Do This to Keep Your Japanese Black Pine Bonsai Alive & Healthy

Japanese Black Pine is one of the most difficult trees to maintain, so I've put together these tips and tricks on how you can keep your black pine bonsai healthy. We'll go over reducing the needle length, how to water, soil, repotting, how to remove weeds, and everything in between. Let's go!
0:00 Introduction
1:45 About my tree
2:29 Shaping & styling the tree
13:24 Analyzing the tree design
13:36 Scraping the roots
15:43 The cloth trick
16:35 Storytime!
17:08 How to reduce needle length
19:24 Sunlight, soil, fertilizer & watering routine
20:20 Repotting advice
20:42 Weed removal
21:51 Results & Summary
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Questions about your bonsai? Leave a comment below or you can reach out to me at [e-mail].
#bonsai #plants #gardening #bonsaitree #bonsaitreesforbeginners #plantcare #howtobonsai #tutorial #tipsforbeginners #bonsaitechniques #mapletree #japanese #blackpine #bonsaiforbeginners #bonsaitreecare #bonsaitreemaking #bonsaigarden #bonsaiheirloom #bonsaiplant #bonsaicollection #miltonchang #entrepreneur #bonsaimaster

[@johnrb9397]

Can you give a shout out to Tony from Tony’s Bonsai (KZbin). He is terminally I’ll and I know it will make his last days hearing this shout out 👍❤

[@mattbrennan647]

I really miss him and his humorous voice and smile. Thanks, keep growing

[@danielbauer1471]

Excellent tutorial. I have been doing Bonsai since 1983. I strive to learn new techniques all the time. Thank you for sharing your experience

[@bonsaiheirloom]

I am learning all the time as well, especially from this community!

[@SowetoBonsaiSociety]

My favourite Bonsai channel, keep up the good work👍

[@bonsaiheirloom]

Thank you, that means a lot to me!

[@stephenkacer7261]

That looks great… You are very talented thank you for sharing…..

[@bonsaiheirloom]

Thanks for the kind words, Stephen!

[@MF-fc5vk]

Great work thankyou loved it 😊

[@bonsaiheirloom]

Thank you for watching! :)

[@kennethjones6045]

Very helpful. I live in a colder climate and still trying to figure out Black pines here. I live right ar there cold limit. I like the idea of showing follow progress up of your work. My hero was Mr. Nagatoshi from Fuji Bonsai Nursery in Sylmar Cal. I grew up around John Naka and those people. I love Naka's style. I was a weird little white kid among the Japanese gardeners and Nurseries. What a great endeavor.

[@donald_drums]

amazing video as always Mr. Chang

[@bonsaiheirloom]

Thanks for your support! I appreciate it!

[@jonsey2028]

Black Pine is on my wishlist!!!!

[@bonsaiheirloom]

Yes, it's a wonderful species! Very desirable.

[@raymondplodzien7459]

Love your channel and I can’t wait for future videos.

[@bonsaiheirloom]

Thanks, Raymond! I'm excited to make more videos for you all!

[@jeffhurst4744]

Excellent details and coverage of trimming/styling and why. Yes, indeed, follow up videos on the progress. Thank you.

[@bonsaiheirloom]

Will do! Thanks for watching, Jeff!

[@timmywood9677]

I think if you use thick wire on small black pines trunks in growing season. It will girdle the trunk but it will also thicken the trunk and it will heal over two four years and the scaring looks really natural

[@mike-zk1yn]

Great video I learned some valuable information

[@bonsaiheirloom]

Glad to hear it! Hope you have fun with your bonsai!

[@3did-oy7ec]

I really like how you explain why and how to prune a tree. Thank you.

[@bonsaiheirloom]

Thanks, I'm happy it was helpful!

[@scotteason1698]

Thanks, it is really encouraging to see the progression.

[@bonsaiheirloom]

I agree! Thanks for watching!

[@alifonso1981]

Thank you and great info! I bought a black pine and I was wondering about reducing the needle size. Also, the watering tip was really helpful. Thank you for sharing!

[@bonsaiheirloom]

I'm so glad you found this video helpful. Thanks for watching!

[@acooke7574]

Excellent video (as always) - thanks! I’ve been considering adding a JBP or two to a large growing bed but am having trouble figuring out which of the multiple cultivars to go for. Would love to hear an overview on the pro’s cons of some of the more readily available varieties such as yatdabusa and nishiki etc. which i believe are dwarf and cork-bark. Thanks from Australia, and thanks for all your videos!

[@acooke7574]

Just saw the little segment at the end of your nishiki repotting video which partly answered this. Thanks!

[@abidingdude222]

Thank you for the wonderful video! Where are you located?

[@bonsaiheirloom]

California

[@FIZZYYAM]

Nice video Milton

[@robertwoods1380]

👍👍 outstanding

[@bonsaiheirloom]

Thank you, Robert!

[@kennyyardman813]

Thank you for the valuable information.

[@bonsaiheirloom]

Thanks, Kenny! I'm glad you found it helpful!

[@greenhawk1592]

Thank you 🙏🌲👍🏼

[@susanbossert6833]

Informative video, as always. You said to prune the pine anytime. But it seems to me that if you pruned now -- the end of June -- that it would bleed sap excessively. Isn't this detrimental to the tree's health?

[@bonsaiheirloom]

Hi Susan! Train the tree to work a little harder taking up water. Just kidding! I am not sure sap bleeding is that bad for the tree…not how quickly the cut dries out with hardened sap.

[@alexabotvlog]

Thank you for this idea, i have a confident for my self to takecare of black pine. Sir, can you advice me, because the pine here the grow of leaves are not good.

[@bonsaiheirloom]

Sure! Where are you located and what seems to be the issue with your pines?

[@abidingdude222]

It's awesome when you get to eat your cake..

[@BenluniJames]

❤🎉🎉

[@luigiluigi2098]

I'm still trying to get one of these to germinate. I have about a million seeds..some in soil some in the fridge.some in freezer. Some people say stratify in fridge. Some people say freezer. And others say black pines don't need it just plant them. I have lots of seeds and nothing grown 😅

[@moistgoolem5048]

I have had success with both stratifying in fridge and no stratification. In my experience they germinate very well in pure perlite with about 2cm of pure sand on top. Plant in the sand and don't let them dry out.

[@brucedeacon28]

👍👌👌

[@lawrencebewsey7418]

Hello Bonsai Heirloom can you please tell when the best time to side graft a deshoj maple. Thanks. Lawrence. from Spain

[@bonsaiheirloom]

Hi Lawrence! You may be looking for an unnecessary challenge. KZbin has a lot of ideas on that…but why you want to do that when you can induce a branch to shoot out from the trunk simply by scarring the bark at where you want a branch to come out. Give that a try!

[@lawrencebewsey7418]

@@bonsaiheirloom Thanks for that I'll give it a try.

[@judgetoogood1033]

Where can I get a scraper tool. No one in the Bay Area sells bonsai tools. Can you recommend some websites you trust. Thank you…..❤❤❤❤

[@bonsaiheirloom]

I got mine from Aliexpress.

[@locpham-ie6ly]

Hi sir! I have a question about my black pine just bought from nursery field, it’s been 2 weeks now and I put the tree under the shade and expose to morning sun one hour every day, I cut back some branches so when can I move the tree to full Sun?

[@bonsaiheirloom]

Move gradually to more exposure as you see new growth!

[@locpham-ie6ly]

@@bonsaiheirloom my question can we graft the Scion on big trunk to creat branches in the future?

[@ShaneLovesGardening]

Do any of these principles apply to North American pines?

[@bonsaiheirloom]

Hi Shane! I stick to traditional material. There are ponderosa pines with beautiful contorted trunks…but it is hard to keep them alive for a long time, whereas there are Thunbergii trees and bonsai that are more than a 100 years old. There was a really grand Ponderosa at the front of the National Bonsai Museum in DC (It is really worth visiting; I am a director of the National Bonsai Foundation) that eventually died in about 20 years.

[@gustavoaguilar4496]

Were are you located???

[@bonsaiheirloom]

I'm in Northern California!

[@gustavoaguilar4496]

Cool I am subscribe i live in Central California buy fresno and its hard to find someone that does bonzi and understand the weather here thanks again love the show and 🙂

[@NaserHekmat]

I killed one of my nice black pines. They are vey sensitive to root pruning.

[@bonsaiheirloom]

I'm sorry to hear that, but I hope you learned something from it. I used to kill a lot of trees when I was starting out in bonsai. It took me a lot of trial and error to get to where I am today. Please don't give up, and best of luck to you!

[@yoteslaya7296]

Pines love pond baskets

[@judgetoogood1033]

When you scrape the bark, don’t you risk killing that root and the branches above it.

[@bonsaiheirloom]

No, not when it is only a small portion of the branch. Sometimes a branch will callus all around when you remove an entire circle of bark.

[@DaisyEric]

❤🎉🎉