Looking for advice on a new JBP

[Lochamp]

Hi everyone,

I picked this healthy looking JBP up at my club’s recent auction for a good price. I have some thoughts on where to take this, but would be happy to hear the community’s thoughts as I’m fairly new to pines.

• Looks like it was decandled in the summer. Later in the fall I will reduce the secondary candles to 2 and reduce needles. My gut tells me to keep letting the leader grow and chop it off at the highlighted orange area in a few years. Any thoughts?

• The way the sacrificial branch crosses over the other one is a bit odd to me. Coupled with that fact that there is no branching on the bottom is a bit concerning. Any suggestions here?

• The highlighted blue area is inversely tapered relative to the branch (guessing because the first branch is close to the base of the other branch). Should this be kept? I think so as without it there would be a big gap in between branches

• The yellow highlighted area has a bit of wire on it already to pull the branches down, and I’m thinking to continue this down over the next few years to create the lowest branching area of the tree

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

With the tree in front of you, find the best base (widest, no flaws or crossing roots). You may need to dig around in the soil a little.

Once you’ve found the best base, establish a trunk line: Choose one side of each fork to become the eventual trunk line, and the other side becomes a “sacrifice branch”.

From the photos, here is a possible course of action. Same principles apply if you choose a different trunk line.

 

[Lochamp]

Much appreciated, Brian. That would be a nice looking tree if I can get it to that stage.

 

[Adair M]

BVF, is, as usual, spot on! The main thing you need to choose is the base, and then the trunk line. Let the sacrifices go to build up some trunk.

Once you decide the trunk is nearing the girth you want, you can graft on some branches exactly where you want them. Easy peasy!

Heck, you can start grafting whenever you want! That is, during grafting season. Which is usually late winter/early spring.

 

[clem]

Hello, it's a nice tree, with nice bark and movement of the trunk. Here's another possible trunk line IMO ->






perso, i'd choose a good trunk line first , because nebari , with years of training in a flat pot, will become better and better : surface roots will grow and become more and more visible.. i've seen awsome nebari of old scot pines from the wild, after 15 years of training in a pot, the nebari was great : lots of surface roots.