes of bonsai pots. At first I have to wash the bonsai pots after pulling five pine trees out of them and repeat it to remember the order of them and to dry them. These roots shows that I had to repot this tree last year.
It is very easy for me to remove the soil from the roots when I use the mountain soil. It took me about 10 minutes to remove the soil after cutting of the long roots around it though it took me a considerable time to remove a lot of moth from the bark. Then I used the air compressor to clean the roots and trunk.
When a lot of new sprouts came from the soil after I had sowed the seeds of black pine, I cut them and inserted them into very fine Kanuma soil. It is said that this method stimulates them to send out many vigorous roots, and that we can hope they will have good roots (nebari). You can recognise that this tree has a very good nebari.
When I plant these pine trees in the rectangular bonsai pots, I use aluminium wire to fix them. But in case of round pots I use thin rope to fix them by a triangulate binding. This method is very convenient to bind saplings and young trees in the round pots when repotting of them.
Height = 44 cm
Height = 37 cm
Nishikimatu Height =68 cm
Section 2. Repotting of cheery trees
I have three cherry trees now. Two of them I was given as souvenirs by my wife when she went to Mt. Fuji and Hokkaido as a teacher leading a school excursion about 28 and 30 years ago. Therefore they must be different varieties, but I cannot distinguish them distinctly. And one of them I have grown from a new sprout which came from the soil in the pot where a cherry tree was planted.
It was very easy for me to remove the soil from the roots because I had used Mack's special soil. It took me about 15 minutes to remove the soil after cutting of the long roots around it though it took me a considerable time to remove a lot of moth from the bark. Then I used the air compressor to clean the roots and trunk.
They had some sprouts which came from the soil. When removing the soil, I separated them from the roots and planted them in two terracotta pots to give them to friends of mine. But they won't have good roots when they grow. If you would like to have good saplings which have good nebari, you had better insert some cuttings into fine Kanuma after flowering.
Height = 41 cm
Section 3. Repotting of two mountain maple trees
I have two mountain maple trees in the bonsai pots now. When I got married in 1972, I brought back about 20 young trees from a mountain near my native place. And I grafted cuttings of some varieties of maple onto them. After three months I knew that I failed in it. But two of them continue to live and have well tapered trunks because I cut them at 4 cm high to graft cuttings onto them.
It was very hard for me to remove the soil from the roots because I had used Kanuma when repotting of them. Therefore it took me more than three hours to remove the soil, to wash the roots and to repot them. Though they looks a little bit weak now, they had a lot of roots, so that I had to remove some thick roots.
When they have smaller leaves, they look beautiful. Therefore I think that we mustn't use any deeper or larger pots to plant them, and give a lot of fertilisers and water. But even if a pot were very large, it is OK if it is very shallow. The problem is a quantity of soil.
Height = 42 cm
Section 4. Conclusion
Seeing the photos of roots of the black pine and mountain maple, you can guess that almost all of my trees in the pots have considerably flat roots without vertical thick roots. We call it a good nebari. If you repeat to remove all of vertical roots, when repotting your tree, the trunk will grow larger around and it will have a well tapered trunk.
But my black pines don't have large trunks though they are about 41 years old. It is because I didn't know how to make their trunks grow larger around at that time: I couldn't find any books which told us how to make them grow larger. Of course I couldn't find any books concerning satsuki, either, because Japanese satsuki enthusiasts were much interested in tall satsuki trees at that time: a lot of large-trunked satsuki hadn't been grown yet. Unexpectedly I have only one large-trunked Korin in the nursery which has been grown from the cutting, and has a well tapered trunk: the trunk circumference is 42 cm, and the height 49 cm. I broke the trunk when I wired it about 34 years ago after we had moved from Kobe city to Ise city, and cut it at 10 cm high.
Besides I haven't given my pine trees a lot of fertilisers lest I should grow their needle leaves longer. I have given them some ball fertilisers at the start of spring and autumn since I planted them in the bonsai pots. They look lean. But I am much satisfied with them because I don't have any large-trunked black pines: I couldn't buy them about 30 years ago because they were much more expensive than now. And we mustn't give them a lot of water, but we have to give a lot of water to satsuki trees.