Scots pine raw nursery stock

[Soldano666]

I aquired this tree a couple of months ago. My plan is making a tall informal upright. But before I consider any styling options. I need to reduce the height and get some light into the inner branches which I have a bunch of seen in pic two. The terminal shoots seem healthy as f, and have numerous buds everywhere. How far back should/can I cut to? The majority of all the inner branching is healthy with many buds too. should I be focused on reducing branches at whorls? Or both whorls and reducing terminal shoots? but balanced so I don't remove too much? Im still learning pines so anyone please chime in and help with some directions or opinions. Lets put it this way What would you do to get the ball rolling with this material. Think tall elegant informal upright with lots of inner buds to grow out as new branches so branch selection is of less importance than reducing whorls, and getting the inner parts stronger she's a lil frozen at the moment but it has some flair under the surface but i haven't found the nebari yet. It Is not root bound, so I think I can wait another season for a repot and focus on reducing .

 

[Adair M]

Well...

Finding the nebari is important, because that's a big factor in determining the front. And, then you start figuring out what to keep and what to cut.

Yes, you will want to reduce the whorles.

But, this looks like decent material, but young. So here is something to think about:

You want thicker branches at the bottom, and thinner branches up top. So, when choosing branches, you might want to look up top first, and see if there are any heavy branches that need to go.

You still have a relatively thin trunk. Heavy branches like the ones in the last photo are heavy in relation to the size of the trunk. It's like they're almost half as big as the trunk? So, what happens is heavy branches make the trunk look thin. So, something to think about when selecting branches is to try to find smaller branches to work with and remove the larger ones. You can Jin the larger ones, and carve them down so. the snags look smaller. If you think you might want to go this route, you might not want to remove them right away. But wire them down, even use guy wire so they appear to be growing out, not up. Then Jin them in a couple years. Meanwhile they'll help thicken the trunk.

Never remove more than about 25% of the foliage of a pine at a time.

Good luck! Take your time.

 

[Soldano666]

Thank you Adair. I plan to use this tree as a stepping stone.... That way I'll have a better idea on what to do with collected material once it's recovered, and what to do to start prepping material for future collection.

 

[Wilson]

Good little find man, it will be fun to practice on. As was said above, wait to get a look at the nebari. You can trim and shorten branches without having to remove the whole thing, this can at least help for when spring comes. These scots can grow real vigorous, so trimming those chicken foot branches, and downward growing shoots is a good start. I look forward to seeing it thawed out!

 

[Adair M]

And when you do select branches, you want them to shaped somewhat like this:



This is a deciduous branch, obviously, but look at the structure. Each fork only has two legs. The angles are acute, not wide. There is a central branch, then secondaries, then tertiaries. None go back toward the trunk.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I would do nothing, repot in spring, even though it is not root bound. Move it to a wide shallow tray or home built box with at least part of the bottom mesh. It should hold more media than the current pot. It should be less than 5 inches deep, or media should be about 4 inches deep. This will allow you to find the nebari, identifying what styles are possible with this tree. And it will get the roots on the path toward a future bonsai pot. You have 5 or more years ahead training branches, may as well get a leg up and start on the roots. You can prune some, but follow @Adair M advice, no more than 20% at a time.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

When you repot, after taking a good look at the nebari, removing crossing roots and correcting other problems, make sure you bury the nebari at least a half inch. If you expose the nebari, you risk surface roots drying out and dying off. Only expose nebari when you move it to a bonsai pot, some 5 or more years from now.

 

[Soldano666]

Thanks for your help leo

 

[discusmike]

Hopefully you don't find a graft down there when the time comes to work on the root ball

 

[Soldano666]

Hopefully you don't find a graft down there when the time comes to work on the root ball

There is Mike however it's just a slight color diffrence in the bark. No bulge yet. By the time that happens I hopefully will have e worked out the kinks and be working on some collected material. This is my learner burner

 

[discusmike]

Good luck, and most of all enjoy!

 

[MichaelS]

Are the winter buds really that red??

 

[Soldano666]

Are the winter buds really that red??

Yes, it's some sort of cultivar I have a dwarf "Jeremy" with the same red buds. Not sure what this one is tho, It's grafted but does not specify on the tag

 

[Paulpash]

My 2 pence is that the skill to getting a tree out of this is having enough material left after you have removed the multiple forked branches to effectively style (eg. you've got a classic "trident" branch problem to figure out in your last pic where it forms a bar branch). You probably won't be able to eliminate all these bar / trident branches in one go all over as it'd shock the tree - do it over 2 seasons if possible. While you're pruning leave the roots alone - they'll need to be left undisturbed so they can power recovery and budding once you open the tree up and allow sun / air inside. This should hopefully get much more budding going to continue the branch building process.

Keep the branches that have green closest to the trunk, especially on the thicker branches that are barking up - the likelihood of backbudding on these is much lower than the smaller 1-3 yr shoots. Good luck with the pruning.

 

[0soyoung]

Yes, it's some sort of cultivar I have a dwarf "Jeremy" with the same red buds. Not sure what this one is tho, It's grafted but does not specify on the tag

There is a good chance it is grafted on regular ole p. sylvestris. Sylvestris roots are getting to be quite common on all sorts of pines grown out here (in the 'Pacific Northwest').

 

[Vance Wood]

There is a good chance it is grafted on regular ole p. sylvestris. Sylvestris roots are getting to be quite common on all sorts of pines grown out here (in the 'Pacific Northwest').

I agree. There are a lot of ornamental Scotts Pine cultivars that obviously cannot be grown from seed, they must be grafted. Some of those grafts are better than others.

 

[MichaelS]

Yes, it's some sort of cultivar I have a dwarf "Jeremy" with the same red buds. Not sure what this one is tho, It's grafted but does not specify on the tag

It looks like it might be ''argentea'' or something like that. Whatever it is, those red buds will be a feature worth having!

 

[Vance Wood]

Here is a potted liner Scots Pine French Blue that I decided to do something with earlier this year in a moment of boredom. I started initial styling. Some will immediately see where it might be going others will say it is a waste of time. In two years we will know. This one falls into the category of raw material that you cut down and grow back from scratch. I call this my Avalanch Scots, because it can only be justified through imagining an avalanche.

 

[Soldano666]

This one falls into the category of raw material that you cut down and grow back from scratch.

View attachment 130345

That's what I'm thinking Vance. I have many interior buds all over the trunk and at the crotches of all the first whorls and branches.. I'll try to get some light in there to strengthen them this season.

 

[Vance Wood]

That's what I'm thinking Vance. I have many interior buds all over the trunk and at the crotches of all the first whorls and branches.. I'll try to get some light in there to strengthen them this season.

Imagine where the branches are now and in the spring I am expecting an abundance of new growth at the ends. Do you start to see the the increased ramification and the beginnings of fuller pads around the twisted and torn trunk. I think the tree will be interesting in a year or two.