Well, here it is! My first ever pruning/wiring...

[silvertab]

Bought a couple of nursery trees late autumn last year and had yet you touch them... finally decided to take the plunge with this rather bushy shimpaku... my wiring technique is pretty horrible (it really was the first time ever I was giving it a try), and I went in without *really* knowing what I was trying to accomplish, but wanted to get my hands dirty!

There's obviously a couple of things I would do differently now that I've giving it an actual try, but overall, I'm super excited to see how this will develop (or even, if it'll survive!)... considering I paid ~$15CAD for it I'm not too worried, it was a lot of fun and I really needed to stop watching videos online and actually get my hands dirty!


Here's the little guy before:



And now:

 

[just.wing.it]

Not a bad go!
Nice moss!

I'd maybe say that it appears a bit 2D...
Maybe pull that 3rd branch toward the back a bit...
That would give you a back branch, and somewhat hide the 3rd and 4th branches coming from the same side....

Or if you think you've done enough to the plant for the season, you can always change it next year!

 

[silvertab]

Not a bad go!
Nice moss!

I'd maybe say that it appears a bit 2D...
Maybe pull that 3rd branch toward the back a bit...
That would give you a back branch, and somewhat hide the 3rd and 4th branches coming from the same side....

Or if you think you've done enough to the plant for the season, you can always change it next year!

Thanks for the advice! I gave that a try (it was already kiiinda going backward, but tried to bend it a bit more)...Looks more balanced now! I'm kinda hoping that a branch develops from that foliage that I circled here:

 

[just.wing.it]

Thanks for the advice! I gave that a try (it was already kiiinda going backward, but tried to bend it a bit more)...Looks more balanced now! I'm kinda hoping that a branch develops from that foliage that I circled here:

View attachment 193380

Sorry, I could have been more specific...
The third branch from the bottom, I was referring to.

 

[silvertab]

Sorry, I could have been more specific...
The third branch from the bottom, I was referring to.

Oh, not sure how I ended up miscounting, but I was thinking of the 4th one... I can see how the 3rd one would definitely make sense for establishing a more "alternate" pattern ... it is rather thick for the wire sizes that I had however (hence why I ended up with 2 different wire size there). Will see what I can do

 

[silvertab]

Managed to send it way backward actually, I'm really liking the result! Looks a lot more balanced!

 

[just.wing.it]

Now you might not want mess around with it , just let it grow freely for the season.

 

[Adair M]

I’ve seen a lot worse first efforts!

Next time, try to leave foliage on the tops and sides of the main branches. Most of what I can see appears to be growing off the bottom of the branches.

You left the apex growing straight up. You could soften it a bit by bending the top down, straight towards the front.

Your two main branches... I can’t tell, exactly, but they should go straight out left and right, they should come forward towards the viewer. Like the tree wants to give you a hug!

Good first try!

 

[silvertab]

I’ve seen a lot worse first efforts!

Next time, try to leave foliage on the tops and sides of the main branches. Most of what I can see appears to be growing off the bottom of the branches.

You left the apex growing straight up. You could soften it a bit by bending the top down, straight towards the front.

Your two main branches... I can’t tell, exactly, but they should go straight out left and right, they should come forward towards the viewer. Like the tree wants to give you a hug!

Good first try!

Worst thing is, I actually tried to get rid of most of the foliage growing straight down, but I feel like ALL the foliage was like that haha... there really wasn't much growing from the tops and sides unfortunately, and I didn't want to de-foliate it too much considering all the work I did on it! Hopefully the foliage will ramify and grow thicker during the remaining of spring/summer and allow me to make some better choices next pruning!

Thanks for the apex and main branches advices! I can definitely see how it would improve the silhouette of the tree and that's exactly the kind of advice I was looking for by posting the pictures here! I had a good "general" idea of what I was trying to do, and a vague "shape" in mind, but concrete tips like that are much appreciated!

I'll let the poor little thing recover for now but will definitely keep it in mind for my next attempts, as this is not going to be my last!

 

[LeeInBama]

Hi Silvertab. I’m only a seedling so my opinion doesn’t mean much, but that looks great to me looking at what you started with. I just made my first attempt today mostly because of the good people on this site sharing their wisdom so freely. I enjoyed reading the thread! Thanks