Baby JBP with whorls

kale

Shohin
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These are my two jbp saplings from @cmeg1 almost 2 years old. Im growing them out obviously but wondering if I should remove all these branches except 1 on these whorls this early on? Im happy theyre very vigorous with lots of branches to choose from but I think I’m at a point where I need to start setting some structure. Any advice would be much appreciated!512D73F4-BA0D-4A98-8616-CD3629D0463D.jpeg64A626B7-5C17-48A6-B418-CFBE48766F26.jpeg
 

Thomas J.

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You'll probably want to determine now whether or not you want to leave them straight up or with some shape while you still have a chance to do some bending without much force on the trunk. I did mine at 1 year old. In the same sense you also want to shoot for a thicker trunk and to do that you just need to sit back and let them grow up and out looking at times what the possibilities will be down the road. Here's mine at doing just that at about 4-5 years of age. Also notice the thickness of the trunk at the soil at that age.
jbp51.jpg
IMG_0926.JPG
 

cmeg1

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This is a good article
 

kale

Shohin
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This is a good article
Thanks! Looks like I missed that first season of removing buds(future branches) from the main whorl at the top of the tree at the end of the first season. I think I’ll choose one branch to keep from that whorl and hope for the best.
 

Shibui

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Whether to remove branches or not depends on what parts of the tree you intend to use in the final bonsai. many beginners (mistakenly) think they will use the whole trunk of a seedling. More experienced pine growers realize that much of the trunk will be used as sacrifice to thicken the lower trunk and cut off eventually. A great many bonsai pines were developed using the lowest part of the trunk and the lowest branch to grow a new leader.
Some good pines can be developed by bending the lower trunk as @Thomas J. has shown above but you will usually sacrifice the main trunk and use one of the second whorl of branches for a new leader.
I usually look at the distance between first and second branches to decide whether to chop longer or shorter. If the internode between the 2 is long (relative to the estimated final bonsai height) I'll usually use on of the lower branches as new trunk. Obviously reverse taper in the trunk above that level will not be a problem as it will all be chopped off.

I do not mean to chop now. Chop the sacrifice trunk when the lower trunk has achieved most of the planned thickness which may be 3-8 years. In the meantime manage lowest branches to retain short internodes and good bends that will make a good bonsai after the reduction.

There is a lot of learning and relearning for new pine growers as pines do not behave as many species we are used to.
Good luck with developing this one.
 

kale

Shohin
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Whether to remove branches or not depends on what parts of the tree you intend to use in the final bonsai. many beginners (mistakenly) think they will use the whole trunk of a seedling. More experienced pine growers realize that much of the trunk will be used as sacrifice to thicken the lower trunk and cut off eventually. A great many bonsai pines were developed using the lowest part of the trunk and the lowest branch to grow a new leader.
Some good pines can be developed by bending the lower trunk as @Thomas J. has shown above but you will usually sacrifice the main trunk and use one of the second whorl of branches for a new leader.
I usually look at the distance between first and second branches to decide whether to chop longer or shorter. If the internode between the 2 is long (relative to the estimated final bonsai height) I'll usually use on of the lower branches as new trunk. Obviously reverse taper in the trunk above that level will not be a problem as it will all be chopped off.

I do not mean to chop now. Chop the sacrifice trunk when the lower trunk has achieved most of the planned thickness which may be 3-8 years. In the meantime manage lowest branches to retain short internodes and good bends that will make a good bonsai after the reduction.

There is a lot of learning and relearning for new pine growers as pines do not behave as many species we are used to.
Good luck with developing this one.
Thanks for the insights! You are correct, the big whorl is the 2nd internode so may help leaving all the branches for thickening the base and the lowest branches are pretty healthy so far.
 
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