Austrian Black Pine ideas

[A. Gorilla]

I gave this one to a friend's kid to be a foster mom for as long as she wants. It was re-potted this year, but I'm spinning my wheels a little bit on this one. There's that section of the trunk which annoyingly straight. I don't have much of a vision for the branches.

Any bright ideas would be appreciated.

Let's call this "front"

Back:

Front nebari

Back nebari

Front with numbered branches for the sake of discussion:

 

[A. Gorilla]

One thought is getting rid of branches 4 and 5. Putting a bend in the trunk to the right (and forward), and therefore bringing 7 down to be grown out more. 6, 8 and 9 would contribute to the crown. But I don't know. I have a hard time picturing it completed.

 

[Waltron]

lot of options there, that is a sweet tree. I was thinking maybe get rid of 2 and 5, or 4 and 2, or maybe 2 3 and 5..

id buy it off ya if you dont want it hah.

 

[A. Gorilla]

There's more where that came from. I bought it from someone last year who seems to have a real affinity for dealing with these these pines. Whether or not I do, that remains to be seen.

 

[Waltron]

maybe jin # 1 nix 4 and 8?

how much was it if you mind me asking?

 

[petegreg]

The back is a nice front. The trunk of that size could be still bendable, I guess.

 

[Paradox]

I would get rid of 2 and 5 because of the ladder effect they make.

Wire 1, 4 and 7 down a bit

3 looks like a back branch? I'd wire that back and down a bit as well.

 

[A. Gorilla]

I did a quick virtual with nixing 2 and 5. That's looking good. Cleaner. 3 is a back branch, yes.

 

[A. Gorilla]

The back is a nice front. The trunk of that size could be still bendable, I guess.

#1. I do like the nebari a lot better on that side. #2. if I put a minor bend in the trunk to make lean toward that new choice of front, it would greatly reduce the appearance of being so rigidly straight.

Kinda nice, Slovak.

Regards,

Bohemian.

 

[petegreg]

#1. I do like the nebari a lot better on that side. #2. if I put a minor bend in the trunk to make lean toward that new choice of front, it would greatly reduce the appearance of being so rigidly straight.

Kinda nice, Slovak.

Regards,

Bohemian.

Indeed, nebari is better on #1. The tree is young and all depends on how tall you want it.
Bohemian from Illinois? Small world.

 

[Rusty Davis]

I'm still fighting to do pines but I'll get it figured out. I like yours gives me hope!

 

[Adair M]

The back nebari is much better than the front nebari, but the front is ok. The trunk is bendable with heavy wire. You want to pick a front so that the apex "leans" towards the front. I can't tell how it is with those pictures. You can change the planting angle to help with that if necessary.

 

[GGB]

I agree you can wire the trunk at this stage in the game. I personally wouldn't give up on that tree but I would add another 5 inches of hight/ apex to it. The new leader being a sacrifice branch and any unwanted branches grown out for heft. That's just me, I do like it but I think if you add a couple inches to this tree you'll have an easier time with the scale come ramification time

 

[A. Gorilla]

Interesting. Which number branch would you want the height to come from?

 

[GGB]

either 8 or 9. If you let 8 grow like crazy and continue dwarfing and bud selection on 9 you could keep the tree growing as is. Then when you're all ready to chop sacrifice 8 you already have you new apex all grown, wire and designed as you like. Again, just my two cents, but P. nigra has "coarse growth" if I can regurgitate that one more time. It just means the bigger the bonsai the easier it'll be to make it convincing. Austrians do back bud very readily, in my experience, but whomever sold this to you has done a good job keep it delicate looking, I suppose the trade off is a thinner trunk

 

[GGB]

A seperate / second thought. You can see just by looking at the candles coming in the new branches will be thick and vigorous, and it's already in a bonsai pot. Not sure how easy that train is to stop, at this stage in the game (well at least if you went my route) that's a good thing but eventually it'll be your enemy

 

[Paradox]

Adair is correct, your nebari are much more interesting on the other side.
I could not see that earlier on the small screen on my phone

 

[MichaelS]

The branches are already getting too long for the trunk thickness so the most important thing now is to break off the candles leaving only a few needles. I would also remove branches 1, 4 and possibly 9 as well.

 

[A. Gorilla]

well, cgb, that is a very progressive train of thought indeed. Im glad I asked. Let 8 go nuts, and keep ramifying the rest. That both buys me time to think about how to use the side with better nebari while improving everything as is.

 

[A. Gorilla]

The branches are already getting too long for the trunk thickness so the most important thing now is to break off the candles leaving only a few needles. I would also remove branches 1, 4 and possibly 9 as well.

Right. This year is when I opened up the interior to the light. It was on the bushy side upon purchasing it.