Lance's JBP....

Heading home shortly, so I figured I would put up a photo and ask the Pine Pros to put on their teacher sweater and offer some tips. I acquired this tree from a friend whom is battling Parkinsons. Tough to say when the last time properly applied techniques were applied. The top is getting leggy as well as some areas mid-tree.

I wish Adair would have done an impromptu critique on MY tree...hehehehe....

I'll try to post quickly, but alas, I have to pick up my two year old after I leave work.
I hope he'll be the best "Bonsai" I create!!
He loves to help water, let's hope he feels the same way in ten years!!!

Pictures and beginner* questions on the way.......

* Been at it about 5 years, so I think I can call myself a beginner, finally!!

Looks nice and healthy. I think it would be easier for people if you took some larger pics, and from the proper angle (not looking down on the tree so much).

Chris

That's an older shot, before repot Chris. I just got home and I can shoot a couple more current ones in a bit.

If my son cooperates!!

Hey, gotta eat too....

Not asking for styling, per se. Everything is pretty set. Only concerns lie with what kind of top work I can do, seeing as it was repotted in April. I've got some new shots of the tree, (not that good)but my son has to go outside, so I shall return...

After an epic diaper change.....

Ok, so I'm going to add to my reputation of telling people what they NEED to hear, not what they WANT to hear:

Twin trunk. The two trunks should look like they're living in harmony, not like they're having a fist fight. You have one trunk that suddenly changes course and competes for the same air space as the other!

That's a major, major issue. It HAS to be resolved.

Both trunks are the same height since they're competing for the same apex air space. The ratio of heights between the two trunks should be either one is 1/3 the height of the other, or 2/3 the height of the other. Since the two trunks are close to the same size, it would be appropriate for the slimmer of the two to be 2/3 the height of the larger one.

Relative to the size if the trunks, the trees are too tall. Shortening both trees will do wonders for the composition.

Using your last picture as the base, the tree on the left need a trunk chop about half way up. Remove that entire section where it veers to the right. There's a mass of foliage there, I'm sure a new apex can be found in there for that tree.

Now chop the trunk on the right hand tree. There appears to be a straight section of trunk riding out of a clump of foliage. Using the door as a reference, at the same height as the middle of the top pane of glass in the door. Chopping it there would make it taller than the other tree, and the ratio would be about 2/3.

The tree appears healthy.

The smaller tree, the one on the left has a great first branch. In a perfect world, you want the lowest branch to be on the smaller tree. That position is ideal.

I think you can make a very pleasing twin trunk composition with this.

I hope your friend is as well as can be.

This is a pretty original piece of excellent potential to me.

Slight trunk adjustments, the heights, a little "off balancing" act, and this is going to be marvelous!

I don't know shit about pines, but I would do everything that SOB says to help you take that tree to your vision!

And your kid sounds like a riot!
How do you keep those trees, which are also Damn nice, so low?

Dog fence? Lol not for long!

Sorce

Update. Pruned top for too strong shoots.
Lower and/or weaker left to grow

Buds at pruned areas today.

Ok, so it looks like you cut off all of this year's growth? That is, the shoots you cut... I know you said you left the lower ones alone.

What you've done is a "fall decandling". Usually, this is done to attempt to force the tree to back bud. The usual time to decandle is early summer.

I see there are some small buds showing where you removed the main candle. That's the sign of a strong tree. Those buds will grow out next spring. If this tree had been decandled this past summer, those buds would have been induced to grow out over the summer. And rather than having the one strong candle (that you removed) you would have had two or more shorter candles with shorter needles now.

You live in New Hampshire? That's kind of cold for JBP. Be sure to provide winter protection.

This is a good time to wire and style. When the spring growth comes, it will put on growth which will help to set the branches.

Hey, Adair....

This is what the tree looked like when my friend could no longer care for it, late in 2013.
It was in pretty rough shape, he was asking for $350. He had it for a number of years and wintered it in a shed!!
2014 was spent regaining vigor, so no work was done. Repot in April 2015.
With the proximity to repot and my relative inexperience with the species, I left the tree to grow.
It responded with unexpected vigor, in hindsight I could have de-candeled in early summer and I don't imagine it would have noticed!!!

My main concern has always been the health and vigor of the tree, for the reason you mention, it's not a very good environment here.
But they do grow here...
Almost forgot.....

So when did you cut off the tips as shown in your post 11? And what did you remove, buds or shoots?

Early September, not long after the "bushy" shots.
I removed overgrown shoots from both trees. Pretty much the tops, exclusively.
I did this in lieu of needle plucking, to allow some light down into the interior.
Honestly, if the tree looks strong, I'll need those needles from last year....I plan on cutting back to those needles this summer!
Rather it doesn't get to leggy!!

Feel free to shred my plan, we can use it as a teaching moment...hehehehhehhhee

Good looking tree and you've done a great job getting it healthy...great old bark! If this were mine, I would look for a new planting angle where the trunks were slanted slightly in the same direction, then style so one trunk was taller then the other. By the way, my older larger JBP was ground grown somewhere in the southern Maine, so they absolutely can be grown in the great white north! Good luck with it.

The timing is just as important as technique. I've already written a ton on the matter, which you can research for here, but in this case, removing strong shoots in September just produced even more buds that will open next spring at already strong areas of your tree, so it can make the imbalance even greater.

Needle pulling in the fall (reducing each shoot to approximately the same number of needle pairs), along with bud selection (reducing areas with multiple buds down to a single bud or pair of evenly-sized buds), is the way to balance your tree.

Thanks, Brian. I looked at it as a 5 year plan until I applied properly timed techniques. I was unsure how the tree would responed due to it's relative health and my inexperience with conifers in general. Well, it got fat and happy quicker than I expected!! It's now become more like a 4 year plan. My intention is to chase everything back closer to the trunk. I plan to cut the tops back more this summer. From that point forward,(tree's vigor dependent) I believe I'll be able to begin applying properly timed techniques.
Thanks for the input!!

Thanks Dave!! Unless I get radical, the interplay between the trunks will stay this way. The original joining of these trees has fused at the base in such a manner that any alteration of their angles might nigh be impossible!! Once I get the needles to scale, sort out the somewhat overgrown apexes', and apply some wire throughout, I believe it will present a unique image. Hopefully refined as well!!

Thanks to all for your comments!!

The good thing here is, you're getting to see how the tree responds to your work. It's healthy, and over the winter I would needle pull and thin the tree out quite a bit, then wire it to spread out the shoot tips and give them each a spot in the sun. Next summer (late June), perform candle cutting.

Lance, it's not the angle at the bottom that's the problem, it's about half way up, where the thinner trunk turns in towards the other one's apex. If anything, it should be moving AWAY!

Like I said before, the secondary trunk should only be either one third or two thirds the height of the main tree. In this case, both trunks are close to being the same caliper. So, I think that the composition would harmonize if the secondary tree, the thinner of the two trunks, were 2/3 the height of the main tree.

If there were more of a difference between the sizes of the trunks, the secondary tree should be about 1/3 the height of the primary tree.

Now, these suggestions are application of "a rule of thumb". You don't HAVE to follow it, of course, but it is a "rule of thumb" because it works.

Here are two very similiar trees. One with a 2/3 and one with a 1/3 secondary trunk:





Sorry about the first one being sideways...

The secondary trunk on the first tree is fatter, relative to the main trunk, than the second example.