I would like to introduce the details of digging of 12 trees from the nurseries, removing of the soil by washing the roots and planting of them in the bonsai and terracotta pots. Since some large trees died recently and are dying now, I decided to compensate for losses of them in March. But though they have a lot of large scars on the trunks and large branches, I cannot wait for all of them to be healed because I am 71 years old now. It is because I would like to see at least one tenths of all trees in my nurseries planted in the bonsai pots and it is one of the reasons why I have grown a lot of trees in the nurseries in my life.
Section 1. A short history of my main nursery
When we built our house (I call it our old house) 23 years ago and sold the house where we had lived, we bought the other wide land (about 1,000 square meters). At the same year we bought 2,000 bags of Kanuma soil from a shop in Kanuma (I bought 1,000 and the members of our society 1,000). And we went to Kanuma city to buy a lot of satsuki trees. Especially I had to buy a lot of young trees. And I asked them to help me to make four ridges (1.8 m x 15.3 m) for the main nursery on the field, using about 600 bags of Kanuma soil and to plant them and the young trees which I had grown there.A few years later we built a rose garden there because my wife had bought 73 stocks of wild rose and got a lot of cuttings in the meeting of the Rose Society at the rose garden of Ise grand shrine, and I had succeeded in grafting 72 rose trees. Of course having several same varieties, we had to give a half of them to our friends and buy a lot of young ones. We had bought the mountain soil of three big trucks before I asked my younger brother and his wife to help us to pile two concrete blocks and make a frame. And we could make flower beds and plant 87 rose trees.
When about 190 trees in the nursery were young, fortunately it took me about a week to prune them in February. But when I pruned several of them at the start of February, some of them had the cleft trunks because they were young and had been given a lot of fertilisers and water, and besides it was very cold in the winter. Therefore I had to dispose of the trees which had serious damage and besides of the trees which I thought wouldnft be good bonsai. Since then I hadnft begun to prune them at the start of February while they were young.
Several years after planting the young trees I had a serious error. A lot of weeds always bothered me so much that I sprayed a very strong herbicide even near them. And it caused me a miserable result that more than one thirds of them died in a half year to some years. Therefore I had to buy a lot of young trees again though several trees were transplanted there from the pots on the shelves. This made me lose not only a lot of time but also a lot of money. It is a fact that the huge or middle large-trunked trees in the nursery have lived through the hard times. About 12 years ago when we built the new house there, almost all trees in the nursery were transplanted. I asked my brother and his wife to help me to pile two old blocks on the fields of Kanuma soil, throw about 400 bags of Kanuma soil in the frames to make three long ridges (1.6 m x 15.3 m) and a short ridge (1.6 m x 6.3 m) and plant them there. I had to shorten one of them to build our garage.
The plan depended on my thought that it was very easy for me to take care of them and it was because I had wanted to use the old concrete blocks which I had used under the concrete slabs on the garden of our old house. Since I used the wider concrete blocks under the concrete slabs on the garden of our new house to get the stability of shelves, I had to dispose of the old blocks.
Mr. Mamiya, a friend of mine, proposed me to put the old belts of the belt conveyers between two ridges. The distance between them is 40 cm. And fortunately the width of the belts is 40 cm. And we put the old concrete slabs on them lest I should slip on them. Since I made the size of bonsai shelves smaller on the garden of our new house than that of the old one, I had a lot of unnecessary concrete slaves, and fortunately was given a lot of them by other friend of mine. At the same time I asked Mr. Mamiya to help me to spread the black sheets on the Kanuma soil in the nursery though I and my wife did so this time. And now I am very happy that these belts and the black sheets are preventing a lot of weeds growing.
As the trees in the nursery grow large, it took me more days to prune them in February. Therefore I sometimes dug out a few large trees from the nursery, plant them in pots and plant smaller trees in the places. And whenever I saw a very weak tree, I transplanted it. For several years before retiring from my university I had been so busy to write a long paper and publish a book for the title of doctor of literature that I couldnft remove a lot of large branches from the trunks and branches or change the large ones into the thin ones. Before and after retiring from our university I did so in haste, so that I made a lot of larger scars on the trunks or larger branches. And though I hoped that I would dig some large trees and plant them in bonsai pots after washing the roots, the scars on the trunks and large branches were so large that I couldnft decide to do so.
Though I made a few large scars on the large branches of a few huge trees in February 2013, then I decided that I would dig out four huge trees from the nursery and plant them in bonsai pots in March 2014.
But cutting them roughly in January 2014, I decided to dig out 7 huge trees. And at the same time I decided to transplant about 19 trees in the nursery after digging out 7 trees to plant them in pots because the trunks of some trees have grown so thick that the spaces between them are very narrow.
It took me 28 days to prune 182 satsuki trees in the nurseries from February 2nd to March 12th. This work was a result of the severe patience and endeavour because I thought that I had a lot of time to spare for it and had to do my best for all satsuki trees which I have grown in the nurseries since 21 years ago, but I think it was very late, judging from all conditions of these satsuki trees and my life.
I dug out huge Nikko A and B by myself in the evening immediately after finishing pruning 182 trees on March 12th because I knew that it would rain on the following day. But they were so heavy that I could plant only one of them in the bonsai pot after washing the roots on 14th. And I and my wife had to pick up a lot of bulbs of fringed orchid from a lot of pots and plant them in them on 15th because they already began to have the new buds. And I asked Mr. Mamiya to dig out 24 trees from the nurseries and transplant 15 trees in the main nursery on 16th. (You can see 8 trees of them on the first photo.) Since the very huge trees (Kaho and Wakaebisu) are so heavy that I thought I wouldnft be able to repot them by myself in near future, I decided to plant them in the wide space of the nursery. (You can see them on the below photo.) And we pulled out three trees from the pots and plant them in the nursery. Since I disposed of two trees which have a few dead branches, I had to plant seven huge-trunked trees in very large bonsai pots, small sizes of four large-trunked trees in large bonsai popts and a small tree in a terracotta pot.
Section 2. Nikko A
This tree was planted in the nursery in March 1992 and has lived through the hard time. Though I cannot remember how much money I did pay for the tree, I am sure that the price was less than 10,000 yen. Since I changed the core of top three times in the past and did so last February, the height is 46 cm though the trunk circumference is 46 cm. But it has a lot of large scars and the present figure looks a little bit clumsy because the main branches are very thick.A. After rough pruning in the nursery
In recent years it is still warm in Ise in December and I always give a lot of fertilisers to the satsuki trees in the nurseries to grow them large and strong. Therefore a lot of coloured leaves of them begin to fall from the branches at about the middle of December, so that I have to cut the very long shoots roughly in January after the spring leaves fell down completely, being blown by the cold north-west wind. I was surprised to know that the longest new shoot of Daigokuden was 93 cm when I measured it last January. It was my first experience.The reason why I cut them roughly in January depends largely on my experience. If I prune them drastically in February when they have a lot of long shoots, I am afraid that some of them or a lot of them may have the cleft trunks or the detached barks. If I cut the long shoots roughly in January, I think they wonft have the severe damage by the very cold winds and airs and will have the defensive power against them. I havenft had any trees for more than ten years which had the cleft trunks.
B. After digging out
I dug out Nikko A and B by myself in the evening of 12th immediately after I had finished pruning 182 trees in the nurseries because I knew that it would rain the next day. And though it was very heavy, I brought it on to the basket in the place of washing roots of satsuki and other trees. In the case of araki which was planted in Kanuma soil, rain doesnft hinder me removing the old soil because I remove it with a jet of water.
C. The nebari (rootage) after removing soil with a jet of water
If an araki was planted in Kanuma soil and had been transplanted in the nursery two or three times, it is very easy to remove it with a jet of water. But since I had transplanted it once in 2002, I thought it wasnft very easy to remove the old soil only with a jet of water. My foreknowledge was right. I had to use an eyeleteer to remove the old soil from the front side of nebari. The black colour of roots and soil means the soil where a young tree had been planted about 30 years ago because I didnft wash the roots or remove the old soil when I transplanted it in 2002. But it was very easy to remove the old soil from the back side of the nebari with a jet of water. You can see that the colour of roots is good
D. The bottom of nebari after removing of unnecessary roots
Generally speaking, if Kanuma soil is deep in the nursery, large satsuki trees have a lot of vertical thick roots and donft have a larger bottom of trunk though they are strong. But I didnft have to remove any vertical thick roots on the centre under the trunk. The nebari of this tree is very good. Such condition has made it grow the bottom of trunk larger for a long time.
E. After arranging of the roots of bottom
If this tree doesnft have a good nebari, I have to remove a lot of roots of wrong directions and crossed roots. But I removed only several thin roots above the surface nebari after removing unnecessary roots on the bottom. Therefore it didnft take me a lot of time to remove the old soil and wash the roots with a jet of water.F. Choosing a bonsai pot
I have bought 6 large bonsai pots since I decided to dig out several huge trees from the nursery last year. If I had a lot of large bonsai pots, I could choose the best pot that is most suitable to each huge satsuki tree which I dug out from the nursery. Or I could buy it at near garden shops even if the shopkeepers had such large good pots. Fortunately I can buy some bonsai pots from Tochinoha shobo that sells them on the pages of Satsuki Kenkyu. Since almost of them are used ones, they are very cheap. But since they are large, I have to pay a lot of money for them. And though I can offer to buy some pots, I have to wait for the result of lottery if some persons would like to buy the same pot.Such conditions donft make me choose the best bonsai pot that I think is most suitable to this Nikko. Therefore my first choice is the size of pot (width and depth), the second the figure (rectangular, oval, round) and the third the colour.
Before digging out a huge tree from the nursery, I can suppose the width of pot from the height of it and the condition of trunk, but cannot imagine the condition of the roots in the soil, that is, suppose the length and depth of pot. It is a problem. And knowing the colours of flowers and the style of the tree, I can suppose the figure and colour of the pot which is suitable to it.
G. After planting it in a bonsai pot
I always give the satsuki trees a lot of water till the dirty water doesnft come down from the holes of pot after planting them in the new Kanuma soil in the pot. But I have a great problem. Planting a tree in a huge pot of more than 55 cm, it is so heavy that I cannot carry it on to the shelf by myself. Now I have to repot 3 satsuki trees on the shelves. In this case, I have to use washed Kanuma soil lest the dirty water should pour down from the holes of pot.What do you think of the satsuki tree and the pot of this photo? This Nikko hasnft had any white flowers since I bought it. If it has some white flowers, I think the colour of this pot will give us a strong impact. But the dark green is heavy when they donft have any flowers, that is, it is so strong that the green of the leaves and the yellowish green of the young leaves will be defeated in summer when the tree has them. I think this will be one of my experiences.
To be continued.