Satsuki and Other Trees in Mack's GardenRenewal April 10th, 2012 |
The Satsuki Trees in the Nursery
Section 1. The history of the nursery
As I introduced how to prune satsuki bonsai in late autumn in my previous homepage, this time I would like to introduce the methods of growing satsuki trees in my nursery. I would like to ask you to read the home page like a story because I think you cannot plant them in the nursery except in the warm district in England if you cannot grow them in the nursery in a green house.
When we can grow satsuki trees in the nursery and field, it is a fact that they will grow more quickly than in flower pots. For example the longest new shoot in my nursery in 2011 was 58 cm because I had given them a lot of fertilisers four times a year, and a lot of water once per two days from late spring to middle autumn since I had planted them, and because I had sprayed thin liquid fertiliser over them with three kinds of agrochemicals every ten days from middle spring to the end of autumn.
But I had a serious problem in 1997. A lot of tree died and were dying because I had sprayed a strong herbicide over the weeds around the trees. It is said that the agrochemical (Round-Up) loses the effect when it touches the soil. It was a hard working for me to dig up a lot of weeds in a large area several times in a year, especially very hard in midsummer. As they had a lot of water, fertilisers and the sunshine, they grew very quickly. Therefore at first I sprayed it over them only in the narrow lanes between the ridges in 1996, but at last around the trees, too. When I told my brother who produces green tea about dying trees, he said to me, "As satsuki trees have a lot of shallow roots like tea trees, you mustn't spray it around them." And unfortunately I lost over half of them by 1999. I had to plant more than 100 young trees again at the place where a lot of trees had died.
Having a serious problem among the neighbours, we decided to build another house in 1999, and asked a very skilled carpenter, one of my friends, who was a member of Ise Satsuki Club, to build an old fashioned wooden house at the place which we had bought. It was because he is a specialist in building shrines and temples. It took him about a year and a half to finish his work in August 2001 because we had asked him to build a good wooden gate and a large garage with an upstairs storeroom. Besides I asked him to make bonsai shelves in front of it, using new concrete blocks which I bought and old concrete slabs which I had used as shelves in the garden of our old house, before he would finish building our new house. And some friends helped me to bring all flower pots from our old garden and to put them on the shelves in the new garden at the end of March 2001.
At the same time I asked my brother and his wife to build concrete block frames over the ridges of Kanuma soil, using old concrete blocks, whose length is 15.3 m, width is 1.4 m, height is 0.4 m, after digging out all of satsuki trees from the nursery. Though we threw about 450 bags of Kanuma soil into them and planted them there, it was a very difficult working because we didn't have wide room enough to put aside the trees. And I had to shorten a ridge to half its length to build the garage. But it was a good chance for me to cut their long, thick and downward roots. And I didn't plant some trees which I couldn't expect to be good bonsai, but gave them to him as garden trees.
One of my friends proposed that I should spread the old belts of belt conveyers on the narrow lanes between the ridges if I hoped. It was very fortunate that the width of them corresponded to that of the belts. And I put the old concrete slabs on them. Therefore a lot of weeds cannot come from them. Besides as I spread the black sheets on the Kanuma soil to prevent a lot of weeds from growing, and made the roundly split parts of the sheets around the trees to water them and give them fertilisers easily, I have only to remove the weeds around them. Of course the sheets have a permeability of water. But I have to change them once per three years.
Section 2. Pruning of the trees in February
It is my greatest working to prune 188 trees in the nursery in February because it is the coldest season in Japan and it takes me about a month to do so. And it is the most important working because it is late if I prune them when they have their new leaves: they already have new roots and suck up water. When some drops of water fall from the sections of trunks, branches and shoots, we won't get any good result even if we use any medicines to cure them. Therefore in middle March we have to prune them only in the morning when some drops of water don't fall from these sections. A. Split trunks and barksRecently it is so hot in autumn that a lot of spring leaves of satsuki trees in the nursery don't fall from their branches even at the end of the year. Therefore at first I have to begin to cut them roughly in the middle of January after their spring leaves fall completely. It is so cold in January and February that I cannot prune them drastically within two weeks after rough cutting.
More than 15 years ago, I had a bitter experience. Though I finished pruning all of them by the end of February, some trees had the split trunks and barks because they weren't big trees and had been growing quickly because of a lot of fertilisers and water, besides it continued to be extremely cold after my pruning of them. According to this experience I was afraid that some young trees, which I had planted at the places where I had dug up some trees to pot them, would have the split trunks and barks because it was terribly cold in February 2012, too.
I though I had to prune them drastically like araki at the beginning of this year because I saw a lot of brown fine roots on a lot of branches and shoots. It was because I didn't prune them drastically last year so that my wife's relatives might see a considerable number of flowers in the nursery, too, when they came to our house at the end of May. But it was my great error. It took me a lot of time to remove the fine roots with a knife and a pair of scissors, and sometimes I had to remove even the necessary branches and shoots.
When the trees in the nursery have a lot of long and strong new shoots on the branches and trunks, they touch the branches and shoots of the upper and lower branch pads. And a lot of new shoots touch each other. Besides three or four new shoots happen to grow from one part of branches. A lot of long and strong new shoots and other new shoots have so many leaves that the sunshine cannot penetrate the thick tops and branch pads of the trees and the fresh air cannot blow through them. And they have a lot of water. These conditions make them have a lot of new roots. We will have the same result when we don't thin the top of the tree in the flower pot drastically if it is very strong.
Since the ends of branch pads always have much more sunshine, wind and water than other parts of branches, the former are ready to have more new shoots than the latter and to be thick easily. Therefore it is very important to choose the thin branches as the ends of branch pads and to remove the thick ends of them. Sometimes you have to cut the very thick branches at the middle of branch pads to make well tapered main branches. At the same time you have to do the same things concerning their child branches and the grand child branches. Continuing to do so, you will get the good materials for bonsai.
One of my most important aims in growing of satsuki trees in the nursery is to style them as bonsai. When they were young trees, they had enough spaces between branches because their branches were thin: it seemed to me that they had good styles. At that time according to a lack of the experience, I couldn't imagine the situations of their big growth. Though I continued to remove the unnecessary branches depending on their growth, which I had kept to make the trees grow quickly, now that they are very thick and the spaces between their branches are very narrow, I have to continue to remove some of them, especially the first branches which seem to be very low now. And if the upper branches are very thick, I have to remove them when they look clumsy, being compared to their trunks, especially when some trees don't have well tapered trunks. It is very happy if some necessary shoots or thin branches are found to change them. Even if I can't find them, when I can find a long shoot of the tree, I will be able to graft it onto the trunk.
Nikko after pruning. The photo was taken on March 29th, 2012.
E. Cutting the tops and thick branches shortTo get a well tapered trunk, I sometimes decide to remove the top of the tree and make a new top of a thin shoot or branch. And to get a well tapered branch, I cut a thick branch short when I can find a thin branch which can be a main branch. Even if I can't find them, I will do so after I can find a long shoot of the tree and graft it onto the trunk or the branch. But these workings are demanded to have a lot of good techniques. Fortunately these scars of the trees in the nursery will be cured sooner than in flower pots. It is a fact that it is more difficult to do so in the nursery than in flower pots.
As we had a lot of rainy days in February and in March 2012, I finished pruning them at long last on March 21st. Since every rain at the end of February and in March brings long-awaited spring to all plants in Ise, I found new buds of some trees already swelling on March 3rd. It means that they already began to suck up water. But after then we continued to have a cold day. Therefore fortunately I hadn't seen some drops of water fall from the sections of branches and the cut ends of the shoots in the evening till I finished pruning them. And we enjoyed ume blossoms a month late.
If I find the sections on trunks and branches wet immediately after removing branches in the afternoon, I had better stop working lest the medicine painted on them should melt down with water. Therefore judging from the weather in Ise I have to make a plan of finishing pruning of the trees in the nursery by 7th March.
It is very convenient to graft a new long shoot on a trunk or branch to make a top or a branch during pruning the trees in the nursery. Besides I am sure we will have a good result if we graft a new shoot on the place where we would like to have a branch or top while the tree doesn't suck up a lot of water. When a tree doesn't have a good top, or when we would like to cut it short because it is tall, we had better graft a new shoot on the front of trunk. It is very important for us to make a cut like a letter of u with a knife. Though it is easy for us to make a cut like a letter of v, we cannot expect to have a good result. It takes us two or three years to have a good result and cut the unnecessary part of shoot when the upper part of shoot is thicker than the lower one. It is important to remove any new shoot you can find from the latter lest it should be thicker than the former.
Section 4. Removing the shoots of unnecessary flowers
Though all satsuki enthusiasts are very busy in pruning the sastuki bonsai and repotting them in June, it is very important to remove the shoots of unnecessary flowers whenever we can see them. For example Kinsai has some formal flowers so often that I have to remove their shoots because I don't like them. And I don't like Kogetsu which has a lot of red flowers and Fukurin (white jewel border). But fortunately as the flower buds and leaves of Fukurin are red in January and February, I can remove all shoots of them when I prune the trees in the nursery. Even if I remove all of them, I will be able to see some red flower buds in winter.Section 5. Ordinary cares
A. Watering the trees in the nursery
In Japan, especially in Ise which is near Owase city where they have the heaviest rainfall, we have a lot of rain all through the year, especially in rainy season: June and September. But since in the midsummer we often continue to have a dry day for a long time, I have to give them a lot of water once per two days except coming of a typhoon. Recently the Kanuma soil around them is reasonably hard because it is 20 years since I planted them. Though I water them in the very early morning when water comes out very well, it takes me over an hour to do so. But even if we continue to have a dry day for a long time in winter, I don't have to do so because they are dormant.
B. Spreading agrochemicalsWe have 87 rose trees in our garden. It is said that we have to spray them with a pesticide and a germicide once a week. But I think it is good if I spray satsuki trees with them once per 12 days. Therefore I always spray rose and satsuki trees with them at the same time once per 10 days because it is very hard working to do so, keeping a mask and rain wears. Besides it takes me just an hour to do so though I use an engine-driven sprayer.
I always spray them with two kinds of pesticides from the middle of spring to the end of autumn, and add a germicide to them from the middle of May to the beginning of October. I buy 6 expensive pesticides and 7 cheap ones, and 6 germicides, and make a rotation plan for spraying of them. Continuing to spray these rose and satsuki trees with the same agrochemicals, we won't be able to get any good results because some insects, worms and germs have very strong antibodies against agrochemists.
It is the most bothersome working to weed the nursery many times in a year, and especially the hardest one in midsummer. A lot of weeds in my nursery grow very quickly because they have always a lot of water, rain, fertilisers and the sunshine. Therefore I bought the black sheets to spread on Kanuma soil about 8 years ago lest they should grow except within the circle around the trees, which I made, cutting them with a pair of scissors. Fortunately a lot of weeds under the branches with thick leaves doesn't grow quickly and strongly. The very good idea saves me a lot of labour. Of course these black sheets are permeable to water so easily that I can water the trees in the nursery like those in flowerpots.
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