Eastern White Pine Collect then Style or Style then Collect?

[CovertNeo]

I have quite a few pencil thick trunk (slightly larger) eastern white pines on my land. I’d like to train a few with the typical coil/S style shape and now is a good time to bend as they’re not thick/hardened trunks yet. Would it be better to collect these trees first and get them out of my forest and into more sun light and start training in plastic pots on the ground and then bend the trunk in a year or two? Or should I bend them now while they’re in the forest in the ground and come back and collect them in a year or two?

 

[RJG2]

Bend now, collect in 25 years.

(Slight) joking aside, Eastern white pine is a tough species to tame, or to find with good characteristics.

The mature bark takes a very long time to come in as well.

There are a few good examples, but most were collected when much older with more character, and still had to be trained for decades sometimes.

I don't think that would stop me, but I think I would hold off and look for an older specimen if possible.