Strange Growth?

Japanese Black Pines 1 Minute

What do you think caused the stark difference in this Japanese Black Pine’s growth pattern from one year to the next? I have some theories.
Post yours as a comment and we’ll break it down next week.

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Published by Brian VF

I have been studying bonsai since 1994, in an ever-increasing obsessive fashion. In our last 5 years prior to moving from Iowa to Alabama pursuing a career in the foodservice industry, my bonsai collection was limited to a few varieties that could survive brutal winters outside, or winters under dim light in the dank basement of our humble duplex...my wife puts up with a lot. Including the trailer hitch I put on our brown 1983 Chrysler New Yorker to pull a U-Haul full of trees to Nashville for a 3-month stop along the career path that led us to Alabama. 12 years later, we no longer have the New Yorker; and not a single one of those trees remain on my bench, having given the last holdout to a new club member this summer. I prefer collecting native trees and buying the classical species used in Japan, feeding organic, and reading everything I can get my hands on.

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7 thoughts on “Strange Growth?”

  4. looks like a whole lot of warm sunlight and an untapped attack of fertilizer. Maybe some needle trimming other than that not real sure.

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  5. The candle looks small, but the needles immediately around it (from the last year?) are very long. I’m still learning a lot about pines, but is it from less fertilizer?

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  6. I’m assuming it’s the secondary seasonal growth, here in Texas, the season is a bit longer my black pines tend to have another growth but not as strong as the primary.

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