Should nursery stock pines be decandled?

[QuintinBonsai]

First of all, please excuse my ignorance in caring for pines. I may be asking questions that seem obvious to the community, but I am willing to learn to become better. And I've heard of Boon's JBP DVDs. They are in my plans to purchase.

Anyways... I have a small pre-bonsai JBP in a 1 gallon pot. The candles on it are getting somewhat long. Should I remove them, or just leave it alone? What will happen if I do let the candles grow freely? What exactly is the purpose of decandling? Is my pine too young to be doing any kind of work such as that? I also see that what looks to be the nebari is a tangled mess of roots at the soil line. How do I adjust that?

 

[Dan W.]

Pictures would probably help someone answer your questions.

Welcome to the froum, and Boon's DVD's are great by the way

 

[QuintinBonsai]

 

[garywood]

Intreegued, How large a tree do you envision and what style? #1, cover the roots with soil. When you finally get to rootwork, you will need some small roots close to the base.
Wood
http://thingsofwood-gary.blogspot.com/

 

[QuintinBonsai]

Gary, I envision it to be something slightly larger than shohin. Maybe kifu. And I'd like it to be informal upright. Do you suggest a larger pot for root development other than it's nursery pot?

 

[garywood]

Intreegued, the pot size is fine, just add more soil. There are two different directions you can go to get what you want. The first and quickest would be to wire the bottom branch up for the leader. Make a couple of bends and leave the small branches at bends. That's all that needs to be done until fall The other is using your basic style that it's in now. If you go that route the bottom branch is\will be too large so cutting candles would be in order to slow it down. The second branch on the right could then be the new leader so no more further cutting would need to be done until fall. The more buds and needles you have with young trees, the faster they develope and bark up. Place in full sun and feed aggressibvely.