AusBonsai

Nice work ryceman3. Scots are great to working with unlike blacks, if the tree is healthy you can chase the growth back on elongated branches.
Love what your doing with all your Pines a great experiment well documented
Cheers
Kirky

Finally got around to refining some of the initial work I did in March on one of the JBPs.
I would say this one is currently front runner as my final entry in the comp this whole thread stemmed from, but I haven't done any real detail work on the others so that might change.
The trunk is pretty nice with good taper and lots of branching so I am super happy with how it is turning out.

If any of mine had turned out as well as this one I'd be super happy too. Really great job with all these trees Riceman, and a great thread to document the process for others to follow.

shibui wrote: ↑May 13th, 2023, 12:54 pm If any of mine had turned out as well as this one I'd be super happy too. Really great job with all these trees Riceman, and a great thread to document the process for others to follow.

Thanks shibui, much appreciated.
It's been a pretty big learning experience for me as well and I go back on this thread every now and again just to refresh my memory on exactly what I did and when. It's hard to remember every detail, so I'll keep updating this reference for myself and anybody else who is interested. Hopefully pines aren't quite as scary now for some others to try!

Here’s a couple more from the OG group that got some attention in the last few days, slowly getting through them.
Also happy with how these ones are turning out.

I like how you've covered the scar in the last picture there, barely noticeable unless you know to look for it from the before picture.

What cut paste was it you used on that, and is it intended to leave cut paste on forever? Or can you still get it off with those branches in place now?

I used this stuff, pretty common product so not too hard to find.
There are 2 kinds. The one with the green lid is for conifers is my understanding.
The cut paste will get pushed off as the tree heals by itself, but you can remove if you wish. Mostly I don’t bother, just let it do its thing.

To keep on top of the updates here's a few more of the pines I've done similar work to in the last few weeks.
Some ground grown, most of the latter have been only in pots ... you can see the difference, but I still like a few of the smaller ones too.

These look so great. Every day I get up and stare at the seed tray, not much growth happening over winter. Looking at the great results in this thread makes me impatient. I remember earlier on you had one or two favourites amongst the seedlings, I've already been eyeing a couple that look interesting.

When I planted them out I did a little bit of root work because I was touching the roots anyway separating them out. Not sure if this also slowed growth down a bit.

I re-read the first ten pages and couldn't find an answer. But should I be feeding them anything extra or seasol at this stage? I saw a couple of years in you were using Dynamic Lifter. Would appreciate some advice on when and what to feed pine seedlings (mine are about 8 months old now)? In Sydney all of my trees have finally stopped putting out new growth and this is the first week I've started to notice leaves turning (we had a few days of 23 degrees last week).

TimIAm wrote: ↑June 6th, 2023, 6:54 pm I re-read the first ten pages and couldn't find an answer. But should I be feeding them anything extra or seasol at this stage? I saw a couple of years in you were using Dynamic Lifter. Would appreciate some advice on when and what to feed pine seedlings (mine are about 8 months old now)? In Sydney all of my trees have finally stopped putting out new growth and this is the first week I've started to notice leaves turning (we had a few days of 23 degrees last week).

Hi mate, I definitely had osmocote in the mix and fed them after they germinated and had grown a bit. I found this on page 5, which was also my recollection…

viewtopic.php?p=260532#p260532

Essentially I used a lot of liquid fert initially and then moved to teabags with DL in late summer/autumn. If I did root work (or stem cutting), then no fert until I saw visible signs the trees were putting out growth again. Growth over colder months (winter) is a lot less so although I’d probably go one more round of liquid fert now, no real point until spring begins after that. Too late for slow release.
Hope that helps a bit.

Pine repot season has begun at my place.
This one was first cab off the rank.
A change of angle that became apparent when it was out of the plastic and I had a better view of the roots/nebari... and obviously a shift into a bonsai pot. The top branching will need to be reworked to fit the new front but I'll do that after repot recovery, probably next autumn. It's a pretty generous sized pot as I am not looking to completely slow development, just tone it down.
Always nice to shift from a plastic pot ... one of the most satisfying parts of bonsai and growing your pwn trees from seed/seedlings.

Another one from today.
This one also had a "change in direction" mid repot to try and showcase the funky root action that is occuring. It doesn't look quite as compelling in the photos IMO, but in real life I think it's pretty cool so I've changed the back to the front to give it centre stage. As with the previous post, I will need to redirect the branching to enhance the new front, but I didn't do that today ... some other time.

I really like that half exposed root tree (I like all the others as well).

I'm keen to see how it develops and matures.

I have been surprised at how quick and well pine roots fuse. With lots of roots close together they quickly fuse into mass of woody trunk.

Another one from the weekend.
For anybody looking close enough ... yes, the pot is the same as the first repotted pine I posted a couple of trees back. They are a pair, so figured it was nice to have them both with trees from the same vintage.