Ponderosa Pine

Dano

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B-Nut,

I agree on the awkward turn in the tree. I just want to opinions, measure twice and cut once. Thanks for the advice.

Dano
 

Bonsai Nut

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B-Nut,

I agree on the awkward turn in the tree. I just want to opinions, measure twice and cut once. Thanks for the advice.

Dano

If you wanted to be safe, you could graft a branch for the new apex FIRST, make sure it took, and then start cutting branches. Then your graft would really take off and you wouldn't have to worry about how long it would take to start working on your new apex.

If you wanted to be really adventurous, you could try air-layering off the top of the tree, and then you'd have TWO ponderosas to work on :)
 

Mark59

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I would go with Walters' vert. His vision for this tree is excellent! Just my humble opinion.
 

Bonsai Nut

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I would go with Walters' vert. His vision for this tree is excellent! Just my humble opinion.

Walter's vert can be accomplished with two cuts. It is definitely the safest and fastest option for IMPROVING the tree. Eliminate one branch - shorten the other.

On the other hand, it does nothing to address the flawed trunk. If the trunk doesn't bother you, I would go with Walter's plan. If you want to fix the trunk you will have to do something else. To shorten the trunk to the point below the weird twist, you will be left with only three branches - the lowest of which we all agree won't work regardless of what design you go with. Therefore you will have two branches to work with - and you will be missing an apex. Therefore you will either need to grow a new apex from the back branch, or graft one.

I would be interested to hear what Walter thinks. He may hate my idea or have an alternative I did not consider :)
 

cquinn

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Yeah, definitely Walter's virt. If you start screwing around with it, you might ruin a fantastic tree. My first thought on this was Wow! it looks like a wild old pine. I love it! I would like to have it. My first reaction was not "I don't like that apex". First reactions are it! Any tree can be critiqued to the point where bonsai is no fun. It's nice, keep it.
 

Walter Pall

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The somewhat strange curves in the upper part of the trunk are two-dimensional, which makes them even worse. It should be no problem to attach raffia and lots of really thick wire. Then bend and almost coil the upper half of the trunk and it should be a lot better. I cannot make a virtual about this though.
Cutting off the top is another possibility, but I would prefer to drastically bend the top.
This is very good material to bring to an advanced one-day workshop. The tree is very well established and healthy and can stand a lot of heat. At the end of the day it would look very fine.
 

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Here's another one to consider. Cut the top, and build the apex off the front branch. For this one to work you would need to pull the tree up a bit.

pondo4.jpg
 

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It should be no problem to attach raffia and lots of really thick wire. Then bend and almost coil the upper half of the trunk and it should be a lot better. I cannot make a virtual about this though.

Is this what you had in mind? (In general?)

pondo5.jpg
 

Walter Pall

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Yes, in this direction. One must not exaggerate the bends too much. This should stay a natural looking elegant tree.
 

Bonsai Nut

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It was hard to do a virtual to show the depth. You would twist the trunk back first, and then coil it forwards so the apex comes towards the front. Almost like a spring. Thank you Walter - it was a fun exercise in virtuals! :) I hope Dano got something that he can work with out of it!
 
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