FourMileMarc
Mame
Hello everyone,
Some of you may remember me posting this Black Pine I had just purchased from a nursery. I am glad I new enough back then to know how to pick one out, low branching, good surface rootage, etc. I did not know much more than that at the time.
http://bonsainut.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1349
Anyway, I am so exited about the potential from this tree I decided to post a new thread on its progressions. I have to especially thank Brent from Evergreen Garden Works for really helping me learn how to train one of these from 1 year old material. There is literally nothing out there on this except from his writings and getting to talk with him in person. This has been critical.
Part of why I am posting this is to help give back some of this knowledge to beginners from my actual experiences thus far and to also learn a thing or 2 more from others more experienced than I. This is specifically on getting the trunk and Nebari well before refinement work. I think the lack of info has to do with the fact that this is the boring part for some. The refinement stage is where all the glamour is. However, so far, this tree has been my most rewarding species I have. Just building this trunk so far and trying to not make to many mistakes has been a challenge and a lot of fun.
Anyway, in the first pic from 2008 you can see where I had selected out of the rats nest of branches, the new leader with it’s 1st and 2nd branch, these are marked in red and blue respectively along with my planned sacrifice branches in light blue. It made sense to me to have a good sacrifice right at the nebari so as to get that big dinner plate. In the second pic in 2009 during December, I performed the trunk chop. I then wired up the new leader with its attending 1st and 2nd branch. I think this was a mistake, but not a critical one, because I had a backup and because this area is ripe with adventitious buds.
Over the next growing season the tree grew so vigorously the new leader twisted 90 degrees (I also was not paying attention). This caused the first 2 branches to be out of alignment with the planned front, woops. You can see this in pic 5, the upper branch that I cut back was the second and the first branch labeled “S” is the new 2nd internodal sacrifice. The new leader labeled “P” has perfect location and internodal distances to be the new leader and the branches have not even grown yet. As you can see in pic 5 I did several things wrong. I should have cut midway into the internode at the top, leaving a few needles and I should have candled the 1st and second branch and depended on enough back budding to also get another internodal sacrifice or two, this should have been done last year around this time of year.
How it turns out, I actually like the fact that I blew it; I think I will have a better base trunk doing it this way. The new leader is in a better position for the 1st branch and I think I will have a big low turn below it.
Pic 3 shows the sacrifice branches labeled “S” and the Primary new leader extension labeled “P” and the “backup” secondary extension or potential future sacrifice branch labeled “B” Pic 4 shows a few large roots That I cut back about half way during last springs lite root trimming. I would be curious to hear others opinions on weather I should eventually cut these off and grow many more smaller diameter roots out of the same location. They are not overpowering yet, I do worry that they may become too big in the future.
continued below...
Some of you may remember me posting this Black Pine I had just purchased from a nursery. I am glad I new enough back then to know how to pick one out, low branching, good surface rootage, etc. I did not know much more than that at the time.
http://bonsainut.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1349
Anyway, I am so exited about the potential from this tree I decided to post a new thread on its progressions. I have to especially thank Brent from Evergreen Garden Works for really helping me learn how to train one of these from 1 year old material. There is literally nothing out there on this except from his writings and getting to talk with him in person. This has been critical.
Part of why I am posting this is to help give back some of this knowledge to beginners from my actual experiences thus far and to also learn a thing or 2 more from others more experienced than I. This is specifically on getting the trunk and Nebari well before refinement work. I think the lack of info has to do with the fact that this is the boring part for some. The refinement stage is where all the glamour is. However, so far, this tree has been my most rewarding species I have. Just building this trunk so far and trying to not make to many mistakes has been a challenge and a lot of fun.
Anyway, in the first pic from 2008 you can see where I had selected out of the rats nest of branches, the new leader with it’s 1st and 2nd branch, these are marked in red and blue respectively along with my planned sacrifice branches in light blue. It made sense to me to have a good sacrifice right at the nebari so as to get that big dinner plate. In the second pic in 2009 during December, I performed the trunk chop. I then wired up the new leader with its attending 1st and 2nd branch. I think this was a mistake, but not a critical one, because I had a backup and because this area is ripe with adventitious buds.
Over the next growing season the tree grew so vigorously the new leader twisted 90 degrees (I also was not paying attention). This caused the first 2 branches to be out of alignment with the planned front, woops. You can see this in pic 5, the upper branch that I cut back was the second and the first branch labeled “S” is the new 2nd internodal sacrifice. The new leader labeled “P” has perfect location and internodal distances to be the new leader and the branches have not even grown yet. As you can see in pic 5 I did several things wrong. I should have cut midway into the internode at the top, leaving a few needles and I should have candled the 1st and second branch and depended on enough back budding to also get another internodal sacrifice or two, this should have been done last year around this time of year.
How it turns out, I actually like the fact that I blew it; I think I will have a better base trunk doing it this way. The new leader is in a better position for the 1st branch and I think I will have a big low turn below it.
Pic 3 shows the sacrifice branches labeled “S” and the Primary new leader extension labeled “P” and the “backup” secondary extension or potential future sacrifice branch labeled “B” Pic 4 shows a few large roots That I cut back about half way during last springs lite root trimming. I would be curious to hear others opinions on weather I should eventually cut these off and grow many more smaller diameter roots out of the same location. They are not overpowering yet, I do worry that they may become too big in the future.
continued below...
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