What to do next?

[Cathie B]

Hi. I planted my Scots pine seeds March 2017 and they are now about 6 inches tall. I am lost as to what I do next. They have thin stems but surely I need to make the trunk thick somehow.

 

[Dav4]

Hi. I planted my Scots pine seeds March 2017 and they are now about 6 inches tall. I am lost as to what I do next. They have thin stems but surely I need to make the trunk thick somehow.

You need to wire the trunks for movement then let em grow... lots of ferts, water and sun... and time?.

 

[0soyoung]

You need to make sure that they have ample sun, enough water to not wilt, and patience. At this point it is just time.
Next year you may carefully wire and bend the trunks into interesting shapes. You might also think about trying to make a mini-bonsai of one or two by potting them in 1 inch-ish pots then (i.e., explore how small a pine bonsai you can make and maintain), but it will be not much more than patience for yet another year. Take a look at this thread. Even though it is about p. thunbergii, it outlines the basic routine which will become extremely enjoyable!

 

[Cathie B]

Does it need to be in a larger pot?

 

[0soyoung]

No, I don't think so.

I mean you could, but it isn't necessary. It will probably be okay in that pot for another 3 or 4 years. Here's a 4 foot tall example in a one gallon plastic pot that I brought home from a nursery, for example. I figure it was between 5 and 10 years old.

You may want to move it into a pond basket/colander next year or the year after (read that thread I pointed you to = click the link in my previous post). That will save you having to repot and root prune frequently to generate the root pad that it will need to be a bonsai. The tree will really zoom instead of just grow steadily (i.e., repotting does tend to slow them down).

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I chopped the heads off of scots pines to induce lower branching. It seems to work for almost any pine.


This JBP was chopped like that, and a month later it had a branch.

I'm not implying you should copy that technique, but it saves me a year in the future. I now have a sacrifice apex and interesting movement in the trunk line, within the first year of growing. All consecutive years I can spend on building it further, instead of having to go back to square one when there's actual 'adult growth'. Scots pine backbud as good as japanese black pines, but it's hard to direct that growth - especially on the trunk - in a later stage with scots.
Scots pines seem to respond in the same way as JBP to this technique.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Does it need to be in a larger pot?

Welcome to the site!

Last year we started a Japanese Black Pine growing contest that is going to last 6 years - from seed to as finished a bonsai as you can get in six years. You might enjoy reading some of the threads to see what other people are doing to grow the best pine bonsai they can in 6 years.

The threads are all in this forum:

Japanese Black Pine Growing Contest

 

[Cathie B]

Thanks for all the advice. I will leave it in its current pot and see how it goes

 

[j evans]

Welcome! You will find all kinds of help and opinions here.