Finding potential in my new JBP Mikawa

AnutterBonsai

Shohin
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Hello everyone! I talked to my local bonsai nurseryman and I asked them about which pine is good for growing in our region. They told me JBPs tend to grow well here. I ordered this Mikawa JBP approx. 4-6 years old, they said.
I’m not the best at finding a design, specially to pines at such a young age. So I’d like to see y’all’s input at a possible front or where to go next from what I got.
I read through Jonas’ blog tips on developing pines, @Adair M thoughts on other articles here, as well as @Brian Van Fleet 's comments, and other myriad posts.

My plan is basically to keep that long extension going up as a sacrifice branch and then keep the lower portion for a trunk and then the others for branches.
looks to be quite a healthy specimen.
I added some osmocote plus meanwhile I find a organic fertilizer to help it get nutrients before (our very mild) winter.
Spring, also repot it into some APL and into a pond basket or colander as well, to take it off of the organic nursery soil.
This is a one gallon pot.
 

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Housguy

Chumono
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Nice! On those lower lengthy branches, are there any back buds going on, I can't see if there is. If so, you might want to cut back to the back bud so you get your foliage closer to the trunk line.
 

AnutterBonsai

Shohin
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Nice! On those lower lengthy branches, are there any back buds going on, I can't see if there is. If so, you might want to cut back to the back bud so you get your foliage closer to the trunk line.
Yes, actually! There’s quite a lot of tiny backbudding all across the trunk and branches. It’s hard to show them but they’re there.
Is cutting the candles this month a possibility on low branches to provide adventitious back budding?
 

AnutterBonsai

Shohin
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Cut the top lip of the pot to show the base better and expose it to more light. Here’s two shots of the lower portion of the trunk and nebari.
 

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mwar15

Omono
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If it was me… I would get big copper wire and put some movement into the trunk. It would help thicken the trunk and give it movement. I also would keep the lower branches and use that top as a sacrifice branch to thicken it. Or chop the top off and use one of the lower branches as a new sacrifice.

it all depends what you want???
 

AnutterBonsai

Shohin
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If it was me… I would get big copper wire and put some movement into the trunk. It would help thicken the trunk and give it movement. I also would keep the lower branches and use that top as a sacrifice branch to thicken it. Or chop the top off and use one of the lower branches as a new sacrifice.

it all depends what you want???
I’m with you on that. I don’t know when would be good to wire it up. Coldest it gets here is in late December til mid early February.
keeping that tall trunk as sacrifice. Most likely chase back each branch hopefully for more back budding, each of the lower branches has at least two or three candles.
 

Kanorin

Omono
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Most likely chase back each branch hopefully for more back budding, each of the lower branches has at least two or three candles.
I don’t think this is a productive long term way to get back budding and keep pines alive. With pines, much better to allow the tree to grow healthily, allow the sacrifice to grow unabated, remove extra branches that you definitely don’t need and see where it back-buds…Then you can cut to those buds after they have formed.
 

sorce

Nonsense Rascal
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Start at the base.

The base will determine the most important first part of the design, it's stance.

I believe we underestimate the importance of matching a base with a design that makes sense.

It gets lost because of our great concern with a radial nebari and our shaming of "other" nebari, which leaves folks OK on their side of having a "poor nebari", so they build a tree upon it which doesn't make sense.

We end up thinking of "other" nebari as "poor" because it's not radial, instead of utilizing "other" in a design capacity that makes sense for it's "otherness".

For me, the only thing that is truly poor, is something displaying obvious characteristics of being grown in a pot.

Yours' otherness seems to be wanting an extreme cascade position.
There is a horticultural aspect as well, where choosing a pot and or potting method will allow you to get most of the root mass into the future pot.

Anyway, the base is the beginning of the story we are trying to tell in our display.
It's the first and most unchanging part of a trees life as well.
The story must add up.

We don't dislike "funky roots", we dislike what isn't possible, this is not of design, it's of human.

Sorce
 

AnutterBonsai

Shohin
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Thank you all for your thoughtful opinions and helping me out! After a few nights and days I may have come up with a more clear picture or design that I may get from the current branches given in the lower third (ignoring the long straight sacrifice branch). Of course it will take many season of leaving it be and thicken up in a much bigger pot but I think there’s definitely something to be had here.
 

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