Large Black pine

Giga

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Just thought I'd share a nice score I found! It'll be a fun project and I posted more on my blog, and more detail on there.


 

Brian Van Fleet

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Congratulations. You have quite a project on your hands.

Whatever you do, keep ALL of the small shoots emerging directly from the lower trunk. Those are your branches, that is how you make your big pine into a bonsai.
 

barrosinc

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Thanks, I might have selected the setting that BNut doesn't show signatures.
 

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Giga

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Congratulations. You have quite a project on your hands.

Whatever you do, keep ALL of the small shoots emerging directly from the lower trunk. Those are your branches, that is how you make your big pine into a bonsai.

Thank you very much- there are only a couple small shoots the rest are all longer branch so I'm guess some graft are what are needed or try for a different approach then a formal upright.


I didn't realize there was a no sig option but yeah the blog is in my sig.
 

RickMartin

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That is a very nice tree. I think it has lots of potential

Rick
 

Giga

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That is a very nice tree. I think it has lots of potential

Rick

Thanks! Yeah There are two routes I can go with this, and I'm not sure what one I want to do. I could develop the branches at go with an upright style(grafting will be required), or I could do some hollowing and bend some of the other branch around and make something a little more knarly and interesting. First thing is I'm gonna repot it this spring into a training but and then just study it and see where I want to go with this one.
 

Brian Van Fleet

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From the pix, this is what I would recommend. It's always best to compact the design, and with pines, it's particularly important to identify sacrifice branches and final branches. always protect those branches that have growth proximal to the trunk. It's ok if they're proporionately thin. Adair made a great post about this; I'll find it and link back to it.

With this tree, the "sacrifice" growth is most of the trunk. I would do this:
1. Saw it off at the red line. (Assuming this is the best/lowest section to cut back to)
2. Wire the thin branch circled in green so it's laying across the cut section. This will be the tree's first final branch.
3. Allow the section in yellow to become the next section of trunk (movement and taper).
4. The shoots along the second section will become either sacrifice branches, final branches, or the third section of trunk. You don't need to decide any of that until next fall.
 

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jeanluc83

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I have a few questions on trunk chopping a pine.

What is the best time of year to do a major chop?

Should the tree be reduced over the course of several seasons?

Since this tree is a nursery tree it will likely require a lot of root work. When would be the best time to repot the tree, before or after the trunk chop?

When it comes to the actual chop do you leave a stub or cut flush right away?

What kind of after care is required?
 

Brian Van Fleet

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What is the best time of year to do a major chop?
--Mid-Fall or early Spring.

Should the tree be reduced over the course of several seasons?
--No. I think that successively weakens a tree. Do it once, do it right, and it will recover.

Since this tree is a nursery tree it will likely require a lot of root work. When would be the best time to repot the tree, before or after the trunk chop?
--I would chop in the Spring, and wait to repot until Spring '16. An undisturbed root ball should encourage a strong response to drastic top pruning.


When it comes to the actual chop do you leave a stub or cut flush right away?
--I would leave a stub of about 1.5x the width of the chop to allow for dieback. By the fall, it should be safe to carve it to look like the attached photo...flush with the exception of a small point in the middle. This helps shed water and slow rotting while the callus rolls. Once the callus gets to the point, carve it away.

What kind of after care is required?
--None, the newly-exposed needles may sunburn a bit, and the water uptake will be slowed.
 

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jeanluc83

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Should the tree be reduced over the course of several seasons?
--No. I think that successively weakens a tree. Do it once, do it right, and it will recover.

What is the threshold for maximum removal?

When it comes to the actual chop do you leave a stub or cut flush right away?
--I would leave a stub of about 1.5x the width of the chop to allow for dieback. By the fall, it should be safe to carve it to look like the attached photo...flush with the exception of a small point in the middle. This helps shed water and slow rotting while the callus rolls. Once the callus gets to the point, carve it away.

I had seen this done in the past, probably by you, and wondered why the stump was carved like that. It makes much more sense now. Thanks.
 

Giga

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Thanks Brian for the time and effort to those posts, I had not considered something so compact and drastic, something to consider. I have another design spinning in my head we'll see which route I take. For the crazy price I found this guy I'm pretty excited of what comes of it. Would you do major bending this spring after I cut it say 50% if I left the tree alone till spring 2016? without repotting this year I think the root base should make a fast recovery.
 
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Adair M

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i have a tree I'm developing exactly in the manner Brian described. I tried to add s photo, but for some reason it's not working. I'll try again to upload tomorrow.
 

Smoke

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i have a tree I'm developing exactly in the manner Brian described. I tried to add s photo, but for some reason it's not working. I'll try again to upload tomorrow.

The Chinese are trying to get their art back by hacking into bonsai sites. I can have Curt and Rod send you their patch?
 

Adair M

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Here's my tree. It's been developed almost exactly as Brian described with the sacrifice branches.
 

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