Bonsaify | Potting a Large Black Pine to Start a Niwaki

Eric takes the largest two-year-old Japanese Black Pine he's ever grown and starts it on its way to becoming a Niwaki. Niwaki are landscape size trees, like a bonsai but in the ground.
00:00:22 Eric discusses why he likes Anderson flats. They have a mesh bottom like a pond basket, but a solid side.
00:01:00 Eric plans to use a foundation spike to help hold the tree in place in the flat.
00:02:06 After finishing securing the foundation spike in the flat, Eric discusses the strategy of using the spike instead of wrapping the trunk in wire to bend it.
00:03:17 Eric discusses how the scale of curves in the trunk relate to the overall scale of the plant. Lots of movement in the bottom vertical foot of a 9' tree will not make a good niwaki.
00:04:23 Eric adds a small board to stabilize the flat further, then discusses how to add the tree to the apparatus.
00:05:13 Description of the attachment of the tree to the spike and how the growth of the tree will further the design over time.
00:06:13 Eric discusses how to splay out the roots in the flat to help start the nebari.
00:06:50 Eric reviews the ideas and the entire process with the tree secured and soil added.
00:07:59 Eric discusses the re-establishing of the roots and how the tree will probably grow slower for a while.
Share your comments - have you ever started a niwaki?
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[@davidmorgan3508]

Aussie Dave here Eric, I love your enthusiasm and engineering on different ways to get movement in large trunks 🤔🤗🤗👍😉.

[@Bonsaify]

😂 I think a large wire would have been easier, but then it would still need to be stabilized in the container!🤦‍♂️

[@davidmorgan3508]

@@Bonsaify maybe but I think you have done a wonderful job 😃😃👍👍

[@andersnrregren9087]

Anderson flat, rootmaker and all the others i dont know, we all know the bonsai pots and bonsai soil but i would realy love if you would make a video on the training pots you master growers use or dont use

[@Bonsaify]

I've used the large colanders (up to 22" diameter) and they worked fine, except they disintegrate after a couple years in the sun. No pot will make your nebari perfect - but the right pot is a good tool toward that end. I'll put it on my list of topics, thanks for the comment.

[@edinborogh]

Awesome video!

[@henzobonsai]

Great work..👏

[@sagebonsai]

That is the fastest start of a literati I've ever seen!

[@rootsandvulture]

Please keep us updated on this project 👍🏼

[@laughlife6787]

Thanks for the video see ya in the next one

[@haroldcurrier7633]

I was wondering what you were going to do with that thing! should be nice in a year or two.

[@merlijnvanbijsterveld6300]

Great channel and awesome content! I also grow Jbp from seed and recently did some major root pruning on 6 old pines with large sacrifice branches with one or two whorls. I was a bit nervous about the amount of roots cut and the amount of foliage left on. But looking at your video it is similar to what I did. Could you explain some more about the balance between root pruning and foliage mass? When will it become dangerous for the tree?

[@Bonsaify]

Generalizations are not great in terms of that question - for young JBP (e.g. under 6-7 years old) aggressive root work is usually fine, but it will slow the tree down. Reducing the foliage won't generally help in my experience. For other trees it's a different story altogether, but generally I do not reduce foliage to match the reduction in roots as this is a generalization and oversimplification of the metabolic processes in trees. (E.g. a juniper can have a lot of roots cut off (like 90%) with no foliage reduction and not skip a beat (again depending on age) while an evergreen oak like Q. agrifolia can benefit from defoliation to reduce stress from transplanting (a technique often used when collecting wild ones.)

[@dracokaiser]

Where can I Get Anderson flats? Can definitely use them for fattening tree trunks!!!

[@Bonsaify]

Hi There, if you are in the US, they are available from Growers Nursery Supply: www.growers-inc.com/17-deep-prop-flat-10-cs/ They're made in Oregon, and the Anderson Tool and Die company is a bit old school. Cheers, Eric

[@dracokaiser]

@@Bonsaify Veilen danke. I’m in Bloomington Indiana. Friends with Yannik Keegan

[@glazerix]

what soil is you think is best for black pine? 🙏🏼

[@Bonsaify]

No one soil is appropriate to all trees and situations. For young pines we use 80% perlite and 20% coco, for older pines we use 1:1:1 Akadama:Lava:Pumice. This is due to different costs and different goals for trees that are young versus trees that are older.

[@arnoldmmbb]

You could also make it into a medium or large size bonsai!

[@dragaumchineis5070]

Bom dia, Flor do dia!

[@9daywonda]

Or even Penjing.