Budding on healthy Ponderosa seedlings

[casun]

I’ve had these two Ponderosa seedlings since August and they’ve really started to produce buds in the last six weeks. They’re approximately eight inches tall. One of them has seven or eight buds within the first two inches of trunk, which is exciting. Is this kind of dense, low budding normal for Ponderosa Pines?

 

[Potawatomi13]

If top of very young tree is removed would say most likely. Good possibility to develop multi trunk or clump.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

The ponderosa I have bud in a similar fashion.
But they only bud where the needles have been, not on the bare part of the seedling where the first few centimeters (or roughly an inch) of trunk are. It could be that you're dealing with seedling cuttings, which I found to work on ponderosa just like JBP and scots pine. It could very well be that the first inch of trunk is buried in the soil.
The tag indicates they're nursery saplings, or you put it there yourself of course.. I would dig around a little during the next repot to see what's going on inside the soil. Your tree might be taller than you think ;-)

 

[casun]

If top of very young tree is removed would say most likely. Good possibility to develop multi trunk or clump.

I’m not huge fan of multi-trunk or clump styles yet, but that could easily change in the 20-30 years it’s going to take to develop these.

 

[casun]

The ponderosa I have bud in a similar fashion.
But they only bud where the needles have been, not on the bare part of the seedling where the first few centimeters (or roughly an inch) of trunk are. It could be that you're dealing with seedling cuttings, which I found to work on ponderosa just like JBP and scots pine. It could very well be that the first inch of trunk is buried in the soil.
The tag indicates they're nursery saplings, or you put it there yourself of course.. I would dig around a little during the next repot to see what's going on inside the soil. Your tree might be taller than you think ;-)

They were purchased from a nursery so you’re probably right about them being cuttings, but they’re planted very shallow. The roots are just below the soil line. I’m excited to see how these grow over the next year or two (or thirty).