Thought I'd try a large pine.

Smoke

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I purchased this pine tree from the local bonsai nursery. It has a 3.25 inch trunk and the base is 5 inches across. The tree should finish out near 25 inches tall.

This is a project tree and I will work with Ted Matson on development.
 

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greerhw

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I purchased this pine tree from the local bonsai nursery. It has a 3.25 inch trunk and the base is 5 inches across. The tree should finish out near 25 inches tall.

This is a project tree and I will work with Ted Matson on development.

Nice material, what variety is it ?

Harry
 

Smoke

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Greenicus needlii....

How the hell do I know. It's green has plated bark and needle like things on the ends of the branches. Now I have blown my cover on how much I know about pines...

nada
ak

Stay tuned lets see what I do with it.
 

greerhw

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Greenicus needlii....

How the hell do I know. It's green has plated bark and needle like things on the ends of the branches. Now I have blown my cover on how much I know about pines...

nada
ak

Stay tuned lets see what I do with it.









I'll give it a 7 to 3 chance, any takers out there.....

Harry
 
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You can't fool me Al, you're going to trunk chop right above that first branch and make a Super Sumo Shohin. Large pine my eye.
Mike
 

Mark59

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I'd put my money on Al. If this tree turns out half as good as the trees he's posted here and on other forums, It will be a winner and then some! Keep us posted.
 

R_F

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Nice Stock. Can't wait to see what you'll do with it.
 

discusmike

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Cant wait to see which route you take with this tree Al.
 

greerhw

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Greenicus needlii....

How the hell do I know. It's green has plated bark and needle like things on the ends of the branches. Now I have blown my cover on how much I know about pines...

nada
ak
Stay tuned lets see what I do with it.



The pine NARKs are on there way to confiscate your pine before you kill it. Sorry I had to turn you in, but I hate to see good pine material go to waste.

Ciao,
Harry
 

JasonG

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Hi Al,

Where is the large pine? I see shohin here, lol!!

Hope all goes well!

Jason
 

Smoke

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Updates coming soon.....


Hey....2000 posts! What a wind bag.
 
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Smoke

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Back a year ago when I aquired this thing, I took the plant to a Ted Matson workshop. He felt as well as I that the top of the tree had been chopped straight across and that somehow a new apex would have to be formed. The large branch coming from the probable front of the tree looked as though it could be brought up with some clamps but the large pruning stub would have to be removed. So a year ago I did that and wired a 3/4 inch thick steel rod to the tree as a lever and clamped the branch into a more upright position and wired it firm. It was fertilzed and sat in full sun all year.
 

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Smoke

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Over the last two days the entire tree was needle plucked to open up the bushy canopy. I did not spend a lot of time being very neat here, just preparing the tree for winter and wire. There is no way this tree could recieve wire with these over long needles.

The tree is seen here with the branches plucked and the steel rod is still in place. A large branch has been removed, but I will show that removal later.
 

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Smoke

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The large branch comes of the first bend in the trunk. It is a great place for a first branch but it was never treated properly. It had a huge bulge from a whorl of branches and it had no taper and the exit of the branch from the trunk was poor.

What attracted me to this tree was the marvelous trunk. The old bark, the fairly decent taper and the movement of the first branch area. Even though It would neer be masterpiece potential, I feel that at the price I got it for, that I could make a fairly adequate tree that could be flipped or traded for something I really wanted. The trunk is large at 3+ inches at the waist and a 5" flare at the soil.

The branch is un plucked and clamped on for the picture.
 

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Smoke

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With the branch removed it was time to deal with the steel rod. The gap was clamped so that I could cut the copper tie wires off that had held the apex up for a year. I clamped it so that it would not spring back when cut. I prepared a tie wire and some brown micro emmiter tube to hold the apex in position. I did un-clamp it and it did hold, but I want to wire it together and leave it for a few more years as it builds more wood there to make sure it holds.
 

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Smoke

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All thats left to do now is wire. Hmmmm.... sounds easy.

I started with no. 8, 10 12, 14, 16 and no.20 copper wire. I do not plan on taking this wire off for a couple years and so far I have been very displeased with the quality of aluminum wire in this country.

I have bought every brand of aluminum and within a year in our climate it turns silver. Some of the smaller gauges will stay brown but most turns silver colored and it looks terrible. I wired a large Ca. juniper with it and I have to take it all off this year and re wire in copper because it looks so bad.

I have about 500.00 worth of 1 kilo rolls of aluminum that I will be selling soon very cheap!
 

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Smoke

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BTW,
I am not an advocate of cutting needles on pines. The reason they were cut here was 1, I could not wire the tree with long needles and 2, I needed to see every branchlet and direction they grew to make a determination as to what to prune and what to wire. The density of the tree was such that this was not going to happen with long needles. The tree needed to breath anyway since many of the branches have no ramification and will need that to look good later.
 

Smoke

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For now I am calling this a temporary front view. I think there is a better view and I will show that in a minute.

Keep in mind the tree had no apex and had been chopped to keep it compact and bushy hiding all that crappy area up top. The tree after this first styling by me ( I have no idea who worked on this prior since it had been worked on by someone) is somewhat pointy and that is not my long tern intention. It will be a rounded crown, but for now I need the top to continue heading up till there is more ramification to work with.
 

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