syon_r
Sapling
First of all, I have seen plenty of articles on trunk development for small shohin black pine bonsai, but I haven't seen any for large black pine bonsai. I have pre bonsai that are a foot in height, and I would like to eventually get them to around two feet in height. I have selected existing branches to use in the final design, and now I my goal is to grow the trunk taller and grow primary branches along this trunk. How should I go about thickening the trunk? Do I develop the tree to it's final height and then grow a sacrifice branch off the top, or do I grow a sacrifice branch off the side to thicken the trunk?
Also would I do any branch development like decandling or bud selection to keep final branches in check? I have been selecting two buds to ramify the tree branches. Or instead should I keep many small secondary branches and cut them back to a few when it is time to begin branch development? In other words, should I only prune off large long secondary branches and leave the rest? I think what I want to do is to not have to prune away too much growth after the trunk is the desired size, so be doing some branch development (forking branches, short internodes between whorls) while doing trunk development. Does this make sense to do, or not?
Also would I do any branch development like decandling or bud selection to keep final branches in check? I have been selecting two buds to ramify the tree branches. Or instead should I keep many small secondary branches and cut them back to a few when it is time to begin branch development? In other words, should I only prune off large long secondary branches and leave the rest? I think what I want to do is to not have to prune away too much growth after the trunk is the desired size, so be doing some branch development (forking branches, short internodes between whorls) while doing trunk development. Does this make sense to do, or not?