Now it is cool and comfortable in the early morning and at night though it is hot in the daytime. I feel tired from the harsh summer and my body feels sluggish. Since I am 82 years old now, I could not work in the garden in the daytime in summer. Though I don’t like the cool air of the air-conditioner, I had to switch on it in the room and keep the temperature of 28 degrees C. And I feel cool, but my body always have some damages from the cool air.
But, since I sold a lot of huge and large satsuki bonsai which were very good, and good middle and small ones, too, though I have still lots of satsuki trees and other trees, my daily workings are easy. Fortunately, I gave a lot of eggplants and tomatoes to my sons and friends this year. When I gave 33 large water melons to them, they enjoyed the very good taste. Since I give my vegetables the very good fertilisers which I use for the saplings of satsuki, the result is very good.
Dying trees
It was extremely hot in summer in 2024. The maximum temperature was 37 degrees C in Ise city. And we had a lot of days when the maximum temperature exceeded 35 degrees C. I cannot endure this condition of very high temperature and humidity. I think that a lot of satsuki trees must be unable to do so, either.
Since I spread the black nets over the bonsai shelves at 8:00 and fold them at 16:00, though they don’t receive a lot of very strong sunlight, they still are under the very bad conditions of the very high temperature and humidity. Therefore, I thought some trees might begin to die because some trees had died last year.
Since any satsuki trees in the nursery and garden don’t any shade structures which I made, they have to endure a lot of direct sunshine, high temperature and humidity. Therefore, a lot of them don’t have any flower buds now.
But suddenly I felt cool in the early morning on 24th when I watered satsuki trees on the shelves and in the nursery and plants on the shelves because it was 23 degrees C. And the maximum temperature was 27 degrees C. Since it was cloudy, I didn’t spread the black nets. But since the maximum temperature was 30 degrees C on 26th, I had to do so. Fortunately, I have not done so since 27th. According to the weather forecast, the maximum temperature will be 30 degree C at the start of October.
Since it was cool suddenly on 23rd last year, it was unnecessary that I would spread the black nets over the bonsai shelves. And a lot of young trees didn’t have a lot of flower buds. I think that they won’t have a lot of them this year, either.
Section 1. Dying young trees
Though I repotted 22 saplings in March and 51 saplings in June, all of them are all right. It may be because I repotted them after removing very fine roots on the side and bottom of root balls. And I repotted 15 young trees after removing the soil and washing the roots.
These saplings are strong on both photos which was taken on 19th September. But you can see only the flower buds of Kakuo on the left photo but you cannot see those of Kogetsu on the right photo though the variety of Kogetsu has them earlier than other varieties. Since the parents of Kakuo are Nikko and Miyamakirishima which is a variety of Japanese azalea, it is natural that it should have a lot of flower buds early. Therefore, I am worrying about whether other saplings except those of Kakuo will have a lot of flower buds or not.
Part 1. Kogetsu
This tree is one of the eight young Kogetsu which I introduced here on 1st August 2024. Though I took this photo on 19th September, the leaves of the left trunk turned to the very pale green colour on 28th which means that this trunk will die, too.
I explained about this tree in the previous web site: "Since the nebari and the back of the root ball were very good after washing the roots on the middle and right photos, I made the tree have one fifth of flower buds".
The left photo is the whole figure before washing the roots in March 2024. The middle one is the nebari. The right one is the figure of this tree on 19th September. Though I changed the shallower pot, it was no problem, I think.
Now this tree is dying. Why? Since other 7 trees are all right though they had flowers, it isn’t the suitable answer that the flowers which I made this tree have after repotting in March is the reason why this tree is dying. Though I tried to figure out the reason of dying in the pot, I cannot find it.
Though I have to worry about humidification, I didn’t use more sphagnum moss on the soil in this pot than in other pots. Since I had known that the colour of the leaves of this tree a little bit had been fading in the middle of August, after knowing the weight of the pot before watering, I often stopped watering.
Judging from these conditions, my conclusion is that I may have given more fertilisers to this tree after blooming than to other 7 trees because I used the very small grains of fertilisers after repotting.
Part 2. Kozan
When I found a very small seedling in the nursery several years ago, since I was much interested in its flowers, I didn’t remove itfrom there. I planted it in a terracotta pot 4 years ago. But sadly, it was Kozan. After I decided to make it seven-trunked style, I wired some trunks. And I repotted it in a larger terracotta pot in June 2024. But one of seven trunks died in July. And judging from the photo which was taken on 19th September, leaves of three trunks are fading. It means that this tree will die. I may have given it more fertilisers than necessary in July.
Part 3. Nikko A
I made a saplings of Nikko five-trunked tree about 10 years ago. But it didn’t have a good colour-arrangement of flowers. And 4 trunks died gradually. Therefore, it is no surprise even if the last trunk died. If a trunk of multi-trunked tree died when the tree is weak, it means that other trunks will die in the near future.
You can see the flowers of the four-trunked tree on the left photo which was taken in 2016. The flowers of the two-trunked tree were seen on the middle photo which was taken in 2021. Suddenly, one of them died last year and I repotted it after blooming in 2024. The right photo is the dead figure of this tree.
Section 2. Dying large trees
If a satsuki bonsai had a very thick trunk, it has to live under a lot of difficult conditions. If an owner neglect to fulfill even one of them, it is sure that it will die. Having some errors, I made some very expensive satsuki trees die.
One of the biggest errors is watering. It is the hardest working because the water had to reach under the very large trunk. Even if I wanted to do so, I cannot do so without a helper. After lifting one end of very large bonsai pot, if I water it, small amount of water reaches there. And lifting other edge, if I water it, small amount of water reaches there. But this is enough watering. and I cannot do so every day if I had several very large trees. If the top of the very large trees begins to die, it means lacking of water.
I could understand this when I repotted them. Even if I washed the soil around the bottom of trunks with a lot of jet water, I couldn’t water the soil under the trunks. But I could wash the roots after removing the soil completely. Therefore, I can know that I have to put them in the large bonsai pots in the pool of the large box for about an hour. But I cannot do so because I don’t have any help. My conclusion is that I mustn’t buy any very large bonsai.
Part 1. Nikko B
I planted this Nikko in the nursery immediately after buying it in November 1991. And I dug it out from there in March 2014 and planted it in the very large bonsai pot. Since I had repotted it on 29th March 2019, it had the very good shape in December on the left photo. Though it had the very good shape and the colour arrangement of the flowers was very good on the middle photo which was taken in 2021, I already had removed a very small dead branch.
Since the top had died, I could not take a photo of this tree when it had flowers in 2022. And all upper branches died in summer 2023. You can see the miserable figure of this tree on right photo: the lower large branches died in summer 2024. Though it has two very small branches which have green leaves, the colour of them is fading.
Part 2. Juko
I bought this tree in November 1993 and planted it in the nursery in December 1994 because it had two large scars. And I dug it out from there in March 2014 and planted it in the very large bonsai pot. Since the trunk girth was 47 cm, the old scars were concealed under the new bark. But I planted it in the very large wooden pot in march 2019 because it had a rotten root on the back side of the bottom.
Unfortunately, the top died in summer 2020. And large branches continued to die. Therefore, I cut off the upper part of the trunk after blooming in 2024. Though I kept some shoots to make a top, two short shoots died at the start of September. I think that this tree
will die in the near future.
If a satsuki tree had been planted in the nursery to make the trunk grow very thick as soon as possible and it was dug from there when it had a very thick trunk, I think that it is not strong if it was planted in a bonsai pot immediately after having been dug from a nursery. First of all, you had better plant it in a very large pot and continue to plant it in smaller pot whenever repotting it. I think that you had better not cut the very thick roots drastically.
This tree had a lot of very beautiful flowers and a good style in 2016 on the left photo. The middle one is the whole figure after I had planted it in the very large wooden pot in 2016. You can see the miserable figure on the right one which was taken on 19th September 2024.
Part 3. Sangosai
I dug out this tree from the bank of the lane by my uncle’s tea field in 1972 when I had married with Miyoko. I repotted it into a large bonsai pot in April 2002. Since it had the very interesting bottom of several trunks, I hoped that it would continue live for many years.
Some thick branches began to die in 2014 and some parts of the bottom died in 2015. Therefore, I repotted it after removing a lot of rotten parts again by some kinds of chisels and knives and pasting the medicine on the scars. After washing the roots, I cleft the root ball into two parts easily because some parts rotted. And I planted them in a large terracotta pot and a middle one in 2016.
I cut two dead thick branches from the trunks of this tree in December 2020. And I saw two dead trunks at the end of autumn in 2021. Therefore, I decided to cut them and remove the rotten parts in February in 2022.
I tried to remove almost all rotten parts of them using some chisels and several electric knives. But I could not remove all of them in the soil. I think that I had to remove all of them because two large branches died in summer 2024. Though the leaves of other branches are very strong, it will die in 2 or 3 years.
The left photo is the flowers of this tree in 2011. It has a huge powerful bottom like a trunk. The middle one is the miserable figure before repotting in 2016. Two large branches died in summer 2024 on the right photo which was taken on 19th September.
Section 3. Dying trees in the garden
I made 4 gardens when I built the new house in 2003. Three of them are small. And I planted a lot of young satsuki trees on the edge of the gardens, which I had grown from the cuttings. And all of them lived through the deadly heat in summer. But 3 trees are dying and one is died though all of them have been planted in the garden.
Part 1. Yama-no-hikari
This large Yama-no-hikari was given me as the housewarming gift by the owner of the satsuki garden in Kanuma in 2003. I planted it in the small garden before the house. Since then, it continued to have a lot of beautiful flowers. Though the number of flowers was increasing every year recently, it didn’t have any dead branches.
But suddenly the first branch began to die in the middle of August 2024. Since I already knew that the colour of the leaves faded, I gave a lot of water to it. But I cannot stop the dying process of this tree which is very speedy. It may be because it was grown large in the nursery.
Part 2. Kakuo
I bought this tree in Kanuma about 30 years ago. Though I had kept it in the very large terracotta pot, since the style of the trunk was not good, I planted it in the small garden before the house when I built it in 2003. Suddenly, one of fourth of the lower large branch began to die three years ago. And the top of the trunk had died last year. Since the upper part of the trunk died, I had cut it off at the end of August 2024 and gave it a lot of water. But two large branches died at the end of September.
Kakuo is a weak variety. Since it continued to have a lot of flowers for more than 15 years, I have to think why it is dying now. Though I may have forgotten to water it, I think the dying of this tree did not result from my watering. But it resulted from my errors.
I think that I planted 3 trees beside it when I made this garden in 2003. Since two of them had been planted in the large bonsai pot,
I did not think that these trees would grow very large. But now these trees are so strong that I have to cut new long shoots twice every year. And their trunk grew very thick though their height is low. I think that their thick roots are giving a lot damages to those of this tree because the variety of Kakuo has not a lot of thick roots.
The left photo is the miserable figure of this tree. You can see two thick roots on the soil by it. These are those of other trees. The variety of Kakuo does not have such roots as these. You can see three trees by it on the right photo. And two of them have a lot of very long shoots though I had cut a lot of very long ones of three trees immediately after the rainy season had ended.
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Section 4. Dying trees in the nursery
After having sold a lot of satsuki trees in the nursery, I replanted the unsold trees in March 2023. And I planted three small trees there which had been done in the terracotta pots.
Part 1. Nikko C
Though this Nikko had been planted in a terracotta pot for a long time, I planted it in the nursery last year. Therefore, I put the sphagnum moss around it lest it should die from water shortage. Whenever I watered all satsuki trees in the pots, I gave it a lot of water.
Though it was extremely hot in summer 2023, too, it continued to live through it. But the colour of one third of leaves began to change at the start of August. Therefore, I continued to give it a lot of water every day. But some leaves died and a lot of leaves faded. Though I am afraid that it will die, judging from the photo which was taken on 19th September, I can hope that it will live through the severe conditions of this year, too.
Part 2. Reiyo
Since I had sold a lot of satsuki trees in the nursery, I planted a lot of rose trees there which had been planted in the rose garden in 2021. At the same time, when I had to repot this Reiyo, I planted it there which had been grown from the cutting since 1973 because two lower branches had died about 20 years ago.
I always give it a lot of water whenever I water the rose trees once per two days. Therefore, it had flowers in 2022, 2023 and 2024. But suddenly the top of this tree began to die in the middle of August. And the upper large branches died, too. I think that the very high temperature and humidity made them die. And other branches will die this year.
Judging from these results, the black nets are necessary to make shadows. But since the shading rate is 75 %, I have to make all satsuki trees on the shelve receive the sunlight in the early morning and late afternoon. But I can do nothing to lower the extremely high temperature and humidity.
Fortunately, all saplings of satsuki trees which had been repotted in 2023 and 2024 lived through these severe conditions. It means that they can live through them if they don’t have any defect. If we can fulfil all conditions that they need, they continue to live.
The archives
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