KUROMATSU

A week of hard work on neglected Kuromatsu (japanese black pine, Pinus thumbergii) is done; first phase on this very big tree is completed. Tree is from Rok's collection and was neglected for a last five maybe even ten years. It is a yamadori, that fact add a value to the tree, but in the other hand it has some faults. This time, after the tree came to the shop, we dealed with faults made by careless owner before the tree came in to Rok posession. The main problems were the main branches which started to grow upwards again, then the big open space in the upper part of the tree. But first we cut all the phatetic guy wires whic did nothing else then just made the tree ugly.

 

Teden dni trdega dela na zanemarjenem japonskem črnem boru je za nama; prva faza na tem zelo velikem drevesu je končana. Drevo je iz Rokove zbirke in je bilo zanemarjeno zadnjih pet, morda celo deset let. Je jamadori, kar dodaja vrednost, toda na drugi strani ima tudi nekaj napak. Tokrat, potem, ko je drevo prišlo v delavnico, sva se ukvarjala z napakami, ki so posledica nepravilne vzgoje lastnika pred Rokom. Glavne težave so bile: glavne veje, ki so se že začele dvigovati, velika luknja v zgornjem delu krošnje. Najprej pa sva porezala vse patetične napenjalne žice, ki niso služile ničemur drugemu kot temu, da je bilo drevo grdo.

 

Kuromatsu as arrived to the shop

 

Ugly wires were cut off

 

Problem in the top: big empty space

 

After we cut all old needles we started to wire and slowly build the structure from bottom towards the top. When I first saw this big tree (one realizes how big is it only if one see it in live) my plan was to deal with every needle, to made the final styling. But with closer inspection it was obvious that the tree was so neglected that needed a much more - so we went way back in to the branch structure, repairing the crossed branches, cut the thicker ones and so on ...

 

Ko sva porezala vse stare iglice sva začela z žičenjem in postavljanjem strukture od spodaj navzgor. Ko sem to veliko drevo videl prvič (kako veliko je, človek spozna šele, ko ga vidi v živo) sem mislil, da bom lahko na mesto postavil vsako iglico, napravil finalno oblikovanje. Natančnejša analiza pa je pokazala, da je bilo drevo tako zanemarjeno, da je potrebovalo veliko več - tako sva morala veliko bolj nazaj z urejanjem strukture vej, popravljanjem prepletenih vej, rezanjem predebelih ...

 

TORA international bonsai school apprentice Gašper working on big Kuromatsu

 

The first phase is now completed. The tree is wired again, the branches are in position. Pine has great old bark, the smaller crown is now part of the story, wached over by parent crown on bigger trunk. The tree still needs a lot of work in the future - but for now this is it. Now the tree wil rest, in next season we'll do a next step with proper watering, feeding, pinching and cutting candles and so on ...

 

Prva faza je zdaj končana. Drevo je ponovno ožičeno, veje so tam, kjer morajo biti. Bor ima krasno staro lubje, manjša krošnja je del zgodbe, nad njo bdi večja na glavnem deblu. Drevo bo v prihodnosti potrebovalo še veliko dela, toda za zdaj je to to. Drevo bo zdaj počivalo, naslednjosezono pa bomo nov korak naprej napravili s pravilnim zalivanjem, gnojenjem, vršičkanjem in rezanjem svečk ...

 

Before - after