What are these "buds" on my Japanese White Pine?

[Adamantium]

There’s really not much you can do in the short term about that graft. All these trees have “crappy grafts”. It’s just the nature of the beast. Mine is no better than yours. Except, I’ve been able to arrange the foliage to somewhat hide the actual graft union so that it’s not so apparant.

Your tree in unstyled. Perhaps once you style it, it will give the eye something else to focus on.

And...

Perhaps next time be a little more choosy when buying material?

It’s one thing to acquire rough stock. It’s quite another to buy stock with obvious, impossible-to-fix flaws.

Yup, 100% agree. This is more training material than anything. I just want to see if I can keep it alive. And who know! Maybe in 30 years the graft will be indiscernible!

Any suggestions on tell-tale signs of lack of sunlight? Will the foliage get paler? Darker?

 

[Adair M]

Yup, 100% agree. This is more training material than anything. I just want to see if I can keep it alive. And who know! Maybe in 30 years the graft will be indiscernible!

Any suggestions on tell-tale signs of lack of sunlight? Will the foliage get paler? Darker?

The graft won’t get better. The difference in growth rate between the stock and scion only becomes more apparant. The stock is JBP. It thickens faster than JWP. The difference in texture will eventually improve as the JWP sheds the juvenile bark and starts to get flaky, but the change in caliper is permanent, and will get worse.

 

[Adamantium]

The graft won’t get better. The difference in growth rate between the stock and scion only becomes more apparant. The stock is JBP. It thickens faster than JWP. The difference in texture will eventually improve as the JWP sheds the juvenile bark and starts to get flaky, but the change in caliper is permanent, and will get worse.

C'est la vie. It's a training tree, then.

Anything I should watch out for with regards to lack of sunlight? Does foliage lighten, or darken, or anything of the sort? Or, can you just not tell until after it's too late?

 

[Adair M]

C'est la vie. It's a training tree, then.

Anything I should watch out for with regards to lack of sunlight? Does foliage lighten, or darken, or anything of the sort? Or, can you just not tell until after it's too late?

The foliage gets leggy, thin, maybe kinda pale.

Problem is, yours already is!

 

[Adamantium]

The foliage gets leggy, thin, maybe kinda pale.

Problem is, yours already is!

Hahaha harrumph. Well, I'll watch for paling of the new needles. Thanks for all your insights! They're greatly appreciated.