Long term Scot's pine seedling

[Harunobu]

I collected a few Scot's pine from the forest that had a lot of low branches. Main goal is to learn more about growing trees into bonsai. As a student I don't want or have to spend hundreds of euro on really good raw material. I have the time to learn a lot before I do that and I don't want bonsai to be an expensive hobby for me right now.

This individual tree was collected in autumn 2010.

It had quite a big spokewheel issue.

I pruned away all those final node branches except for one. As a result there was some good backbudding.

Now for early may 2012.

It has become a lot more sturdy. One thing I have to ask straight away, it has all kinds of white stuff on it, which could be a fungus. My other pines don't have this. What is it? Is it Mycorrhiza?

The first branches are at about 6 cm above the soil line. There are 8 branches and one new bud.

One of these has to become the first branch at some point. So a total height of 18 cm and a diameter of a bit over 3 cm should make this tree look acceptable when it is also styled to have proper foliage pads. But maybe it should be a bit taller and have a diameter of 6 to 8 cm.
That's low enough. The thickest of all the branches is at the back. Obvious main sacrificial branch candidate.

Should I now select 3 of them to be sacrificial and cut the candles of all the other ones in half in mid June? Then pluck the old needles on all the sacrificial branches in autumn? None of them are truly weak. I feel I need some new buds nearer to the trunk on the final branch candidates.

This is the former spokewheel and the current leader.
The idea was to remove this whole section eventually. Just below the spokewheel I have like 3 buds that are growing into new branches.
I left stubs when I pruned the whirl of branches with the intention of carving them away later.
The new leader is almost as thick as the lower trunk. So I have no idea if I need to slow it down and when to remove it completely.
If I sow away the current leader at some point that will leave a huge scar. Not sure right now if that is the way to go. The branch I left grew kind of big and I didn't want to touch it at that time.
I know proper way to prune pine branches is to make a concave cut.
Any suggestions are welcome.

About the sacrificial branches, when should I reduce the node to 1 candle/1 branch?

The roots are probably quite ugly with only a few very long roots. I did no root pruning after collecting. At some point I have to dig it up and prune the very long roots a bit. Some people seem to love pond baskets with substrate. I don't have a good idea when to dig it up and if I should plant it in full ground again.

 

[Bill S]

H you seem to be on the right path.
I haven't had one of these yet, but the white could be scale, but could be whitened sap, scale will wipe right off easilly, fix that issue first.
Not positive but on the sacrifice, I don't think you want to touch it untill it's time to remove it entirely.

 

[rockm]

All that white stuff sure looks like wooly adelgid to me. If you run your finger over it, does it come off and/or leave behind sticky residue?

 

[Mac In Oak Ridge]

Where are you located?

 

[Harunobu]

If I go over it with my finger brown stuff comes off. It's not really sticky in the sense pine resin would be. It does seem to be some kind of fungus but I see no symptoms of disease in the pine itself so far.

I have some fungicide I normally use against damp off. I could spray it with that.

Location is the Netherlands zone 7b.

 

[Dav4]

I agree with Mark, it's most likely pine bark adelgid (google it).

 

[Harunobu]

I googled it and googling for 'pine bark adelgid' gave pictures that matches even more than 'wooly adelgid'. Ill think I will try a soap based pesticide.

 

[Bill S]

That will work right off the bat if it is the adelgig, you could make some with dish detergent, rubbing alcohol, and vegetable oil. You can skip the oil for this one, the oil is more for dormant pests that wake and can't get past the oil.

Add a 1/2 spoonfull of each to a liter bottle top off with water, shake and spray the little fuzzballs. It's mild but works well on pests such as these.

I said scale earlier, does anyone know of a pine scale that looks like this, I swear I saw some info on it at one point, then it showed up in my yard.

 

[bougie nights]

I said scale earlier, does anyone know of a pine scale that looks like this, I swear I saw some info on it at one point, then it showed up in my yard.

There are types of cottony scale which this kind of looks like.

 

[Harunobu]

2015 update

Similar shot of the same tree:

Thinking about removing one of those two branches on the left right next to each other. I think both are sacrificial. Might give reverse taper if kept for a few more years.

Top shot of same tree.

Using the sacrificial branch with needle plucking technique. I am using the 'cut new candles after they have hardened off' on the branch candidates.

Getting excessive buds on some trees now as well as backbudding on old wood. Thinking about replanting this one so the new leader isn't going to bend up straight and remove the curve in the trunk, as seems to happen with young pines that get trunk chopped.

Not sure what is the better technique for getting the foliage to be closer to the trunk on formerly weak branches that are potential design branches. Pruning back hardened off candles gives excessive new buds, but mostly at the base of the new candle. Only luck gives you backbudding on older growth.
Think I am going to try pruning back to the oldest needles on one of my most spindly trees. Ill let it grow freely this season, then I cut it back hard in autumn(or late winter?)

Funny thing about the stubs I left of the original spokewheel; the idea was to carve them out at some later point, when I had the right tools maybe. But if one goes and looks now, they are no longer visible, except maybe 1 if you look really hard. It already fattened up enough to cover them over with bark.

Every year I do get these black pine aphids and their ant friends, the Cinara genus ones. Each year I have to spray several times. Just last week I tried to remove needles with their eggs on them. Scots pine is native here. Is there any tricks or permanent solution?

The white stuff never came back.

 

[M. Frary]

Nice progression. I have some I collected this year that look just like yours did when you began. Some much larger too.
What if anything have you done with the roots? At collection and since?

 

[Harunobu]

Nothing. I tried to disturb the roots as little as possible when I collected them. But in fact, most of them didn't have a fine root system. All they had was 2 or 3 really long roots. I didn't want to prune then back then and I never decided to dig them up. I kind of like the idea of using the roots to support growth and backbudding. Some of these trees still have weak branches that have potential if only they become stronger. And the branches that were weak and are strong now, I had to generate the buds on them so I can create foliage pads out of them, close to the trunk.

So I just pushed the root issue ahead of me. I can't really see what happens with the roots even if I did prune them anyway. So I guess I am learning more using this approach, even if it had been better to set the roots up correctly right at the start.

This tree is most advanced of all of them, and I have the clearest idea of how to design it eventually. But the current leader, the sown off one in the last picture, was a sidebranch in picture 1. Just by trying to grow towards the sunlight, it lifted itself up. That's why I was thinking about replanting it at an angle to actually have the new leader bend away from the current leader when it tries to be more upright. Otherwise, the tiny bit of movement I have now maybe gone eventually.
Though the wood fibers may have hardened off enough by now making that impossible.

Instead, what I did is take a bunch of new year's pine seedlings I found in my local forest. I pruned those roots and let them grow. I had like 16 or so and all but 4 died, even though I didn't go anywhere as aggressive as I have seen people do with even younger seedlings, where they prune all roots.
Right now these 4 are growing fine(you can see one in the back on the right side). Maybe this fall I can wire them into some sharp curves, as these don't have that.

Also, never growing in the shade also makes them much less spindly. So no need to prune for backbudding as much.

 

[M. Frary]

I see now. Duh! It's still in the ground.