For those of us in Coastal Virginia, I have put together a summary of tasks for maintaining our refined and pre-bonsai stock. (USDA Zone 8a)
January
· Work
on styling pines. Thaw out for 24 hours
before work.
· Check
trees in winter storage every week for water needs.
February
· Potting begins the second or third week of this month. Trees are re-potted in this order, Japanese
maple, general deciduous, larch, hornbeam, pines, junipers, and beech.
· Trident maples can be re-potted a little late as long as the tiny
leaves are still red.
· After re-potting leave trees out in the sun,
the heat will stimulate root production.
· Larch, wire, prune leaving at least one
bud behind cut to prevent die back.
March
· Finish up potting by mid March.
This month you should be re-potting the azaleas, boxwood, and other broad
leafed evergreens.
· The first two weeks of March are a great time to collect native
Carolina Hornbeam.
· By mid March the buds on Japanese maples
should be extending. Now is the time to
pinch out the centers to prevent extension and reduce inner-nodal length. (Refined
trees).
April
· Begin feeding. For refined
deciduous trees, wait until new leaves have hardened off before fertilizing
lightly. For trees in training, your
goal is to increase trunk diameter.
Fertilize your trees early.
· Feed Japanese Black Pines heavily to assist the trees in budding
after de-candling.
· Deciduous pinch or cut new shoots when
they have hardened off.
May
· Mid May wire deciduous trees in pre-bonsai training. Cracks will heal easier when sap is
active. Check wire often. Wire when branches are still young.
· Fertilize trees in training
· Candle pinch pines to balance energy during the pineapple
stage before the needles begin to extend.
· Apply micro nutrients to pines right before the candles
pineapple stage.
· Eastern White Cedar, feed moderately year round. Prune off long shoots on strong areas, leave
the others alone. Be careful of new
foliage when wiring.
June
· Wire trees in pre-bonsai training.
· Work on Junipers, remove spring growth with sharp scissors
leaving a small portion of the new growth.
Protect trees from hot midday sun after cutting back. After a few weeks pinch back new growth
lightly. Some part of the new growth
always needs to be kept.
· Early to mid June de-bloom and prune Azaleas. Pruning late will weaken shoots and flower
buds.
· De-candle refined Japanese Black and Red
Pines, 3rd or 4th week of June, you should remove
fertilizer and let it spend its own reserved energy for one month to six
weeks. Then start to feed in mid August
to November. For trees in training do
not de-candle, feed it till the end of the year.
July
· Feed finished trees lightly
· Feed trees in training
· Japanese maple do not defoliate after mid July.
August
· Stop all pruning and pinching.
· Japanese Black Pine, de-candling should be sending out new buds at this
time. If you have more than two, leave
them alone and then thin them back in the fall.
You can thin them out when you pull old needles. Leaving them will cause long needle growth
and bud extension.
· Ponderosa, mugo, high mountain pines,
larch, After needles harden off , it is time to feed them with low nitrogen
fertilizer.
September
· Ponderosa, mugo, high mountain pines, clean out old
needles.
· Late September to October, collect wild pines.
·Trim shoots of pre-bonsai pine stock to desired branch length,
you should see new buds develop in November.
October
· Root prune ground stock with shovel and rotate if necessary
to allow sun access to all areas.
· After leaf fall wire deciduous refined trees, be careful of
heavy bends, this time of year there is low sap flow. Leave stubs for winter die back.
November
· Eliminate dominant buds on refined pines leaving 2 of the
weaker buds.
· Work
on styling pines.
December
· First
week of December begin preparing winter storage.
· Spray
with diluted lime sulfur, Note: do not spray azaleas, hemlock, spruce, or
recently styled trees.
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