2 YO Seedling gift - Mikawa JBP

accemn

Seedling
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Hello Everyone,

I was gifted this 2 year old seedling for Christmas. With this being my first pine at this age I am kind of trying to find some direction. Ultimately I want to induce back budding and get some branching down low. It is about 20" tall and has 1 little branch at the bottom. I would like to wire to get some movement and ultimately end up with a 15-20" tree. Can you kind people offer me some direction. I understand it is a long ways away but I am sure there are things that must be done while at this age. Sorry for asking a lame question and I am prepared for UTFSE's

mikawa 2yo seedling.jpg
 

Brian Van Fleet

Pretty Fly for a Bonsai Guy
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See the side shoot sticking out over the right corner of the pot in that image? That's your tree. The rest is sacrifice for now, similar to the image here, which is a JBP with a few years head start on yours...with the sacrifice branch extending another 4' above the photo.

Here is a little reading material...
http://nebaribonsai.wordpress.com/2013/03/02/sacrifice-branches-black-pine/
http://nebaribonsai.wordpress.com/2013/07/13/sacrifice-branches-black-pine-part-2/
 

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pwk5017

Shohin
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Ok first off, recognize that this is atleast 6 years away from being anything recognizable to a bonsai/pre-bonsai. I have maybe 25-30 pines that look like your's and another 50ish that are 1-4 years older than your's. First course of action is to repot your seedling into a colander, pond basket, vance wood redwood container, anything that gets a ton of air into the root system and drains well. Personally, I like pond baskets cause they are cheap and readily available to me. For this size plant, I would look to get a container in the 10" range. Ok, next use your typical free draining bonsai soil. I personally favor mostly pumice these days. Go through your typical repotting steps to get this tree into the container. I didnt mention it before, but do this in the late winter/spring when you typically repot your other trees! Next, what I typically do at the two year mark, is wire my initial trunk line when I repot. I find it easier to wire the seedlings when they are out of their container. Also, if you leave a tag end of the wire into the soil, it can function as an anchor. For the rest of the year, fertilize the crap out of this seedling--I favor a lesco commercial slow release granule that is 14-14-14 along with a regimen of miracle grow. Water it like the rest of your plants. Without chopping anything, needle plucking, decandling, etc. you should see some nice backbudding along the lower trunk where I have it circled in purple. Red is a long neck where no buds exist, but needle buds exist in the purple zone. Vigorous growth should give you some buds along the trunk in that area. On to crude diagram #2. The brown section is your first trunk line. this is what you are wiring into place when you repot. In my diagram, your first trunk length will be about 6-8" off the soil. The green sections are sacrifice leaders. You should grow out those really low buds to increase the trunk girth at the nebari and promote increased taper. You will also use one to build your first trunk section. Once your trunk reaches its desired thickness, chop at the red line with a #1 next to it. Now, you should be chopping the sacrifice leader back to where you have two buds/branches. these will become trunk section #2(in orange) and branch #1(also in orange). Wire both to put some movement into them, and get them where you want them. Then, repeat the trunk building step using another sacrifice leader. Chop again at red line #2, and continue the process of selecting a new trunk leader, and wiring a branch into place. Now, this is a silly diagram of what some would consider a "cookie cutter" (what a BS term) informal upright pine, but the principles are applied for growing stock of mostly any species, and any style. Its all about movement, taper, and branch placement.

Also, check out Eric's thread on this forum for growing pines from seed. Bonsai Tonight is an excellent resource.
 

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pwk5017

Shohin
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Damn, all my pine photos are on my other computer, so I cannot show examples of sacrifice leaders etc. Owell, these photos show the budding you should experience from healthy trees. I also diagrammed on the one tree a bit to show you how I plan on cutting 97% of the tree off. This little pine is intended to be about 8-10" high when finished. It has a lot of movement down low(that I induced via wiring when young) and I plan on continuing that movement in the next trunk line. You can see how I have a bunch of buds down low on the tree.
 

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accemn

Seedling
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Thanks for the responses guys. I understand it is a long time away from even resembling a bonsai.

Most of the seedling pictures I have seen are about 1/2 the height of mine and had a bunch of branches coming out the base so I was curious if there was something they were doing. I plan to get it into a pond basket, wiring some movement and letting it grow.
 

pwk5017

Shohin
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The difference between the seedlings you saw, and what you have are age and health. First, I might guess that your seedling is 3 years old and not 2. Next, its not particularly healthy. If you compare the needle color of your's to mine, you will see that mine are a rich dark green, and your's are yellowy. Your seedling is a little leggy, and needs a serious boost to its health. You should see that immediately after a year in a pond basket, inorganic soil, and heavy feeding.

Dont get discouraged about its age though, I love growing JBP from seed. They are fast growers and the process is very rewarding. I would encourage you to get an idea of what style you want to pursue, and how large of a finished tree you would like. Its never too early to have an answer for both of those questions.
 

accemn

Seedling
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I am an avid gardener and have grown many tree's from seed however I just recently got into the Bonsai hobby. I have a large number of seeds currently germinating and am looking forward to what they will become someday. A large number of these seeds will end up miwaki landscape plants at my wife's family's property.
 
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