Yes It Is The Season To Decandle

In keeping with the spirit of Boons thread, I thought I would post my JBPs also since I just finished the summer work on them yesterday.
I had a really good candle season this year, probably my best ever. I hope you enjoy them.

My most expensive JBP.


After the decandleing.


I just love cascade bonsai, especially black pine.


After the work.


My smallest Shohin JBP.


Not so top heavy now.


And finally one of my favorite in my collection. \


Hoping that big scar will heal soon.


As the years go by they just keep getting better and better.

Hi Thomas J.
Very nice trees and realy very good work. Congratulations.

Pavel

Thanks for sharing Thomas. I always appreciate your attention to detail and excellent photography!
John

Very nice Thomas J Very Nice

This year has been kind of candle heavy for me too... GIANT candles!

Thomas,

Wonderful trees, nice to see the work you have done on them.

Question for you on needle treatment. How do you treat needles from former years? When you decandle, obviously this years' needles are removed with the candle, leaving last years' needles. How about older needles? Are they usually removed the fall before? So going into fall, do you only have needles on the decandled areas from that year? Would this be expected to allow for backbudding?

Thanks, Josh

Thanks for all the great comments guys, glad everyone likes the trees.

Josh, here's the simplest way to explain this: new candles appear in the spring over what I guess would be called last years needles. The candle is cut off and new buds appear around that former candles stub. These are then allowed to grow where in the fall all of the needles underneath these new buds which have now fully grown, will be plucked off. I guess it safe to say that you pull off last years needles every fall. You will also do some balancing of the growth by plucking needles in the strong areas. Some balancing can also be done in the summer or whenever it is you do your decandeling. As for back budding, this usually happens when you allow for a lot of sunlight to penetrate the inner branches, usually by keeping the trees in constant full sunlight and opening up the trees inner areas by needle removing and wiring. Wiring is very important in this respect, it's not just for the looks of the tree. Hope this helps.

Thomas J. wrote:Thanks for all the great comments guys, glad everyone likes the trees.

Josh, here's the simplest way to explain this: new candles appear in the spring over what I guess would be called last years needles. The candle is cut off and new buds appear around that former candles stub. These are then allowed to grow where in the fall all of the needles underneath these new buds which have now fully grown, will be plucked off. I guess it safe to say that you pull off last years needles every fall. You will also do some balancing of the growth by plucking needles in the strong areas. Some balancing can also be done in the summer or whenever it is you do your decandeling. As for back budding, this usually happens when you allow for a lot of sunlight to penetrate the inner branches, usually by keeping the trees in constant full sunlight and opening up the trees inner areas by needle removing and wiring. Wiring is very important in this respect, it's not just for the looks of the tree. Hope this helps.

Thomas your trees are looking good. The explanation is excellent - well said and concise.

I will start my second annual cycle of Japanese black pine work in August.

Thanks Rob,
I hope you have as much fun as I did. It's always nice to see how your work is improving year by year, even if it is a little at a time.

Thomas J. wrote:Thanks Rob,
I hope you have as much fun as I did. It's always nice to see how your work is improving year by year, even if it is a little at a time.

I will - lots of enjoyable work. BTW I misspoke in the earlier post, I meant twice per annum. On strong trees I can do two cycles of needle plucking and decandling per year. January and August.

In the last tree,do you have cut off the neadles also , except the decandling ??

Yes the last tree also had some needles pulled. Another thing I like about this tree along with the trunk and nebari, is the fact that it naturally has small needles after the new buds open up after decandeling.

Thomas J. wrote:is the fact that it naturally has small needles after the new buds open up after decandeling.

That is I was thinking about... I can't manage it with my pines

Very nice pines and they look so healthy.

Xuan

Thomas,

Thank you for your detailed reply ... It will be helpful for me going forward with JBP care and development. I began decandling in the last year, and have been pleased with the results. It takes some guts, and a bit of education, a bit like defoliating maples.

Any tips on the schedule you use for fertilizing and wiring, as it relates to decandling and needle plucking?

Thanks, Josh

Josh,
As for the fertilizing, I start six weeks after repotting which for me is early to mid Jan. here in Texas. I fertilize weak for a few weeks then heavy up until around the first or second week in June. I then stop and pull off any old fertilizer and wait for the decandeling which for me is early to mid July. After the decandeling I wait about a month and then start again but with a weaker type fertilizer such as fish emulsion. Every now and then I will give em shot of something a little stronger but basically I'll rely on the weaker stuff so as not to let the new growth get too crazy.

My intense wiring will be done with the fall work, but some can also be done if needed during the summer decandeling if It's not too intense and it's done before the new buds start breaking through which is usually about ten days after decandeling. I will do some needle plucking with the summer work if it's neded but try and do all that in the fall. Hope this works for you.

Hello Thomas - thanks for showing us your trees.

On the last tree, I'm sure you already have considered making a feature of that large scar instead of trying to heal it, but maybe you could walk us through your thinking on why that would or wouldn't be a good idea?

Hi jersanct,
I'm not sure what you mean by "making it a feature". I guess someone might be able to use this scar in a positive way but I never really considered it since my thought process is to try and heal it more if possible. In fact I was out there today working on it some more, something I haven't done in a while.
If you have any suggestions, pass them along.

Hello Thomas...I was just suggesting that you might extend it into a feature, using a chisel to carefully break the edges of the scar along with the grain of the wood. You could go anywhere from a shallow, irregular shari-like feature to a deeper hollow. Of course, you'd want to watch your live veins in the area, but I don't need to tell you that.

My opinion is that such features add a lot of character to the small canvas we have to work with on small trees, but that's just my personal taste.

You know I'm an admirer of your work...I hope you don't mind me venturing my opinion. Mostly, I truly was interested in hearing any thinking you had done about developing the scar into a feature vs. healing the scar.

jersanct,
I appreciate very much your interest and opinion in my trees. I would never stop anyone from looking at any of my trees and possibly seeing something that I haven't and offering their advice. I hope I never get that high up the ladder that I won't listen to someones comments and see if they are a viable alternative to possibly make a better tree than I already have.