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Chapter 10. Yeddo Spruce Bonsai From Cuttings

Jitaro Nagao

How to make and care for the cuttings; how to dwarf and train the trees in ordinary bonsai style or in clasping-stone style

Yeddo spruce (Picea jezoensis) is a good example to show the technique by which bonsai may be made from cuttings, improved year after year, and kept in very dwarfed form within the limited space of the container.

A few of Mr. Nagao's Yeddo spruce bonsai on growing shelf

Raising Yeddo spruce bonsai from cuttings is very popular, for two reasons. First, Yeddo spruce is a most suitable conifer for bonsai: it is very lovely and pleasing, particularly in the light green color of the new growth! It is easy to raise from cuttings and easy for the novice to train. Second, the naturally dwarfed old Yeddo spruces from their native habitats have become very scarce in Hokkaido. Whenever particular species are taken from the wild (a pity) they soon become scarce. People do not understand! My father is said to be the first man who tried to raise Yeddo spruce from cuttings; if I remember rightly, he first tried it in 1913. At that time he was much interested in the Ishitsuki style of bonsai, or growing the plant clasping a stone. He made cuttings of Yeddo spruce and they were rooted the second year. After growing them two years more, he then trained them as clasping-stone bonsai The result was very satisfactory; hance clasping-stone-style Yeddo spruce has become very popular among novices and experts alike.

Yeddo spruce cuttings in propagating bed

Cuttings

A good container for rooting the cuttings is a shallow wooden box 1 by 2 feet or so, with some holes in the bottom, or a shallow pot. A little sphagnum moss is spread on the bottom; then the box or pot is filled with sharp, fine sand.

Time. The cuttings are best made in the spring or early summer: in the spring, just before the buds open; or in the summer, when the new growth is hardened. In the summer, only the new growth is used, because it is quicker to root than the old growth—which must be used if the cuttings are made in the spring.

Each spring during the training or improving of Yeddo spruce bonsai, some shoots are shortened or cut off entirely; these shoots are very good material for cuttings. Every fancier of bonsai likes to raise new plants from his own.

The tips of the shoots are taken for cuttings, 1 to 2 inches long; after being recut with a sharp knife, they are inserted quickly in the prepared box or pot.
The container is watered thoroughly from above, and shaded; I use a screen made of marsh reeds. The cuttings must be syringed several times a day for a month or so; this must never be neglected. Or, wrap the container in plastic.

Watering in the summer should be very carefully and thoroughly done and never neglected.

Fertilizer. As with other conifers, Yeddo spruce needs only nitrogenous fertilizer such as rape cake or soy bean cake, while flowering and fruiting trees need more of other elements.

The fertilizer should be applied chiefly in the autumn, when growth has ceased, or after the autumn transplanting. In the growing season a small amount of fertilizer is enough. If much fertilizer is given during the growing season, the leaves become long, soft, and untidy, and strong shoots weaken others; consequently the most desirable or necessary shoots may become poor and die.

Transplanting. In the autumn,, say October, the rooted cuttings are transplanted into new fine sand, an inch or so apart. The cuttings generally have two or more tiny branches, and the tips of these branches will touch after the cuttings are transplanted. Sometimes transplanting is done in March or April. In either ease (autumn or spring transplanting) the marsh-reed screen is needed for shade, as the young plants burn quickly in the sun.

Yeddo spruce cuttings 2 years old

For a year or so the young plants grow slowly, but in two or three years they show vigorous growth.

Training

Potting. Plants 2 or 3 years old are ready to have their training begun, to suit one's taste. They may be placed singly in containers that seem a little too small for them; or if one desires a miniature forest, he should put several plants together in a shallower and wider container. When a community is thus formed, the branches should be thinned and some of them shortened.

The soil used is a kind that is very porous and poor in nourishment; the subsoil in Japan fulfills this requirement; it is never enriched; sharp sand is liberally added to it and well mixed with it.

The drain hole at the bottom of the pot is covered with a piece of broken pot; then a thin layer of coarse sharp sand is put in, to allow good drainage. Over this some of the prepared soil is added. The long root of the plant should be shortened. Then the tree is held in the pot with one hand while the soil is filled in with the other and finally rather firmly pressed.

The pot must then be watered very thoroughly. Continued watering must be carefully attended to until new growth appears, and the soil must not be allowed to dry.

Fertilizer. According to the amount of growth, fertilizer should be given twice or thrice in the spring and in the autumn. Rape cake is put in several places on the surface of the soil, or it may be used as liquid fertilizer; for the latter, water in which the cake has soaked for many months is diluted to the proper strength. (See chapter 10)

Mitsukoshi Exhibit. 1986 Teddo spruce growing on rock. When on exhibition a layer of pebbles is placed in the large shallow container which is then filled with water.

Time. Training is best done in March and April, but it may be practiced through the winter, beginning in the autumn.

The desired, shape depends entirely on one's taste, of course; but it is better to follow the nature of Yeddo spruce. As good examples to follow, there are here shown photographs of some old Yeddo spruce bonsai—old trees collected in their natural habitats and further trained.

Method. Generally speaking, the most difficult method of training bonsai for the novice and the expert alike is spirally coiling wire around the branch to change it into the desired shape. Happily, however, the wiring of Yeddo spruce is very easy and hence satisfying even to the very beginner. There is only one thing about which the trainer must be cautious. Even slight twisting kills the branches of Yeddo spruce by separating the bark from the wood. Forcibly lifting weeping branches has the same effect. If this peculiarity of the tree is understood and taken into account through the years of training, Yeddo spruce is, as just said, a very easy and pleasant plant to train.

Mitsukoshi Exhibit. 1966 Old Yeddo spruce bonsai in rectangular container

The technique of training a branch into the desired shape is gently to curve it or change its direction while spirally coiling a wire around it Half a year or a year later the wire should be uncoiled and removed from the branch, as the branch will then keep its shape without the wire. After they have passed a year without the wire, some of the branches may be somewhat out of shape; these should be wired again and the wire kept on for two more years. Whenever wiring is done, overlapping, weakened, or unnecessary branches should be cut off to make the remaining branches healthier and more shapely.

Pinching. In the course of training, pinching of the new growth each year is important and never to be neglected during the whole life of the bonsai The time for pinching is May and June, when the new growth is ⅓ inch to 1 ⅛ inches long. Half to two thirds of the length of the new growth should be pinched off with the fingers; this must be done carefully to prevent the whole of the new growth from coming off. If the new growth is too hard to be pinched with the fingers, scissors may be used; but finger pinching is better for the plant and has more tendency to keep it dwarf. This is the golden rule of pinching.

When the tree becomes older, deeper pinching should be practiced, leaving only a small portion of the new growth. If it is desired to shorten a long shoot to encourage the .growth of the branch formed at its base, this should be done gradually, in two or more years, so as not to weaken and kill the branch at the base.

A single Yeddo spruce between 50 and 60 years old, clasping a stone

Repotting

Time. Repotting during training is best done in the early spring before the buds open. Sometimes it is attempted when the foliage is well matured; but if it is thus delayed, the new roots will not be formed within the year, and so failure results. Only the expert can repot at any other season than early spring.

Repotting should not be needed each year; once in two or three years is enough.

The soil should be porous loam and peat well mixed with sharp sand; various proportions may be tried and the results watched. Results are noticeable in the growth, luster, and size of the leaves, in the health of the roots, and in the condition of the soil—whether it remains porous and does not pack down hard. Such effects will indicate the right materials and the right proportions for the soil.

Method. The tree is pulled out of the container; the old soil is carefully taken off as far as one-fourth to one-third of the radius of the root ball The roots that were wound around the inside of the container are cut off first. Then all the roots are pruned: most of them not so far back as at the last pruning, but some of them farther back; this will keep the healthy roots within the dimensions of the container.

Mitsukoshi Exhibit. 1966 Several Yeddo spruce trees, 40 to 50 years old, growing as a miniature forest on stone slab

If the plants are to be grown in shallower containers, the lower roots should be cut off, and the upper and surface roots encouraged. Gradually the old tree can be grown in a very shallow container in a healthy condition.

The tree should be repotted in the container and new soil filled in. A stick may be used to poke the soil into contact with the roots. Water should be given just until it drops from the hole in the bottom. For illustrated details see chapter 2.

Clasping a Stone

Yeddo spruce is very easy to train in Ishitsuki style, or clasping-stone style, as mentioned before. To begin with, suitable stones should be obtained. Whenever the bonsai fancier is on a trip, well formed stones will attract his attention.

Time. The clasping operation should be done generally in the spring or autumn; but winter is not a bad season if it is not too severe.

Number of trees. After a stone is selected, one should consider how many trees may be suitably planted on it, and how many crevices it has that are favorable for the roots. One should imagine the development, in years to come, of a miniature landscape which he is creating.

Planting a miniature forest. Each tree should be put into the place chosen for it, and its roots directed downward in a crevice or spread on the face of the stone. The roots should then be plastered to the stone with tough peaty soil. Finally, moistened sphagnum is put on over the soil and held there with wire or string, to keep the soil from drying and to hasten and encourage the growth of roots.

Container. If one desires to place the stone in a container with soil, it is best to select a long-rooted tree and put the farther end of the roots in the soil of the container. If one prefers to place the tree-clasped stone in a shallow basin of water, he should use good enough soil on the stone in the beginning and spread the roots within the dimensions of the stone.

Shading. The trees must be grown in the shade of the marsh-reed screen for some time, until they recover from the shock of transplanting and become rooted on the stone in firm contact with the soil.

Training. In one or two years the trees will be very well rooted and become vigorous. Then the training may begin. Too early wiring would weaken the trees.

In starting the clasping-stone style, an important point to understand is that young trees grow far faster than older ones. One must therefore be careful not to over plant, lest the trees soon become too crowded and out of proportion to the stone on which they grow.

Miniature forest of Yeddo spruce; trunks and branches being trained with copper wire

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