2020 Christmas wannabe, under construction

Forsoothe!

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It remains to be seen whether or not this is meandering towards a Christmas tree or death, but all the tips grew, UP, and so I had to remove 90% of the foliage that wasn't going to be useful to a design. There was a lot of growth on the upper branches and I removed 95% of that to keep the top skinny and maintain taper, or so the theory goes. I will be using guy wires to bring down the branches and continuing with clip & grow from here on out because I had wire marks and spring-back, the best of both worlds. There are some buds on the interior, but I don't know enough about Pines to guess if this is going to suc-ceed or just suck.20200702_134324.jpg
 

Pitoon

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It's been six months and it's still alive, so that's good. I bought 3 couple years ago to plant on a slab..... still have not gotten to it.
 

Forsoothe!

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Here we are at day 235 rewired & ready for 10 lbs of tinsel to cover the wire because this just might turn into a bonsai tree, -plenty of back-budding that made it harder to wire, but a good candidate to shorten the branches next spring. That means decorating and photographing outside. Fortunately, my bonsai benches are right outside one great-room window and close enough to an electrical receptacle to light it up!
Pa X 2020_0823 rewired posted.JPG
 

Forsoothe!

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What? You saw me hit Enter?
 

Forsoothe!

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Here we are at day 485 and still on target for the next time Christmas 2020 comes around! Took the wire off the top few branches and spruung, they went right back to where they were, so re-wired and I'll let it all stay another year. It has all the growth I wanted and more, so I'm happy with that. Not so sour grapes, but not a fine wine yet either...
Pa X 2021_0427 check & re-wire.JPG
The wiring job is so pretty I feel I must once again point out that when I put wire on something that will remain on for more than the normal cycle of one growth period, I make loops that resemble wire springs which are effectively tunnels that guide the branches rather than the conventional tight-to-the-wood wiring. I have ruined all the trees that I'm going to ruin with wire marks, and this system works for most trees.
 

Forsoothe!

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OK, day # 641 and it was a good growing season! Some re-wiring the top several layers, some wire cutting in here and there, some heavy pruning to overcome apical dominance. Gonna be a contender one day...
Pa X 2021_1003 re-wire.jpg
 
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