I love chojubai quince

I hope the cultivar Iwai Nishiki will eventually develop the same good character of Chojubai. This is last year's picture of my 'Stick in a Pot' flowering quince. It is in a nursery can, with the plan to let it grow a few years. It's flowers are really nice, fully double, and very red. Can't wait for this stick to grow up.

That is a nice one Leo. Good Luck with your stick

After 15 or so years in my garden, the Japanese quince is blooming for the first time in the pot.

Very busy and very cool nice work

My white cascade "Chojubai" Japanese flowering quince planted in my shohin pot i made this summer...   


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Thanks for posting. I can see it is chojubai, unlike others who have posted japanese flowering. beautiful pot and goes together nicely.

Here is my Chojubai love. I pruned the fresh whips off around 3 weeks ago. I would like to learn some other cultivation tips for Chojubai.

because of the small leaves and flowers, we often think of them as delicate but they're pretty hardy. They like their sun and as long as the pot has some depth to it and a moisture retention mixture, they seem to do real well. here in the pacific NW where I'm from,
most of my weather is a bit wetter, so they do as well here too with more of a drainage mixture. usually july and august, I'll water more often then once a day. I use an organic fertilizer 6-4-4 placed in a tea bag and exchange every 6 weeks. That way they get encouragement each time I water. Once the new shoots harden they make easy candidates for new starts. I find the liquid root hormone works better for me then the dry powder. I use an 80% pumice (small) and 20% organic bark as media. To be honest, I try and remove the dead flowers so they don't go to fruit as i think it takes a lot out of them to produce nd nurture. I leave one to grow on with my toyo nishiki quince. they get the size of apples, but chojubai fruit rarely gets as big as a golf ball.

Hope something in the ramble helps

Thanks Dick. This is really useful. What would you use for soil? Akadama?

because of our wet climate I use equal amounts of akadama, pumice and volcanic rock.

forgot to touch on winter.....long as the roots stay protected when temps drop below 27 degrees, they do just fine.

Lots of books have you reptting in the fall but I feel uncomfortabl doing so. I've always done mine in the spring so I can watch them recover and grow. I feel uncomfortable causing stress as a tree is getting ready to go dormant by transplanting in the fall. I want to see them overcoming the transplant by getting active.

here are some of mine,





one is being allowed to form 3 fruits, the other has had the flowers removed as they fade. One very important thing - the suckers weaken the parent tree hugely - if you want a clump style tree dont make it from the suckers - remove them, root them independently and then put them back in the same pot- now you have a clump with each tree supporting itself and the main tree will stay very strong

Every other point raised is exactly what we find here - they like to be moist - we use deep pots, 60-70% akadama, a kiryu drainage layer and sit the pots in a suiban with very shallow water in all spring & summer - the water must not reach the drain holes in the pot though, it it to provide moist air not to drown the tree

cheers

appreciate your additional input on how to care for them. Good stuff, thank-you.

dick benbow wrote:forgot to touch on winter.....long as the roots stay protected when temps drop below 27 degrees, they do just fine.

Lots of books have you reptting in the fall but I feel uncomfortabl doing so. I've always done mine in the spring so I can watch them recover and grow. I feel uncomfortable causing stress as a tree is getting ready to go dormant by transplanting in the fall. I want to see them overcoming the transplant by getting active.

Regarding fall transplanting: Here the quince go through a sort stasis in July and August, and I replant them at the beginning of September, after temperature begin to cool. In fact, I normally have roots emerging from the drainage holes, and they will put on an additional 1-4 inches of growth (depending on variety) before the first hard freeze in November. Additionally, I can take small cuttings during this time, and they will have rooted sufficiently before November.

I have experimented on several established cuttings of a few different varieties, both root pruning and slip potting and have found that in my climate and for my methods, Fall transplanting is, by far, best for quince.

I'm not trying to sell you on Fall transplanting. I'm just saying that in some regions/climates, it is appropriate.

Stan, thanks....you bring up a good point. Different climates and different individual caring techniques can differ for a multitude of reasons. All roads lead to rome so to speak, it's just finding out which ones is right for the individual. Appreciate you contributing

What is a good 'spring' time for repotting Chojubai? I have heard of a lot of fall repotting, but in a place where fall is very brief I am reluctant in taking such risks.

For other deciduous trees I repot when the green starts peeking through the bud sheeths. It is a very small window of time for most species. But Chojubai is tricky; the green starts showing by the middle of January.

I always feel more comfortable in spring so when the tree awakens and begins responding to better weather, I'm able to monitor how well it responds to the re-pot. I don't care much for repotting and putting something into stress when it's going dormant and can't help itself. You have no idea till months later.

The weather the last few years is not helping with one extreme to the next. My white chojubais have bloomed already and showing green already Way too early....

so all this to say, repot in the spring when you do your others

I have repotted quince(speciosa not Chojubai) in both the fall and spring in the Chicago area. I find that fall repotting works very well as long as you time it right. Mid september is about right in my conditions. I then protect them through the winter by bringing them into an unheated garage. This year I tried a hard root prune(75% removal) on a nursery quince. A few weeks after I repotted we began to have evening frosts. It looks to be happy, but I will report on it in the spring. Quince I have not repotted stay outdoors protected from the wind all winter and did well even with the arctic vortex last year.

Todd

I am also in the Chicago area. I have done the late August -early September repot. It works well if you can winter your Quince in a sheltered location, mine stays between +25 F and + 40 F. If your winter storage gets colder, you definitiley need to repot in spring rather than autumn. Usually I repot in spring. But over the years have done both. I like repotting in fall because I have more time then.

I have wintered some Chaenomeles simply under the bench, under a tarp. Gallon and 3 gallon nursery pots of Toyo Nishiki, Iwai Nishiki, Scarlet Storm, and other larger growing quinces have done well. Chojubai has never done well under the bench. It does seem more cold sensitive than the more robust cultivars. This may be a function of the size of the plant. But I now always give Chojubai, Hime, Kan Toyo and other smaller growing quinces protection from extreme cold. I don't know what the limit is, I have 2 choices, outside, unheated where it can dip to -15 F, or in the unheated well house where it hover's about +25 to +40 F.

Chojubai has come in the house:

Given the drastic cold nights (single negative F), the opened leaves would have died. Although my winter quarters are quite stable, I didn't feel like taking a chance.



There is a lot of branch ramification work to be done on this tree. In this picture it is repotted in a Tofukuji Jr. pot, and the surface is Sphagnum mossed. In a couple years it will go in a smaller Gekkou pot for show (provided the branches have ramified well). The bark is showing decent age.

thanks for posting

curious as to your choice of pot shape in the picture.Your show pot for the future is what shape?

I am thinking of this vintage Gekkou; one of his earlier works.





I am not sure which scene to use. I am leaning more towards the Chojugiga animals since it is more dynamic and may suite the erratic branches more. Or I may go with red akae painted Gekkou with softer (indented - no lip) corners/edges.

what a nice pot, I appreciate being able to see it. from your discription the red one sounds perfect for the tree. Must be nice to have this type of class to draw from...

my very young, maybe 3 growing seasons old cutting of Chojubai - red from Brent Walston, I picked it up in June 2014. The pot is for growing it out and up, so it is much too large, but it is a pleasant pot to look at. I consider this to be still in its ''pre-bonsai'' phase. A decade from now I'll call it bonsai.

As I'm preparing photos for a new program I came across a photo showing two chojubai growing in my garden.

Both are the same age. The red cultivar is low on the left while the white cultivar is on the right.

Looks like the white chojubai grows about three times more than the red.