Ryan Neil Demo and Lecture Videos

Thought I would share these here. Ryan yet again lives up to his reputation.

His demo in 4 parts









His Pine Lecture in 2 parts





and our road memento video :-)



Some more photos of the Demo and Willowbog Bonsai here.

Ryan Neil Demo

Willowbog Trees

Ian,

great videos, thank you very much! The workshop trees turned out fantastic! The "good times/ roadtrip" video is the coolest funniest best bonsai video I have watched in a while!!! Very well done! Can you please share the titles/ singers of the awesome music from that video?

Best,
Dorothy

dorothy7774 wrote:Ian,

great videos, thank you very much! The workshop trees turned out fantastic! The "good times/ roadtrip" video is the coolest funniest best bonsai video I have watched in a while!!! Very well done! Can you please share the titles/ singers of the awesome music from that video?

Best,
Dorothy

Thanks Dorothy,

The music in order is as follows:

Simple Minds - Belfast Child
Coldplay - Talk
Snow Patrol - You could be happy
The White Stripes - In the cold cold night
The Lumineers - Ho Hey
The Wannadies - You and me song

Ian Young wrote:
Thanks Dorothy,

The music in order is as follows:

Simple Minds - Belfast Child
Coldplay - Talk
Snow Patrol - You could be happy
The White Stripes - In the cold cold night
The Lumineers - Ho Hey
The Wannadies - You and me song

Ahhh! Thank you very much!

-Dorothy

Ian, this is great stuff.
Thanks for sharing this videos with us.

Much appreciated and very informative.

One thing that seemed to be missing from Ryan's explanation in the video Pines part 2 is the plucking of the needles.

Did he touch on this at all?

I was left with two questions.

1. He started from the process of collection. When would yoou commence needle plucking?

2. How many needle pairs are left on these pines as opposed to the black pines he talks about in video 1?

It would have been nice to know his take on this. Would any of thoose of you who were there know if he touched on this?

Thanks

thank you very much for sharing the videos and Ryan's knowledge, Ian! All the best! /a

mambo wrote:Much appreciated and very informative.

One thing that seemed to be missing from Ryan's explanation in the video Pines part 2 is the plucking of the needles.

Did he touch on this at all?

I was left with two questions.

1. He started from the process of collection. When would yoou commence needle plucking?

2. How many needle pairs are left on these pines as opposed to the black pines he talks about in video 1?

It would have been nice to know his take on this. Would any of thoose of you who were there know if he touched on this?

Thanks

All good questions, I wish I could give you all the answers but I certainly can't speak for Ryan.

I know he says that needle plucking is all about balancing the growth of the tree, one flush or two flush pines. As for needle plucking after collection, not until you have had at least one strong budding, most likely year two. I personally leave about the same as on the JBP. Worth noting what Ryan says about not removing all the old needles as they produce the hormones.

Hope this is of some help.

Ryan says you basically pluck needles twice a year, once when decandling in summer and once when you select the shoots in fall. However, you also pluck needles when you start the cycle (purchasing a new pine etc.) adjusting the number of needles left to the weakest relevant shoots. One will still leave about 10-12 pairs at that time. During decandling the number of needle pairs left now will reduce to about 6-8 pair on all shoots. And yes, there are always some old needles left on the tree, at all times.

Best,
Dorothy

I have been applying Ryan's technique to my older JBP since I attended his lecture/ demo in May of last year. Since I did not time the fertilizer prior to decandling I left about 10 to 12 pair of needles on the tree, just to be safe. I was not worried about reducing the needles and therefore fertilized middle to end of September instead of fall (in SWFL!). My priority was to balance the tree and to keep it strong. Ryan's technique works well for me, for the tree I shall say, even with some slight adjustments.

If you look at the pine, you can see that the lower area looks pretty good compared to the rest of the tree. I did miss 2 shoots in the upper area, . I also had to deal with a second flush. Some shoots were getting too strong, I went ahead and decandled a second time where neccessary. JBP here in SW Florida need to be kept strong all year round. I only work on shorter needles when I plan to show the tree. In that case I start to train the pine 1 1/2 to 2 years before the show.





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dorothy7774 wrote: I did miss 2 shoots in the upper area,

Well, I think we can overlook those...this time



You are really quite amazing.

BigDave wrote:

dorothy7774 wrote: I did miss 2 shoots in the upper area,

Well, I think we can overlook those...this time



You are really quite amazing.

Ahh, Thanks! And you are quite funny!

-Dorothy

dorothy7774 wrote:Ryan says you basically pluck needles twice a year, once when decandling in summer and once when you select the shoots in fall. However, you also pluck needles when you start the cycle (purchasing a new pine etc.) adjusting the number of needles left to the weakest relevant shoots. One will still leave about 10-12 pairs at that time. During decandling the number of needle pairs left now will reduce to about 6-8 pair on all shoots. And yes, there are always some old needles left on the tree, at all times.

Best,
Dorothy

Thanks for the reply Dorothy, but this seems to be what he recommended for JBP's. My question was relevant to the single flush growth pines.

mambo wrote:
Thanks for the reply Dorothy, but this seems to be what he recommended for JBP's. My question was relevant to the single flush growth pines.

I see what you mean. I thought you were asking about Ryan's timing of needle plucking on JBP, my bad. I don't grow single flush pines like the Scotts Pine e.g. where I live. When I mentioned in my post that I got a second flush on my JBP, I was actually talking about a third flush.

I am clarifying with Ryan about the single flush pines and timing of needle plucking. Will post his response.

Best,
Dorothy

Ian,
Thanks for posting....His points on pines was great and shattered a lot of misinformation out there.
Has anyone converted his chart papers into notes......easier to bring into the workshop than the laptop
Cheers
G

dorothy7774 wrote:

mambo wrote:
Thanks for the reply Dorothy, but this seems to be what he recommended for JBP's. My question was relevant to the single flush growth pines.

I see what you mean. I thought you were asking about Ryan's timing of needle plucking on JBP, my bad. I don't grow single flush pines like the Scotts Pine e.g. where I live. When I mentioned in my post that I got a second flush on my JBP, I was actually talking about a third flush.

I am clarifying with Ryan about the single flush pines and timing of needle plucking. Will post his response.

Best,
Dorothy

If you've got a direct ine to Ryan I have about 162 more questions!

Thanks for taking the trouble. If I remember correctly, he also didn't mention the number of needles he would leave on a single flush pine, be it a Scots, JWP or one of the US species....

Just for general information, the way that most artists seem to work on the single flush pines in Spain (Mediterranean climate) is as follows (this is translated from Spanish forums):

Jan: Remove all old needles leaving 5 or 6 pairs. (I know this goes against the leaving old needles on that Ryan mentions.

Feb/March: Remove additional needles leaving 3 or 4 pairs.

April /May: Cut the candle length by 1/2. Fertilizing can commence.

June/July: Again remove old needles. Gentle fertilizing.

September: Continue gentle fertilizing.

October: Heavy fertilizing

November: Continue heavy fertilizing and remove old needles.

The time to pinch candles is not so much dependent on the month but rather the state of the candles and the result you want to achieve.

In Scots Pines the candle goes through various stages:

* When the candles begin to elongate and you can just see the ends of the new needles:

If the candles are pinched completely, two or three new buds will appear that will bud in Spring of the following season. This is a good method to build terciary and successive ramification as you build branches at the exact point desired if that is your aim.

In pines that are in the refinement or already shaped stage, this is the point at which the candles can be pinched to balance the vigour. In line with the symmetry of the branch, strong candles are pinched by 2/3rds, medium by 1/3 and weaker buds are not pinched at all.

*When the candles reach 1/2 their length and the needles begin to separate and you can see the needle ppairs:

Pinch 1/3 of the weaker candles then 10 to 15 days later pinch 2/3rds of the stronger candles. This will promote back budding on the previous years growth. These will be useful to substitute branches in the following season.

*When the candles completely elongate and the needles darken but have not reached full length:

If the candles are removed at this stage, new buds will appear at the cut point and back budding will occur. This is tough on the tree and shuld not be repeated every year. The tree should be healthy and vigorous.

*When the needles have fully elongated:

Cut 2/3 off the the strong shoots with scissors, 1/3 off the medium sized shoots and leave the weaker ones. This will balance vigour in the tree and promote back budding.

From the end of Summer through to Spring, bud selection can be made leaving just two.

If you need to thicken or lengthen a branch, allow strong shoots to grow on.

If you want to balance vigour in the tree, leave the weaker buds on the strong areas (usually apex, branch apex and upper branches). Though each tree has to be viewe individually.

Old needles can be removed from the end of Autumn until Spring and should always be removed with scissors to avoid damaging latent buds that may form new shoots.

But just as Ryan said, everybody seems to have their own little take on how best to do things!

I wish Hans would speak up as he does Scott's pine differently.
http://www.karamotto.org/?page=21

Jkd2572 wrote:I wish Hans would speak up as he does Scott's pine differently.
http://www.karamotto.org/?page=21

I'd love to hear what his take is.....

Here is Ryan's reply:

Dorothy,


single flush pines don't need their needles plucked except to clean off bottom growing needles and needles occuring between close proximity tufts to seperate them visually. Do this after the growth hardens or in the fall.
ryan

Hello Dorothy,
Thank you for this information of Ryan.
In the video Ryan mentions that he would talk about juniper care as in England many have trouble with them.
Can anyone say something about this, or did he forget, it is not on video i think?
I would like to know what he does with juniper, specially the Sabina.
He mentioned that a Pinus silvestris branch feeds the whole tree but this is not the case with a juniper.

Is it, (as i read from Michael Hagedorn) that one should not pinch a shimpaku or similar juniper?
Only cut longer shoots and branches to light the inner of the tree
or for design but leave a shoot to grow and give energy to the tree first and only cut afterwards?
The young fresh green shoots gives the energy thus should not been pinched all the time as the energy comes from the green and pinching causes slow dead to many juniper bonsai.
Not all tips shoots on juniper.
Needle juniper is different as they shoot on all ends.
They can be cut after having at least 6 cm, new green.
Thank you,
Sunip

Wow! That is completely different to what most artists in Europe do. I have yet to see one that doesn't needle pluck a Scots Pine (Pinus Sylvestris). Definitely food for thought.......

Thank You very much Dorothy.

Now about the next 161 questions....he he