Fall cleanup on a Kyokko Yatsabusa corkbark JBP

Nebari Bonsai

This one just keeps ambling along year after year. Not changing a whole lot. Last fall, a large portion of the primary branch was broken off, and it’s going to take a few years to rebuild the primary branch. The tree is mostly wired, and I do not perform summer candle-pruning. Instead, I remove the too-strong shoots in the fall, and remove old needles, and downward-hanging needles. I don’t ask much from the tree, and it responds in kind…

Before:

After:

Here is a shot from when I received it in fall 2008. 11 years ago:

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JBP, ‘Arakawa’ 2019

Nebari Bonsai

Here is the previous installment for this tree. I ended up repotting it in 2018, and wiring it in 2019. Here is the starting point:

Reduced the right branches in hopes for a back-bud closer to the trunk.

Trimmed back; Arakawa forms lots of buds, so trimming back took a while to get down to the bifurcation branch structure. before:

Thinned out:

Wiring started:

Grafting:

Wrapped in parafilm:

Scion prepared:

Inserted:

Cut paste to seal out water, then wrapped in parafilm, and then raffia:

Complete:

Branches tweaked a bit more, and ready for the 2019 growing season.

Two weeks later, and the grafted bud is starting to move, a positive, but not definitive sign yet…

As of 4/1, the bud is 1.5″ long.

And at the end of the month…

5/27/19:

I won’t be ready to call it a success until I see a new candle growing from it…

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