Styling developed black pine

[eliass]

G'day all I decided that after a longs week work I would stay home tonight and tackle a jbp I had been wanting to style.. I had meant to take it to somone to style, but have not had the time( I had wanted to watch an experienced person work) so I began cleaning it up when I came across a branch I really liked unfortunately it crosses the trunk and it just doesn't look right could I please have your opinion on what u could do with this branch other then chop also any ideas on the direction you think would best suit the tree.

[daiviet_nguyen]

Hi there eliass,

Very nice tree!

I understand your question, but in styling we would need to take the entire tree into consideration.

Having seen only the lower branches of this tree, it would be hard to actually make any suggestion at all. I have not seen all branches yet, but I would guess that you have a number of design options with this tree.

The only thing I would suggest at this stage is not to cut anything off if you are unsure of what you want.

Wire them all up Eliass, open the branches out, take a few pictures. Then I am sure other more experienced members would make very valuable suggestions.

It is very nice raw material indeed.

Best regards.

[DavidN]

Hey Eliass,
Just thought I would let you know that if you would like to workshop this tree with others then Bonsai Northwest's Monday night meeting (5/03) is a workshop night. Feel free to come along and bring your tree and you will be able to get first hand advice from a number of experienced members.

David

[Scott Martin]

Eliass the workshop suggested by David is a great idea. Even if you just let other people look at the tree and give their opinion it might help clarify for you the future direction you want to take.

It looks really healthy and that's a great start.

[The Hacker]

Hi Eliass,

Great looking JBP How old is it?, the work shop is a great idear & its all free advice but the best thing everyone will see the tree differently there for more idear's
for you

Regard's

The Hacker

[eliass]

Will go along as I have been looking to join , ps why does the website not work?

I will take another piece that I want to work on as after cleaning this up yesterday I found branches that where disproportionate to the trunk reverse taper and whirl branching.

The bottom two branches had to come off.

I will now let the tree recover for a season or two as I removed a lot of foliage , hope it's not too much..

I will let the foliage elongate on the left and then wire them down. I think it will also need to be repoted at more of an angle when the time is right.

[Craig]

and now you have a tree with no lower branches

[shibui]

Craig,
Having no lower branches is not a problem unless you are styling something that needs lower branches. You can see from the pics the branches that were there grew at odd angles, etc so it would be really difficult to style something that included those in it. As it is the remaining branches are probably only 25cm from the soil so plenty of scope to design a slightly larger tree and more scope to play with shari and hanging branches which pines are known for if that's the way Elias decides to go.

Hacker, you looked at this pine a few weeks ago.....You might even have 1 or 2 of its brothers at your place.
It is about 10 years old but 5 of those were wasted as these trees sat, potbound in 11 cm pots and did little growing until they were planted in the growing beds about 5 years ago. Now they have had 2 years to reestablish in the boxes and should be developing lots of new feeder roots.

Good bonsai and lots of learning with this tree Elias

[DavidN]

Hi Eliass,
The website has been built in Flash and unfortunately, Apple decided it won't support flash and so if you are using an iPhone or iPad to try and access the website, it won't work. Just wish Apple would support it. Almost childlike the way they won't support it.

David

[Craig]

Craig,
Having no lower branches is not a problem unless you are styling something that needs lower branches. You can see from the pics the branches that were there grew at odd angles, etc so it would be really difficult to style something that included those in it. As it is the remaining branches are probably only 25cm from the soil so plenty of scope to design a slightly larger tree and more scope to play with shari and hanging branches which pines are known for if that's the way Elias decides to go.

I understand that,
The original question was what can be done with those branches without cutting them off, and now they're gone so i guess the question is answered , the remaining branches should now be cleaned out so light/air can get inside to promote backbudding, i looking forward to see where this tree goes now

[Craig]

Elias, for what it's worth, i have been looking at your pics and i have highlighted some areas for you to consider on your next tree.

The main trunk could have been chopped and one or more of the green arrows trained as new leaders , i even think the green ? could be used effectively , especially if you grow the tree on for a few years.

Or maybe kept the main trunk and used the white crosses as a twin trunk.
things to consider next time, good luck with this one

d55adcd9.jpg

[eliass]

Thanks David I now recall the last time I visited the site was on my pc..

Cheers shibui on the age.... I'm running out of trees to practice on might have to pay you another visit soon.

I should have included the sketch I did before butchering the tree, Craig I didn't think I needed the bottom branches that is why I choped them.

Anyways hope to get it looking like this one day. Forgive the quality was done on the iPad....

[craigw60]

Hi Elliass, the sketch is very good. The uneven branch lengths on either side are excellent. I think if you incorporated Shibui's idea of a hanging branch it would give the tree a great deal of character, this branch should be the first branch on the left hand side of the tree. Craig has also gives you some good advice re-spreading and thinning the branches now to promote back budding and to strengthen the existing buds on the interior of the branches. Pines are setting buds for next seasons growth now so this task is important as is a heavy feeding program.
Craigw

[Mojo Moyogi]

Pines are setting buds for next seasons growth now so this task is important as is a heavy feeding program.

Excellent advice in regards to feeding JBP at this time of year, mine are currently on a generous application of Dynamic Lifter coupled with weekly alternating feeds of Powerfeed and Seasol, both at full strength.

Cheers,
Mojo

[The Hacker]

Hi Eliass,

The sketch looks very nice & i'm sure the tree will turn out looking very close to that, here's just a thourght I had, maybe you could Shari between the 2 jin's on the lower part of the trunk or maybe not

Regard's

The Hacker