In the interests of improving my knowledge and experience or more importantly saving money, I decided to try my hand at growing my own Japanese Black Pine this year. I plan to follow the methods laid out in Bonsai Today #20. I also used my favorite bonsai blog Bonsai Tonight. There are several articles on there relating to growing JBP from seed and if you don’t subscribe to it you should! You will not be dissappointed.
I purchased a couple packets from amazon and placed the seeds in a moist paper towel cold stratify them for two months in the end of January 2014. I then planted them in sand in a large training container. Several weeks went by and about 15 of them sprouted. When the stems turned the distinctive purple color I followed the instructions and used a razor to cut off the roots and dipped them in rooting hormone and planted them in specially prepared pots and let them grow in shade protected from the wind. By mid-August most of them were really starting to grow and I should have a nice batch of 8 from the initial 50 seeds I planted.
Here are a few pics from the summer, when I get a chance I will take some more of them in storage and of course when I bring them out in April.
Mike
Thanks for reading! Be back soon!