Pine seedling & field development 10+ year progression

[Glaucus]

I started by collecting some pine seedlings from the local forest. This means they ought to be Scott's Pine.
Key was to collect the seedlings from a sun-exposed area where the trees were cut down. In other cases, a very thick humus layer and shade meant there would mean a very long spindly, sparsely branched seedling, with the first branch very far removed from the roots.

So what I collected was this:



First goal was to get rid of the spoke wheel and reduce to 2s or even 3s, to get more sacrificial branch potential. The goal was to fatten up the base of the trunk asap while also getting some good taper.
So pruning was carried out in 2011.

Then in May 2012, it was responding well and kept growing (white stuff is adalgid, but didnt see it again after 2014):



With now many branches set up, coming from different areas of the base of the trunk, I was able to grow these out, as well as 1 leader.

May 2013:

 

[Glaucus]

Then a month later with the candles extended and hardened off:

Late June 2013:





You can already see I have an apical leader, which is pruned bald so not to shade the tree itself. And two branches coming from just below the soil line, which were also allowed to grow from the central shoots and extend as much as possible.

 

[Glaucus]

Also Late June 2013:


So many branches emerging from different areas of the base of the trunk to work with.

Because the apex was growing so strong, I decided to prune it back in autumn 2014. My goal was actually to develop a smaller-sized bonsai, a bit larger than a shohin. Not a 80cm tall beast.
Also, I was just experimenting a bit with this. These were my first forays into bonsai. And I had several pines, so this one I decided to try this aggressive chop, to eventually remove the entire apex.


April 2015:



You can also see that for everything that wasn't a long bald extending sacrificial branch, I decided to keep the weaker shoots, trying to keep it compact. But I did not do any hard pruning on them.
I did also balance by needle plucking the sacrificial leaders a bit in autumn. Not sure if this had much effect.

 

[Glaucus]

All this did not get give a lot of taper, one reason to take out the apex and focus growth instead in the low sacrificial leaders instead.

April 2015:
:

 

[Glaucus]

There seems to be a bit of a gap in my pictures. But summer 2016, I transplanted this pine, put it at a bit of an angle.
The green of the leader was removed at some point as well, and kept as a stub to allow for compartmentalization. It tried to backbud from it, which I prevented.
Then when other parts of the tree were clearly taking over, I removed the green. And then a few years later, I cut it as flush as I could, after sowing it off.
I actually shattered the largest concave cutter I could buy, trying to nip off some parts.

And I think two years ago, I also cut the two leaders to stubs, leaving no green.

This spring, this pine had to move to another spot and while digging it up, this allowed me to actually cut as flush as possible these large stubs of the sacrificial branches.
Like all pines I have grown, they put out very few very long roots. So they are hard to dig up. And then they are left with little roots. Not sure how to resolve this. I have tried a spade to cut roots around the tree without digging it up.
I actually had one pine die because I dug it up and moved it to a new spot.
But this one survived.
However, it was really slow in waking up and pushing candles this spring:

July 2023:



You can see I butchered this one up quite a bit. But I have some age and some taper. There are 3 large scars on the trunk, which it somehow has to heal.
Then, I didn't set up the current apex area quite as well as I should have. There is this long straight area without any backbuds.
And when I realized I had no backbuds, I did some pruning to create them. So in the node above that I have a bit of a confused mess of branches, all trying to become the new apical leader.

For now, this one needs to regain some strength and regrow roots. Somehow I have to try to heal up those scars. Easiest would be to grow fat a new sacrificial branch. But that will create a new large scar if I remove that one.
I have always been lazy to wire branches down to be more horizontal, so maybe I will try that this autumn.
It probably also has bad nebari.
And the branches I do have are too lanky. I need to bring foliage in much closer to the trunk. But it can field grow here for 5+ more years.
Maybe after that, it is time to move it to some bonsai substrate box.

One lesson: taking pictures from exactly the same angle years apart will definitely helps to create a clearer picture.
With these pictures, it is pretty hard to see what changed into what.
Also, taking pictures of exactly the scar will help. I guess I should do that tomorrow for all 3 scars.