Japanese Black Pine Autumn Maintenance

Japanese Black Pines are in my opinion one of the greatest species for bonsai. They require certain maintenance to be performed to manage their strength and ensure there is balance between the different growing areas on the tree. These tasks include needle plucking and bud selection which are demonstrated in the video.

[@robertobreglia9224]

Great job and beautiful black pine!👏👏👏

[@acer_p_bonsai]

Beautiful tree and great discussion! 👏🏽 I think we can all get better at our tool maintenance! 😅 🙏🏽

[@TheGbelcher]

Wow! Thats beautiful! Amazing

[@LuisRamos-tj4sv]

Awesome work mate

[@jeffreyhutchings561]

Awesome tree. I have a few JBP’s in my garden. They’re a lot younger. I haven’t done the bud selection yet. Did your tree always live in a pot or grow pot? Or, was it temporarily “field grown”? I up-potted my first JBP seedling a couple of times. Currently it’s growing in a 10 quart terracotta pot. Doing well, needs a little more work though.

[@BonsaiMatsu]

@@jeffreyhutchings561 this one started as nursery stock and was field grown for a time. I could tell because the roots were rough cut to fit the plastic pot when I acquired it.

[@maryoverton7245]

I listen to the podcast on cedars and pines the other day hoping you would mention Radiata Pines. Would you include them with Black Pine care.

[@BonsaiMatsu]

No they’re different. There’s a video on my channel showing Radiata pines.

[@claresun7250]

How long did that process take start to finish (without fast motion!)?

[@BonsaiMatsu]

About a full day? Or there abouts

[@elbietaljaard2195]

Needle plucking ... don't you reduce your chances of back budding deeper into the tree? ... to cut back to in future

[@BonsaiMatsu]

It depends on the stage of development and health of your jbp. By allowing light and air into those inner areas you encourage budding. If your pine is weak then leaving more needles will help improve the overall strength. You really need to do a health assessment before doing any work on any of your bonsai.