September - Sydney City Bonsai Club

NEXT CLUB MEETINGS Welcome to the September Newsletter
Green Square Community Hall
3 Joynton Avenue
Zetland
September Meeting
7pm Tuesday 10 September 2013
Workshop on Buxus, Azaleas,
Olives & Junipers. Please bring
flowering trees for a club display.
Talk on Pest & Diseases – by Sue.
New Interactive Segment: MEMBER STYLING HOT SPOT
Talk on PESTS & DISEASES by Sue
Bring in Flowering Trees for a Club Display
7pm Tuesday 8 October 2013
Junipers (but not Pines), Privet &
Elms.
CONTACT DETAILS
0432 461 025
Photos from Constantine’s workshop in styling a Japanese Black Pine
In this issue:
info@sydneycitybonsai.org.au
•
Japanese Black Pine article from Constantine - see below and page 2-3
sydneycitybonsai.org.au
•
Progress pictures of our club’s Trees for Training - see page 3
•
Lee provides Springtime advice and Chris works on a Crab Apple - see page 4
•
Lee reports on American Demonstrator, Ryan Neil, Day Two working on a Scots
PO Box 486
Summerhill NSW 2130
COMMITTEE
Patron Dorothy Koreshoff
Pine and on using raffia at the AABC May 2013 Conference - see pages 5-6
•
Events Calendar page 6
President Bryan
Vice President Sue
Secretary Constantine
Treasurer Chris
Public Officer David
Newsletter Editor Roslyn
Librarian Marianna
Catering Philip
Committee Lee & Tony
MEMBERSHIP
Full Membership $40.00
Concession $25.00
Family $55.00
Pensioner $25.00
Article from Constantine: Leaf Thinning on Black Pine
This article on page 2 is a translation from this Japanese
Bonsai magazine which features a “new leaf pinching method
requiring no bud trimming in the summer.”
“Leaf thinning on the entire tree was done by Mr Shoichi
Kodera, a seasoned bonsai master living in Higashi-Kurume
in Tokyo. He has a large number of marvellous black pine on
his bonsai shelves and he performs leaf thinning on the entire
tree on all of them in every April” [September in Southern
hemisphere).
Mr Kodera is a top bonsai
hobbyist living in suburban
Tokyo. His bonsai have won
many awards at Kokufu
Bonsai Exhibition.
p1.
LEAF THINNING ON BLACK PINE: BONSAI MASTER, Mr KODERA
The picture below was taken before performing the leaf thinning on
the entire tree. Mr Kodera is trying to increasing the number of
small branches on this particular tree and he estimates it will take
another 4 years to finish the job.
80 year-old Black Pine, 66 cm high (96cm wide).
Once leaf thinning is started, the number of leaves can be reduced in no time.
The work does not require much of your concentrations because all you have to
do is just mechanically pulling off all the leaves.
He gingerly tried his idea on one of his potted black pines to find it did not
die nor lose its vigour. Moreover, it was found the tree did not excessively
overgrow by the autumn; even without having to perform bud trimming in
the summer. Satisfied with the result, he then tried this practice on two of
his black pines in the next year and he did it again on more of his pines in
the following year, and so on. It is 10 years since Mr Kodera started this
‘leaf thinning’ on the entire tree’ to find that none of his black pines have
died in all those years.
Leaf pinching is simply picking leaves from all the branches. It
takes less time and efforts than you might imagine.
The detailed view of the pinched
first bud in the spring. If this
practice is done at the stage of
‘Rosokume’, it would be called
‘bud thinning’
Some may think it would be harder to pulling all the leaves out than bud
pinching. However, we felt leaf thinning obviously took less time when we
observed him working on one of his black pine before our own eyes. With
a little help from his wife; it took slightly over one hour to remove all the
leaves on a 66 cm high black pine with plenty of branches to make it into
a bare tree. It does not require much efforts or concentrations to finish it,
because all you have to do is simply pull off all the leaves.
Snip overgrown ‘first buds'
whenever you find them.
Bud pinching is the usual practice done on black pine bonsai in the
Spring. The purpose of this practice is to prevent the tree from
overgrowing and suppress strong vigorous growth in the tree by
pinching the ‘Rosokumes’ (the winter buds that grow in a lengthy
candle-flame form) to prepare the tree for the bud trimming in the
summer. Mr Kodera used to trim buds but he felt it to be a rather
tiresome practice.
Some branches on this particular
tree have been wired for shape
adjustment. The wire can be easily
removed with a pair of pliers
because the branches are not
obscured by leaves.
Close-up view of buds. It can be
seen that all leaves are completely
removed. Note – Sometimes some
needles are left if particular branches
look slightly weak.
Then one day, an idea came to his mind that the same effect as
the bud trimming in the summer might be obtained if old leaves
should be pinched in the spring instead of bud trimming.
Cover the bonsai with a plastic sheet when you do leaf thinning to
prevent the floor from being stained with pine resin and to make
the cleaning process easier after the job.
Completely bare bonsai after leaf-thinning is completed.
Mr Kodera says these trees require no caring such as pruning or wiring
unless you want to adjust their shapes.
Article continues on p3
p2.
SCBC TREES IN TRAINING: AUGUST PROGRESS
In March of this year the club bought five trees for club members to
volunteer to care for and style so that after a year these trees can be
sold.
LEAF THINNING ON BLACK PINE continued from p2
After 4 months, here are the progress pictures for three of the club’s
trees in training. At the end of the year the trees will be offered for
sale.
These three trees have been taken by the following club members;
(Chris, Constantine & Roslyn).
Tips of the branches after leaf thinning. You cannot tell
whether it is a black pine tree or not by this picture
The benefit of leaf thinning is the easier prevention of excessive
overgrowing of branches than the combination of “bud pinching in the
spring” and “bud trimming in the summer”. Mr Kodera stresses that
this method of his gives a clear understanding of the shape of the
entire tree and its branches as well as a rough guide on how you can
raise your trees. Also, it will facilitate branch pruning or wiring
because the branches are not obscured by the leaves.
Chris’s Trident Maple
Mr Kodera advises leaf thinning should be done between the
beginning and the middle of April [September in the Southern
Hemisphere] every year. He has found that was the best time to do it
and no good results were obtained if it was done before or after from
his experience. He says leaf thinning should be done at this time
when the leaves would transit smoothly from the previous ones to the
next ones.
Mr Kodera says he does nothing after leaf thinning except for
pinching some overgrown buds in May. All you have to do is watering
adjustment. The amount of water should be decreased if the
branches are growing faster than they should. You may have to
adjust the shape of the branches using wiring if you are planning to
exhibit your bonsai in autumn exhibitions, but apart from that you
need do almost nothing at all, he advises.
Many of his fellow hobbyists know of this leaf thinning of his, but so
far none of them have tried it. If you find the bud pinching in the
spring and the bud trimming in the summer to be troublesome, you
may want to try this leaf thinning technique.
Constantine’s Chinese Elm
Mr Kodera’s bonsai shelves as of the beginning of Spring. On the day we
visited him, he had just started the leaf thinning process just a few days
earlier and these trees are waiting to be leaf-thinned. All these trees will be
completely bare in about 10 days’ time.
Roslyn’s Hawthorn
p3.
BROWSING MY BENCHES & CHRIS WORKS ON A CRAB APPLE
By LEE
By CHRIS
SPRING!! You can feel it and smell it in the air. You can see it in
the budding trees. Here comes the big rush of bonsai work….
what a joy.
This Crab Apple tree was purchased as a semi-styled plant in a black
plastic pot. It was hidden among a lot of other stuff at Padre Pio's nursery
in Annangrove. Whilst there is no doubting the quality of his stock be
prepared to find out the prices only when you query a particular plant.
Your deciduous trees should be re-potted by now.
If any deciduous haven't broken bud it is still safe to do a re-pot
but if there are leaves you are a goner until next year.
Evergreens
It is better to root prune evergreens in June or July when they
are fully dormant so that the roots have time to start re-growing
before they are pushing out leaves.
It is a good practice to start spraying your trees with Confidor
or a similar pest agent just before the leaves open. Pests can
lodge in the developing buds and damage the emerging leaves.
Catch them early and dispatch them.
The plant resided at my place for a few months and was eventually
planted out into a raised garden bed in a shady part of my backyard. It
was planted in a cradle of geotextile material in an attempt to contain the
root ball while still retaining the advantages of being in the ground.
It was further styled when it was planted out. It remained in the ground
for a year or so. The plant developed long straight shoots (approx 1.5m
high) which were pretty useless but the trunk developed as anticipated.
Hold off on the start of fertilising until the new leaves are well
developed; fertilising too soon can bring a growth spurt with large
leaves or too many leaves & not enough flowers. Waiting a bit
gives the tree a better opportunity to produce smaller leaves
before getting food into the soil.
Check any trees that have wire to be sure it isn't cutting in
and don't wire new growth until it hardens off (new green
turned to more mature brown). As the trees shoot, remove all
buds in the forks and on the branches near the trunks. Trees don't
seem to know they are supposed to bud only where we want them.
Nurseries will be having spring sales.
When you are shopping for bonsai stock remember the dirty
fingernail comes first as you carefully loosen the soil around the
trunk to see how deep it is potted, what the roots might be like, if
there is reverse taper or other undesirable characteristics.
Check the trunk for taper & plenty of branch selection. If you
are looking at fruiting or flowering stock, check out those with small
fruit and/or flowers. Leaf size will reduce in most plants but fruit &
flowers do not reduce in size. Study the plant to try to establish a
basic style that you could develop.
Keep in mind that the best stock will have the thicker
branches lower down and plenty of branches.
It was dug up for the August meeting and while the roots were generally
contained the more adventurous ones penetrated the geotextile material
and proved a nuisance to extricate from the material. The geotextile did
provide a convenient cradle to remove the root ball and transport it
generally intact. For this reason I would seriously consider using it again.
Any "escaped" roots will be cut off anyway. When the surplus shoots
were removed the trunk and lower branches provided good potential for a
fairly reasonable bonsai in a couple of years.
Compound leaves can be difficult to work with (Murraya paniculata
& Jacaranda) so if you are not sure stay away from them. Don't
be swayed by a plant drastically reduced with a large interesting
trunk. Be attracted and then assess the plant. Does it have
movement, does it have plenty of branches low on the trunk,
and how will the styling possibilities be if you reduce it by 5060% in height and width? What will you have to work with?
I say all the above with too much experience. However, each of us
learns by our own experiences somewhat coloured by advice such
as this. Part of the fun of bonsai is getting a bad buy & then
seeing what you can do with it. Some plants make bonsai,
some plants are only learning curves but there's value to
them for that.
It's Spring…. leap into the bonsai business with fresh gusto
and look forward to another year of learning and enjoying.
Tree in new trainer pot for further establishment.
After three weeks, it is beginning to bud so that is a good sign that the
transition will be successful.
p4.
RYAN NEIL WORKING ON SCOTS PINE AT AABC MAY 2013 CANBERRA
In last month’s newsletter Lee gave us
notes taken from the American
master Ryan Neil on Bonsai Styling
presented at Day One AABC May 2013,
Canberra Conference. Lee captures
his talk on Day 2 as Ryan worked on a
Scots Pine and a Juniper.
Pines, Junipers and Jin: Pines and junipers are very different
structures when you are considering deadwood. When you are
artificially creating deadwood you must identify what makes good
deadwood on the species you are working on.
RYAN NEIL working on a Scots Pine.....
The major difference between pines is whether the growth is single
flush [Mugo, Austrian, Scots] or multi flush [Black and Red Pine].
Junipers often have uninteresting trunks, uninteresting bark, little taper
and their attraction comes from the flamboyant deadwood, jins and
sharis. These can make a juniper into something special.
With the development of pines you have to grow and prune, you
just can’t grow and cut anywhere. Often a pine develops with long
internodes and a ‘lion’s tail’ of foliage at the end of the branch.
How do you get back budding?
When styling the apex of a pine maintain ambiguity. Leave three
branches at the apex to develop further before deciding which will be
eliminated.
Year 1: Build strength in the foliage; allow more photosynthetic
resources on the tree. The fundamental concept is to get more
foliage to feed the root system. Leave to grow for one year. The
sun creates energy in the tree, the roots grow and more foliage
develops.
Year 2: Your cue is when back buds appear along the branch. Let
the tip candles elongate, and then prune the candles leaving at
least two pairs of needles to set up back buds.
Year 3: the back buds should have developed and you can start to
cut back the lion’s tail, thereby leaving more nutrients to push the
back buds on. Just remember that the back buds must be well
developed so they can feed the branch before you shorten the
branch. The more resources the tree has the thicker it will grow.
Increase the foliage and you will get a thicker trunk. It is not the
extension of the branches but the amount of foliage.
Year 4: Pinch to develop branching
Year 5: Start refining. When the candles develop on the new
growth let them elongate and while they are still soft pinch them
off. There is a strong hormone called AUXIN in the tips. When
you pinch off you remove the auxin and encourage other areas to
grow. Multiple buds develop and you can develop density very
quickly. Then you manage the growth to define the shape.
When you do this kind of work on a tree where does the strength
come from? In pines it comes from the roots, juniper’s strength
comes from its foliage.
Fertiliser is not a food, it is a supplement.
The tree feeds itself through photosynthesis
which provides the resources to drive and
perpetuate growth.
When you do major work on a tree let the tree rest for 6 – 12
months and repot only after the foliage regenerates.
Pines naturally grow with whorls of branches, 3-5 out of one node.
These areas have to be carefully pruned leaving one branch,
sometimes no more than two so the area doesn’t grow into an ugly
thickening at the node which is not attractive in a bonsai. Prune
the tree to the basic shape you want. Sometimes you will leave
two or more branches in an area with the idea to let them develop
before you choose the one you want to use. This is also
insurance in the event one or more of the branches dies and you
have a back up for your design.
With Pines you never want a big amount of deadwood. It is the bark that
is the focus on pines and they are basically a quiet bonsai.
You don’t necessarily want to remove too much at one time and it is okay
to leave some branches for later decisions as to which branch will be
kept, which will be removed.
With pines the branches help each other to develop. The needles feed
the roots and the roots generate energy.
Scots Pine: if you prune the tree and prune the roots at the same time
you will get bleeding in the foliage and bleeding in the roots and dieback
is inevitable. If you have bleeding in the top but not in the roots the tree
will power on.
STRUCTURAL WIRE: The technique is to get heavy wire to work for
you. The important hand is not the hand that is wrapping the wire but
the hand that is supporting the branch being wired. Structural wire does
not work with air spaces between the wire and the branch, it must wrap
around the branch and you must guide and ensure the wire maintains
contact as you put it on. Wire is put on firmly and left until it starts to cut
in. Pines bark up as they age and this will cover wire marks.
TWIST and BEND: When you start to shape a pine branch twist as you
bend so the compression is spread and the branch is less likely to break.
Do not simply bend the branch.
As branches thicken they add more layers of growth and it is this process
that sets the shape of the branch. Let the tree scar a bit, take the wire off
when it starts to bite in and rewire. Never rewire in the same position;
wire the opposite direction or lay the wire next to the original track.
When you wire a tree it should still look natural. When you wire a pine
you need all of the buds heading in the same direction.
The first movement in Australian natives and deciduous is up and out.
The branch should go up a bit along the trunk and then out. With pines
the movement is down; down and up at the tips. The lower branches
should be styled way down, the middle branches down and the upper
branches slightly down. The top of a pine should not be rounded.
When you go into bonsai don’t get small saplings. Get better trees that
will stretch you from the beginning. Working on lesser trees doesn’t
provide the learning opportunities that more advanced trees do.
p5.
RYAN’S VIEW ON RAFFIA & EVENTS CALENDAR
Importantly you don’t have to maintain tension when winding. Wrap,
support the branch, hold the tension, wrap and support to get compression
and continue along the branch. Keep the thickness of the raffia the same,
even distribution. It cannot be applied thick and thin.
RYAN NEIL DESCRIBES HOW TO PUT RAFFIA ON
CORRECTLY – notes by Lee at AABC May 2013,
Canberra Conference
Raffia is used to bind thicker branches before bending to apply
compression to the bark so it does not come away from the
branch. Apply linearly and longitudinally for more compression.
Don’t use vet tape, electrical tape or bicycle inner tubes. These
all have a major drawback. A tree gains and loses moisture.
Raffia allows for respiration, a natural exchange of moisture.
Anything else restricts this and the branch will not be as healthy.
Raffia allows oxygen interchange. Raffia, good [wide] raffia is
still the superior fibre to add compression when bending.
When you need a new strip lift up the last turn of the raffia, anchor the knot,
wind the new raffia to secure the knot and continue. Split the bundle to tie
off at the end of the branch.
Wire cannot really bend a heavy branch. You need raffia and guy wires.
Raffia is a natural fibre and will rot in due course with exposure to the
weather and the expansion of the tree. It is removed when the wire is
removed but it will already be falling apart.
Soak raffia for a day or so. Remove excess water by pulling it
through your fingers and then flicking it. Several strips of raffia
are knotted together at one end in bundles and these bundles
should be the same length.
Look at the twist of the branch. The raffia has to follow the twist.
Always start with a solid anchor point. Starting with the knotted
end, wrap to leave the knot exposed, wrap to secure that area so
you can remove the knot when the raffia has secured the starting
area. Be careful of the bark. Don’t drag the raffia across the
bark.
Also see Paul from OrlandoBonsaiTV: “How to Bonsai – Bending large
branches with Raffia”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwFBnH8tJTE
Want to buy quality bonsai in September?
The Bonsai Society of Australia is holding a Bonsai show titled “Reflections” on 10 am – 5 pm, Saturday-Sunday 21st & 22nd September at
the Don Moor Community Centre (Cnr North Rocks Rd & Farnell Ave, Carlingford). Admission is adults, $4.00 and consessions, $2.00
In addition to some well-known bonsai experts sharing their knowledge, the Society holds a “Market Place” using bonsai stock from the
BSA, members and friends.
For details see www.bonsai.asn.au or call Maureen 9871 4162 or Georgina 9636 4261.
Date
Event
Details
Sept 6-8
Featuring Robert Steven, Tops Conference Centre, Stanwell Tops.
Sept 21-22
Illawarra Bonsai Society “Tops Weekend
Workshop”
Bonsai Society of Australia, Annual Show
October 6-7
Sydney Bonsai Spectacular
Merrylands RSL, Military Road, Merrylands
October 12-13
Canberra Bonsai Society, Annual Show
Daramalan College, Dickson, ACT
October 19-20
School of Bonsai, Annual Show
Ray Nesci Nursery, Dural
November 8-10
Newcastle Bonsai Society, Annual
Exhibition
Gold Coast Tweed Bonsai Club Annual
Show
Geelong Bonsai Club Annual Show
Charlestown Bowling Club
November 9-10
November 9-10
Don Moore Community Centre, North Rocks Road, North Rocks.
Robina Community Centre
Masonic Hall, Belmont
© 2006 Sydney City Bonsai Club | www.sydneycitybonsai.org.au | info@sydneycitybonsai.org.au
p6.