Gary,

First of all, you should determine if the yellowing you see isn't just
normal needle shedding. Your black pines will shed their three year old
needles each year. However, if all the needles on the tree are yellowing
you have a problem.

It does sound like you are keeping the trees too wet, and it may not be a
bad idea to repot them now into a fast draining mix. Japanese Black pines
do like a lot of water, but they must also have free draining soil -- they
don't like to stay wet.

If you repot now I would try to remove the poor soil as much as possible,
but I wouldn't do any trimming on the roots unless you detect rotted roots,
then you should trim back the rotten sections until you see white cores.

You should probably give these trees some extra protection this winter.

Regards,
Roger Snipes
Spokane, WA. Zone 5-ish


----- Original Message -----
From: "Gary Huff"
To:
Sent: Saturday, October 22, 2005 6:48 AM
Subject: [IBC] Black Pine & Soil


About a month ago I received three 6-8 year old Japanese Black Pines, and
at the time I didn't have
my regular Ed & Randall's Premium fast draining soil so I had to put them
in regular bonsai soil. It
seems this regular soil stays wet for days and one of my trees is turning
yellow. I'm trying to keep
them a little on the dry side. My question is should I, this late in the
season, get them out of the
regular bonsai soil and put them in fast draining soil or should I keep
them in the regular soil and try
to keep them as best as I can and hope they make it until spring? Thanks
for any and all help. I've
also read in some places that Black Pines like it a little on the wet side
and I've read they like it a little
on the dry side. Any insight in that too would be appreciated.

Gary R. Huff
bonsai student since 2004
Virginia/Zone 7a

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+++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++