Chrisi, Frank Kroeker and I had a similar conversation, oh 7 or 8 or so years ago. Except, I wasn't thinking about Kifu or Chuhin trees, I was thinking Shohin. I had read all these good Japanese articles about raising shohin JBP in Colanders (and Sonare and Shimpaku). Frank is a talented tree grower, and he lived (at the time) in about the perfect place to grow tridents, JBP, Shimpaku, Tosho and Sonare- just south of Oklahoma City. 250-270 growing days a year, strong well, inline fertilization system, etc. I was going to blow his doors off growing pants in colanders in Fayetteville Arkansas, max push fertilizers and water. Well, Frank bought a few hundred colanders from me (from the 1200 or so I bought), put ultra fast draining soil, fertilized and watered the daylights out of them and treated his in ground trees as he normally would- fertilize periodically, water periodically and mulch. Needless to say the trees in the ground have been dug, potted and sold, the trees in the colanders, well, are still in the colanders.
Mine too. May be in a climate like Chicago with its long cold winters and cool springs and mixed summers Colanders can work better. But a talented grower willing to get on their knees and do the wiring and pruning, and who was willing to do the root work up front before the trees went in the ground- no comparison. Now if you just let your trees go, who knows.
So, grow your four cuttings in colanders, I hope you get the tremendous growth and development that you are looking for. If you want some trees we have 800 plus in the ground waiting to be dug, some of them will have bases bigger than colanders after 8 years (and to be completely honest, many won't) and I didn't water or fertilize in the ground the past 6 years.
T-Town Bonsai, you have anything to add to the conversation?
