Initial direction on a ponderosa?

[PowerTap]

First time poster, long time reader.

I bought this ponderosa pine on father's day and have been hemming and hawing about what to do with it since.

My original thought was to try some dramatic bends on it and make it a contorted prostrate semi cascade. Also toyed with literati ideas?

Now I think I'm inclined to cut at the red line and make it a shorter slanting style. It has nice movement low on the trunk, but it tapers off. Also the taper over the tree is minimal.

I figure the top branch becomes a leader to extend the slant, or I get new vertical growth and it is more informal upright.

Also unsure of the timing for a cut, I've read winter or early spring?

Thoughts?

 

[0soyoung]

August is a good time to prune most pines to induce back budding. The downer about it is that there will likely be some resin bleed - less so, the longer you wait.

Likewise, if you try to do some stem bending and or styling, the bark will get sticky and still slips fairly easily. Again, less so, the longer you wait.

I suggest you try out things you want to do on a branch or the trunk part you are not likely to want anyway, just to see for yourself, before you attempt executing what you've got planned. If the test turns out to be 'no biggie', then go for it. Else test again later and refrain from executing your plan until such time as you feel sufficiently prepared.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Please add location to profile. Needles seem short for Ponderosa. Certain of ID? Honestly, appears as Lodgepole. Whether or not first development should be: is bigger trunk desired?

 

[BrianBay9]

Yeah, I vote for lodgepole too. Pretty young. You can probably bend the heck out of it.

 

[August44]

The tree has nice branching and has some good possibilities so I would be careful just whacking on it. Get some local help if you're new to this. Not a Ponderosa by the way.

 

[PowerTap]

Sorry, for mix up, is is a lodgepole. I spent all weekend looking at ponderosa while camping all weekend.

I'm in Seattle, will update my bio.

 

[PowerTap]

I did eventually settle on a direction on this retaining all of its height. After reducing whorls it would have been to sparse as a shorter tree. I've retained branches lower than I probably should (lower third) for a tree this tall but wanted to keep some options open going into the spring.

Planning on repotting into a training pot in the spring. Maybe in 100% pummace or pummice, lava, organic mix.

 

[PowerTap]

I wish I could rename this post, but oh well. The new growth on this is a lovely yellow, that will green over time.

 

[0soyoung]

The new growth on this is a lovely yellow, that will green over time.

I think your soil is too wet.
If I'm right, the new growth will not green up as you expect.

Mine are doing much better now in quarter-inch pumice. I simply couldn't manage the complication of adjusting my watering with my collection of 50-ish different species to keep them in the finer grained medium I was using (for everything else)..

 

[MaciekA]

Some variegated pine cultivars green up over the season (my variegated mugo) and some don’t ever (my two variegated JBPs). They do often leaf out in a variegated state however which means a lot of “must have needlecast” / “must be overwatering” suspicions from bystanders. There are kajillions of these specialty variegated pines in willamette valley nurseries and I don’t think the tree in the pictures is atypical. This is what happens.

On the other hand I grow a lot of lodgepole and they really suck to develop (as in starting to do bonsai actions) in nursery soil and overly large nursery pots that hold wetness. Don’t chop or prune until this tree is well on its way to recovery in pure pumice. A lodgepole will occupy a pot much faster than a ponderosa but it still does so much much slower if pruned than if left bushy. Get the transition away from nursery soil over with first.

 

[PowerTap]

This is a Taylor's Sunburst varietal, intentionally developed for the yellow needles.

@MaciekA I did a half soil replacement this year, and put it into the root builder pot with lots of drainage.

Next year the rest of the nursery soil will get raked out and I'll let it settle another season before going into another smaller pot.