Growing Japanese Cork Bark Black Pine from Seeds

[CorkBarkPine]

I got a Fuji, a Tsukasa and a Kasuga cork bark pine from Steve Pilacik in 2005. They were grafted on Japanese black pines. They were 5 years old at the time. I just grow them to enjoy their barks. In early 2020, I started growing the pines from seeds collected from Fuji and Tsukasa trees. I was able to get over 50 pine trees from seeds. After 3 years, most of them still look like regular black pine trees except one. I hope it will turn out a cork bark tree.

 

[CorkBarkPine]

After the seedlings were about two months old, I was also experimenting with cutting. I cut the roots and left about 1 inch trunk. I dipped it in root hormone. I tried on 7 seedlings. They all survived. However, 3 of the trees died last year due to heat and not enough watering when I was on vacation. The remaining 4 are all growing healthy but at different rate.
Daryl

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Great experiment! I look forward to the results. My experience with cork bark JBP cultivars has been that they are much weaker than standard JBP. I hope you can grow one from seed that has similar characteristics - but perhaps is a little stronger!

 

[n8]

Really cool experiment.

 

[Ming dynasty]

After the seedlings were about two months old, I was also experimenting with cutting. I cut the roots and left about 1 inch trunk. I dipped it in root hormone. I tried on 7 seedlings. They all survived. However, 3 of the trees died last year due to heat and not enough watering when I was on vacation. The remaining 4 are all growing healthy but at different rate.
Daryl

Awesome work! I was thinking about doing the root cutting method as well. Which rooting hormones did you used? I’ve had success with clonex.

 

[CorkBarkPine]

Fuji cork bark pine, parent tree.

 

[CorkBarkPine]

Tsukasa cork bark parent tree.

 

[CorkBarkPine]

Katsuga cork bark parent tree.

Awesome work! I was thinking about doing the root cutting method as well. Which rooting hormones did you used? I’ve had success with clonex.

I used TakeRoot from GardenSafe. It appeared to work well.

 

[CorkBarkPine]

Katsuga cork bark parent tree.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Cool! Do you know what the father plant was? Because if the trait is recessive, and the father plant is a regular JBP, it might take you another few generations to find a phenotype with corking bark.
For the people not familiar with Mendelian genetics; we usually write down a recessive trait as a small letter, and a dominant trait as a capitalized letter. Mendel was one of the first to make breeding squares to predict the outcome of plant hybridization in - if memory serves me right - pea plant flower colors.

c = cork bark, written down as recessive. R = Regular bark, written down as dominant. I expect these two to be the case.
cR x RR -> hybridized makes -> Rc (trait present but not expressed), cR (trait present but not expressed), RR (trait not present) and RR (trait not present).
The first generation will tell us if the trait is dominant or recessive either way, which is awesome to know because it would essentially lay the foundation for producing more corkbark cultivars.
We would just need more people to take the time to go onto the next generation: Two recessives combined make a whole new balance!
cR x Rc -> cc, cR, Rc, and RR. That means 1/4 will be true cork bark. If there are pollen producing males in that batch, you'll be able to breed those with the already owned female cork bark pines to get 100% cork bark offspring. Because you can select for the cork (cc) and cross those with plants you already know to have cork (cc) and this makes cc x cc -> cc, cc, cc and cc. A 100% corking offspring.

If cork bark is a dominant trait, you would see it in the first generation, but maybe less expressed: two competing dominant traits might inhibit each other. Which is also a cool finding!

In a couple years I plan on diving into the explorative genetics of cork bark with my own money or maybe with a grant from some kind of bonsai society or the Japanese government - my guess is that it'll take about 4000 dollars, donations are welcome. So I'm watching this with great interest! If you have solid - and I mean, absolutely 1000% sure - documentation on which seedling comes from which parent, please send me a PM @CorkBarkPine because I want to exchange some mail with you.

 

[CorkBarkPine]

Cool! Do you know what the father plant was? Because if the trait is recessive, and the father plant is a regular JBP, it might take you another few generations to find a phenotype with corking bark.
For the people not familiar with Mendelian genetics; we usually write down a recessive trait as a small letter, and a dominant trait as a capitalized letter. Mendel was one of the first to make breeding squares to predict the outcome of plant hybridization in - if memory serves me right - pea plant flower colors.

c = cork bark, written down as recessive. R = Regular bark, written down as dominant. I expect these two to be the case.
cR x RR -> hybridized makes -> Rc (trait present but not expressed), cR (trait present but not expressed), RR (trait not present) and RR (trait not present).
The first generation will tell us if the trait is dominant or recessive either way, which is awesome to know because it would essentially lay the foundation for producing more corkbark cultivars.
We would just need more people to take the time to go onto the next generation: Two recessives combined make a whole new balance!
cR x Rc -> cc, cR, Rc, and RR. That means 1/4 will be true cork bark. If there are pollen producing males in that batch, you'll be able to breed those with the already owned female cork bark pines to get 100% cork bark offspring. Because you can select for the cork (cc) and cross those with plants you already know to have cork (cc) and this makes cc x cc -> cc, cc, cc and cc. A 100% corking offspring.

If cork bark is a dominant trait, you would see it in the first generation, but maybe less expressed: two competing dominant traits might inhibit each other. Which is also a cool finding!

In a couple years I plan on diving into the explorative genetics of cork bark with my own money or maybe with a grant from some kind of bonsai society or the Japanese government - my guess is that it'll take about 4000 dollars, donations are welcome. So I'm watching this with great interest! If you have solid - and I mean, absolutely 1000% sure - documentation on which seedling comes from which parent, please send me a PM @CorkBarkPine because I want to exchange some mail with you.

I started experimenting to grow pine trees from the seeds in 2020.
I was able to grow over 50 seedlings from several cones collected from the Fuji cork bark parent tree.
However, I was able to grow only 3 seedlings from only 1 cone collected from the Tsukasa cork bark parent tree.

The parent trees are grafted on Japanese black pines and are about 18 years old.
The seedlings are now three years old.

The tree in the pictures below is coming from the Fuji parent.
This is the only tree that appears developing some corks. I am hoping that is the case.

 

[jszg]

The cork-barks had to come from *somewhere*: that you have a bunch of corkers should increase the odds of getting the cork-causing genes stacked up. In general, I think that growing the seeds of unusual pine sports could be worthwhile. If I remember correctly, 'Zuisho' was found as a seedling of 'Nasu', which is a semi-yatsubusa variety. http://www.stanleyandsons.com/product/pin-3490/pinus-parviflora-zuisho.html The late Dewire also found a few interesting varieties in batches of seed, in particular the interesting cork-bark 'Wabi Sabi San' https://web.archive.org/web/20191217055952/https://www.wabisabibonsai.com/conifers

 

[CorkBarkPine]

Root Cutting Experiment:
The pictures below show the remaining of the 4 surviving root cutting seedlings (of out 7). The other three seedlings died during the hot summer last year. These seedlings are three years old from the Fuji cork bark parent.

 

[Ming dynasty]

Root Cutting Experiment:
The pictures below show the remaining of the 4 surviving root cutting seedlings (of out 7). The other three seedlings died during the hot summer last year. These seedlings are three years old from the Fuji cork bark parent.

This is dumb question, but have to ask. Do you continue to grow the half with roots or the top half with needles.

 

[bdmatt]

This is dumb question, but have to ask. Do you continue to grow the half with roots or the top half with needles.

You continue to grow the top half with needles. The half with roots don't have buds or anything to shoot new needles from, so they'll die. Heres a really good video on seedling cutting if you need it:

 

[Ming dynasty]

You continue to grow the top half with needles. The half with roots don't have buds or anything to shoot new needles from, so they'll die. Heres a really good video on seedling cutting if you need it:

Thank you, can definitely use it

 

[rollwithak]

Any cool updates?

 

[Orion_metalhead]

I was told cork bark black pines are caused by a virus. I dont think the trait passes down in seed.

 

[Srt8madness]

I was told cork bark black pines are caused by a virus. I dont think the trait passes down in seed.

That sounds urban legendy, like the idea variegated plants are due to a virus

 

[Orion_metalhead]

Well, I was told it by a master who studied in japan and has imported cork bark jbp so... take it for what it is.