Pinus Mugo- can it recover?

[isabella]

Hi all,
I'm new to the forum and unfortunately my first post isn't going to be a cheerful one. My gorgeous little pinus mugo has been in care with a friend for ~4 years as I have been extremely busy with work and other commitments. When I last saw it, the tree was going beautifully, very full/dense branches and foliage, lovely colour and lustre to the needles, fitting its pot nicely etc. However now... as you can see, it's not doing so well

My questions are this:
1) Do you think this bonsai can recover to full health?
2) Will it ever return to a pleasing aesthetic, or will it always be a bit sparse?

I have already done a light prune, but I'm leaving repotting until spring as I don't want to stress it out too much. However as you can see it is just about bursting out of that pot and I wonder if it can hold on for that long? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I feel terrible for the condition the tree is in and want to help it recover as much as I can. I don't mind if it's never going to be a stunning tree- I just want it to be healthy and bring back a touch of its former glory.

Additional info: the tree is about 21 years old now and I got it when it was around 10, I'm not 100% sure as it came from a nursery where the staff were not entirely sure of the age.

Photos of Pinus Mugo (as of today)

[bodhidharma]

It is probably a good time to give it a little bit of food, but not to much. Pines slow down but continue to grow at this time of year and need a little food. It is very leggy and needs some good Bonsai techniques applied to it. Wiring, Needle trimming etc. Probably get it healthy again and do a little study in the meantime as to how to style it.

[isabella]

Thanks for your advice I will give it a bit of food and start looking at what form I want to work it into. It used to be a nice informal upright but as you can see it's in very poor shape now. Do you have any suggestions for encouraging it to become more dense? There is some new growth on the primary branches fairly close to the trunk which I'm happy about, but I'm thinking I might have to wire it to give it the 'compact' look it used to have. Any advice/suggestions would be great. I am a novice when it comes to bonsai but I do want to do the right thing and bring the tree back to being health

[bodhidharma]

Yours is a two needle pine and they respond well to candle cutting and bud pinching but, as said earlier, i would get your tree healthy and find out about these techniques (see our Wiki) in the mean time. I think you could wire it out no problem but taking care to not disturb the new buds down lower.

[shibui]

This is typical of a pine that has not been maintained properly. If left alone the terminal buds grow longer each year and inner buds die off from lack of light and competition from the stronger terminal shoots.
Not having been repotted for a while means the rootball will be compacted and full of roots so it will be difficult to water and feed this tree. Definitely feed and check watering carefully until you get the chance to root prune and repot. Cut back long branches when you can see inner buds. plenty of light to stimulate new buds and to keep them developing.

Mughos seem to bud back on bare wood easier than most pines so there is hope for the tree.
At the convention Ryan Neil mentioned mugho as being in the white pine group for pruning purposes. His advice to get inner buds was to feed well, provide plenty of sun and allow the tips to grow freely to stimulate sap flow - the tree will reward branches that grow well and collect plenty of energy by initiating new buds. When buds are established you can cut back the long ends and start growing the branches again.

[isabella]

Oh that's a big relief to hear Shibui thank you very much! I will give it a feed and water carefully. Hopefully by spring there will be some budding back and the tree will start to look a bit nicer and improve its vitality. I'll post another photo in a while once it's had a chance to recover