Wow, thank you. Your comment about the seasons is something I had not considered before. I guess I forget there is a global audience sometimes.

Thanks so much Shaun for watching. I definitely plan to act on your suggestion. Look out for future videos on it.

Glad you like the concept! I am grateful for your comment.

Thanks for your comment! That’s great that you’ve stuck with it so long. My memory of Florida having been there when I was younger, was that it remains warm all year round. I’ve always understood JBP need a dormancy period. Clearly I was mistaken.

Awesome, thank you! Wow!

Thanks Rico. Makes me very happy to know when people appreciate the information. 🙏🏻

Thanks so much Peter!

Glad you like them!

Glad you liked it Bruno!

Glad it was helpful!

My pleasure! Thanks for watching.

In fact Patrick, in Japan you will see all sorts of variations on the techniques for decandling. I believe I just mentioned 2 of them. These two work for me and cover most instances. I think its always important to have multiple techniques to fall back on to so you have more than one tool for any job.

Thank you very much Emile! That is so generous of you to say.

Thanks so much Finlay!

Glad you enjoyed it Gerrit!

That’s great! Pines are a quintessential species for bonsai, in my humble opinion, provided of course they can grow where you live. I do have stock available which I release annually around tail end of winter, if that’s of interest. If you want something already largely developed (at a higher purchase price) then let me know as I import them fairly often.

Wow Lennie, thanks great! Pines are so awesome.

Awesome, thank you Mark, thats very kind of you!

Happy to hear that Randy!

Thank you! Cheers!

I appreciate that, thanks Tyler!

@@TerryErasmusbonsai You are welcome. I really like your philosophy of bonsai growing n maintaining which you do to a very high degree. Much respect from Kent, England.

Wow, thank you! I love ROR too and will definately feature it more. In fact I have been growing a number of pines in this style and they will need repotting in a few weeks so will feature that content here. Also, I am sure I will do more deciduous in this style. Thanks for the suggestion.

@@TerryErasmusbonsai omg, i can't wait!!! 😄 I really started to use your channel for reference of good bonsai practice.

Glad it was helpful!

You are welcome!

Great! Glad you enjoyed it.

You are so welcome Arben!

Great point Peter! I have a video for this in fact but it was not ready before, for posting. As soon as I can get it done I will post it. Thanks for the suggestion, you are most welcome to make such.

Tom you are too kind. Thank you very much. Black pines are my favourite! There is a tremendous amount of literature and video on growing them. Start with seeds and follow through the entire process and learn along the way. You will have fun and learn all the way. Good luck Tom.

🙇🏼‍♂️

Thank you so much Lily 😃

Thank you for your comment. All the Satsuki that come through my hands are imported. I don’t usually import very raw material in this species but if an opportunity presents I will do my best to put something together.

Great; the distinction on "stages of development" is particularly appreciated. I need similar instruction for junipers even tropicals and deciduous. Please??

@@roberthidalgo2088 thanks so much for the suggestion. I can definitely do that. The deciduous is easy as I have material of all stages. Look out for it in the future.

Thanks for the compliment Brian! You can repot developing trees more frequently (+-2 years) than older refined trees (+-5 or 6 years). There are many reasons for this though. Repotting itself temporarily weakens a tree it NEVER strengthens a tree. It however stimulates a tree into growing which will lead to a stronger tree. I would suggest some of the most important reasons you want to repot developing trees more frequently is to do the required root work (waiting too long encourages coarse roots) and to refresh the growing media which will provide more aeration at the rootzone and thus stimulate vigorous growth.

That’s great Jason! Glad it helped clear up some of the extra terrestrial. 👽

Thank you too!

Thanks so much William. Your question seems incomplete. I assume you meant to ask if you can develop mice JBP in a pot using those techniques. If yes then yes. If you want to develop larger trees then I’d suggest growing in the ground but certainly smaller trees are fine to develop in a container. Although it would be faster to do so in the ground, there is a risk of losing them when you dig them out. Hope it has cooled off there in Florida now. I visited there many years ago and remember the humidity was something else!

@@TerryErasmusbonsai I appreciate you taking time to respond to my question. You gave me the answer I needed and I appreciate it. I think I’ll stick to leaving it in the pot and going with the sacrificial branch. I honestly and sincerely care about this tree. Believe it or not, it hasn’t gotten any better here, just hotter and more humid. You would be surprised to know that Japanese black pine actually do very well here in Central Florida. Or you might not be surprised. Lol. I just made it a common practice to make sure I water my pine twice a day if the temperatures go over 95. I also keep about half of the roof base covered up with moss. Thanks again, Terry. I really appreciate your videos

Also, you are correct. What happened to the rest of my question? 😂

I am not familiar with Mugo pine as its not a species we have here. All of them ie sacrifice branches, allowing the tree to build energy to produce buds etc I am almost certain you would be able to, but if its a single flush pine (which I believe it is???) then decandling is not an option.

Thank you Pascual! I don’t have such a video but I will do one when the timing is correct. I suspect you are either cutting off too much at once, too many branches at once or perhaps at the wrong time. It’s best to cut them off in stages so as not to disrupt sapflow too dramatically, in this way, in my experience the tree keeps growing like nothing happened.

@@TerryErasmusbonsai thank you very much, it's really nice to have found this amazing channel, I'll try cutting those branches little by little now (mid winter - pre-spring) and see if I get lucky :) Thank you very much for your time, making the videos and responding. You're amazing!! :D

Where do you live?

@@TerryErasmusbonsai USA :(

@@TerryErasmusbonsai If you can ship this, I honestly would be very interested.

Ha ha thank you, hope you like the bonsai too though 😉

Hello Taidic, thanks for reaching out. I believe I did answer your questions in the video, meaning that if you want to fatten the trunk you need to grow a sacrificial leader. Using wire to put bends into the tree now is a great idea both because it will give it movement without relying solely on trunk chops to introduce this, and "cage wiring" which means to allow the tree to press up against the wire and cut in, will actually accelerate trunk thickening. If you can grow in the ground that will be great but then remember to cut the roots back every 2 years or so. Otherwise a large container will also be good. Use a very open substrate which drains quickly and LOADS of organic fertilizer.

@@TerryErasmusbonsai Thank you very much, Terry. As I am very slowly picking up knowledge on bonsai from sources on the internet, I do very much look forward to watching more KZfaq videos from you. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge.

Thanks for your question Matthew. I grow my pines in containers as it is much easier to manage the growth of the canopy and root system. I dont grow really large trees in this way, only smaller sized trees. For large trees you would need to grow them on in the ground, however its quite amazing what can be achieved in a container. The difference is that the container will take a lot longer, but what I like about that is that by the time you have developed the trunk etc then you have the bark to match. If developed quickly the bark is often rather juvenile in appearance. I do not feel I am qualified to give advice on growing conifers in the ground as its not something I use a lot of. However you will need to chop the roots of the tree in stages and bear in mind that there will always be risk when lifting the tree even if you do everything correctly.

@@TerryErasmusbonsai thanks for answering. I to only grow pine in boxes easier. To protect in winter here . Do you have a feeding regime or advice . Especially for root development in root over rock and some planted over styrofoam in s hollow box for nebori development trees are in development so top growth is mostly sacrificial

Hi William. It must be a Miyajima Goyomatsu which is a grafted white pine, however the base must be a Japanese black pine, not red pine. There isnt any technique that I am aware of. You get good specimens and not so good specimens. After many years the graft does become less visible but I am not sure that there are any techniques to aid the process. Regards the tools etc, yes we can. However it only pays to order better quality as we only use DHL Express to deliver which of course comes at a premium. Mail me if you wish to discuss this further: info@bonsaitree.co.za

Thanks Chris. That’s a great question! However a proper answer deserves another video. In summary I use BonsaiBoost which is essential canola meal based solid fertiliser. I also use Seagro. www.bonsaitree.co.za/collections/fertilizers-and-baskets Young pines are aggressively fertilised right throughout the year, except winter. More developed trees are fed the same but not after decandling, for about 3 weeks or so. Refined pines might be fed a little lighter than the previous with a focus on fertiliser in autumn.

That is indeed a pity, they definitely like their sun!

@@TerryErasmusbonsai thank you sir

Uhm Elbie, there really isn’t a best time. I would cut when I’m styling so autumn is good. However I assume you have actively growing buds which are strong enough to cut back to right?

@@TerryErasmusbonsai unfortunately not (yet) ... going to aim to increase the vigor of the branches, wait for back buds to develop and then cut back to when they are strong enough.

Thank you, but I am not sure i understand what you mean.

Thanks for asking Hans. Well I have been around bonsai for many years but it was in 2012 when I first began learning in Japan that I really started to grow bonsai. I was privileged to be able to learn from Mr Junichiro Tanaka at AichiEn nursery. Since then I have made multiple trips to Japan annually, pre-COVID to learn from him and others such as Mr Koji Hiramatsu, Mr Matsuo Matsuda. However I have gained much insight from several western artists who were originally Japanese trained too. I am too old {read independent}, have a family and a business, so full time apprenticeship was and will never be possible. I must also add that gaining new knowledge about bonsai is one thing but it must be applied, repeatedly and one must learn from the results and improve. I will continue to do this till the end.

Hi David. Good question. First permit me to say that there are MANY different ways to grow pines, I can only present the methods I have been taught but certainly do not mean to suggest that's the only way. Cutting needles are part of balancing the energy. So if you have very long and very short needles and you are plucking needles then 2 long needles are not equal to 2 short needles and some compensation is required. However this is for refined trees. When in development I can only imagine why one would cut the needles in an area of the tree which you wish to keep is to get more sunlight into the interior and stimulate buds there. If sufficient sunlight is getting in, then cutting the needles will simply weaken the tree which would be counterproductive - however perhaps I am not understanding exactly what the other persons aim was.

Thanks for the explanation. Thanks for the informative videos that you post. I learn a lot from them.

I am sorry but I couldn’t say. I don’t think so as a neagari style though. I suspect just a field grown pine with lots of roots being exposed over many years of successive repotting.

It is best to use organic solid fertilizers. Something which is canola or rapeseed based. I don’t know what you have access to where you live so difficult for me to make a specific suggestion. Liquid organic from fish meal is also good used weekly or every 2 weeks. Well balanced chemical granular fertilizers in low doses is ok but you can easily use too much, it also can kill mycorrhiza in pines.

@@TerryErasmusbonsai I'm here California, U.S.A. I don't want to use any fertilizer because I'm new, my plants might die.i'm new on to what you guy's say "Bonsai" i didn't even take class about Bonsai. I just watched videos on KZfaq on what you guy's do on those plants & now i bought some nursery stock plants, thanks again.

@@TerryErasmusbonsai kindly please give me a couple of names of Juniper and Pine plants fertilizer so i'll look for them, maybe i can order on line. Thank you.

Good question! Please take a look at my blog as the answer needs some context and to be properly explained. www.bonsaitree.co.za/blogs/tree-talk/tagged/japanese-black-pine

At least you watched it and I’m sure my voice at higher speed added some humour.

Thank you. Can you please confirm what specifically you are referring to with this comment?

Hi Lee. Thanks for commenting. Sure, I will try to help. Where do you live in the world?

Thank you, terry. Im in the uk.

At the right time of the year it’s not a problem at all to bare root a young tree like that, or even a few years older. When it’s a lot older is when it becomes more risky to do so.