Damping off?

[Wulfskaar]

Got a small 2nd flush going on right now.

 

[Wulfskaar]

Some of my 2 year old JBP are growing new buds/candles. They are still very young and I obviously want to let them grow to increase trunk size, while not invoking reverse taper.

I'm wondering... do I remove all but 2 of them now, or do I wait until spring?

Also, is it better to select the larger ones for keeping?

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[Shibui]

Your pines are only 2 years old. Only need to thin out buds at sites you will keep in the final bonsai. most bonsai are developed with grow and chop so most of what you see initially is NOT bonsai as it will be chopped off at some stage.
If you are intending to retain the sites shown I would let all those buds open and grow through next summer. That will add thickening to the trunks. The very strong centre shoot will also suppress the other side shoots meaning they will be shorter and have shorter bare neck. After summer remove the strong centre shoot leaving more compact growth to make your trunk and branch.
If growing through summer produces reverse taper just chop below and new shoots will grow from the needles.
The only time I would prune trees this young is where I want shohin sized pines and really need to control growth and taper.

 

[Wulfskaar]

Your pines are only 2 years old. Only need to thin out buds at sites you will keep in the final bonsai. most bonsai are developed with grow and chop so most of what you see initially is NOT bonsai as it will be chopped off at some stage.
If you are intending to retain the sites shown I would let all those buds open and grow through next summer. That will add thickening to the trunks. The very strong centre shoot will also suppress the other side shoots meaning they will be shorter and have shorter bare neck. After summer remove the strong centre shoot leaving more compact growth to make your trunk and branch.
If growing through summer produces reverse taper just chop below and new shoots will grow from the needles.
The only time I would prune trees this young is where I want shohin sized pines and really need to control growth and taper.

Thank you Shibui! That perfectly answers my question! I will let them grow.

 

[Wulfskaar]

I potted a couple of these into 1 gallon pots to let them grow a bit more. They've come a long way since being those weak little seedlings!

Here is one of them.

 

[Wulfskaar]

I have a new issue popping up now with some these JBP's.

There are webs on the needles that seems to be tying the needles together at the tips. There are several like that. I found a spider at the tips of 2 needles and I'm wondering if it's a pest I should worry about and kill.

 

[Shibui]

The spider is not a pest. In actual fact it is a friend who is probably eating some of the pests that do come along.
I don't know any pest that binds needles in web so guess it is that spider or similar therefore not a problem.
If there is a pest in your area that produces webs I hope someone will chime in.

 

[MaciekA]

Wire your trunk ASAP. This will become much harder very soon.

 

[Gabler]

Wire your trunk ASAP. This will become much harder very soon.

How do you know that OP wants more trunk movement? There’s nothing wrong with formal upright trees.

 

[Wulfskaar]

Wire your trunk ASAP. This will become much harder very soon.

How do you know that OP wants more trunk movement? There’s nothing wrong with formal upright trees.

I have several young ones at different stages and I plan to do a few different styles. I will be wiring some and not others.

I appreciate the tip though.

 

[Wulfskaar]

Lots of grow and all of these. This one has the biggest whorl of them all.

 

[Wulfskaar]

@Shibui
I'm wondering if it's too late to do a drastic wiring of the trunk of one of my young JBP's... the needles are starting to push out of the candles at this time, maybe 1/8 of an inch long. It's still thin and bendy enough to wire without snapping, but I don't want to hurt it.

 

[Shibui]

I have not had issues with bending pines in spring that seem to occur with junipers. Maybe I just haven't done enough to turn up problems.
FWIW I just wire right over needles on real young pines like that one. Those needles will drop off in a couple of years anyway so a little damage now is not long term problem.
Pines are very flexible for quite a few years so if you are concerned, defer bending until later in the year.

 

[Wulfskaar]

I have not had issues with bending pines in spring that seem to occur with junipers. Maybe I just haven't done enough to turn up problems.
FWIW I just wire right over needles on real young pines like that one. Those needles will drop off in a couple of years anyway so a little damage now is not long term problem.
Pines are very flexible for quite a few years so if you are concerned, defer bending until later in the year.

Thank you!

 

[Wulfskaar]

Here is one of my bristlecone pines from this same batch of seeds in 2020. It's got some nice branching going on and could be a bonsai one day!


Here is another one that has been growing in a very strange way. Maybe it wants to be a windswept or cascade design?

 

[Wulfskaar]

Cut the candles off a couple JBP and wired according to this video:

On these, I plan to keep them relatively small as stated in the video. I have several others that I will let grow a lot more.

The first one I didn't cut below the ring of buds, hoping to get branching there, although I'm already second-guessing that decision.


On this one, I cut below the ring of buds, hoping to get more back-budding further down.

 

[Wulfskaar]

Cut the candles off a couple JBP and wired according to this video:

On these, I plan to keep them relatively small as stated in the video. I have several others that I will let grow a lot more.

The first one I didn't cut below the ring of buds, hoping to get branching there, although I'm already second-guessing that decision.

On this one, I cut below the ring of buds, hoping to get more back-budding further down.

It looks like some buds down below are actually starting to swell a bit. I was worried chopping these down, but this gives me hope.

 

[Wulfskaar]

Buds are continuing to swell and grow along the length of the trunks on all of these. With the JBP in the first 2 pics, I cut below the upper buds hoping for budding down below.


On the ones where I left the buds on top, those buds are really growing in now, but also have buds growing down the trunk as well.

 

[Wulfskaar]

Here are some updates from this same batch of JBP from 2020.

The growth from the previous candle cuts on these two has been dramatic (at least for me).


These two have yet to experience any pruning to candles, although I did prune the roots last year.