AusBonsai

Hi all. This is a 2 year old jbp seedling( it's in it's second summer). As you can see its growing like a champion but I am wondering if there is anything I should do to it now? Do I need to get some sunlight into the nebri to get the lower buds moving( there are lots of bud down low)? Or should I prune off some of the top to send a little energy back down the tree? Is now the time to go anything or do I wait? I am happy with how they are all growing and I feel that I have got everything right( long humid summer, lots of sun and fertilizer) so far but I am always trying to grow my knowledge. The more insight the better so please all give me your thoughts.

Hi Kane, the health looks good,I would pull some needles just to let light in and keep the spiders at bay,get some wire on to it ,nothing fancy just heavy enough to put some movement into it top to bottom,wire on and off repeat,you can wire over remaining needles won't hurt at this stage,try and preserve some buds just above medium level that will extend into branches for sacrifices to fatten the bottom if you like,you can cut the top off any time so the power can feed into below,balance if you like, grow a bit cut a bit,grow a bit and so on,no exact science here,if you have a few more of these babies,just experiment and learn as you go,as your been doing keep smashing with the food,remember we are building not maintain g,hope that helps a bit Kane...good luck mate...cheers Anthony

Get some wire on them and bend to get some movement as andrew suggests
I notice you have a few so Some you can cut back to a branch and use that as new leader. this will start to get taper, but with only 2 years of growth will not be dramatic. Again wire for shape.

Ken

thanks for the replies guys. I should have mentioned that i am growing them to be mame to shohin sized trees.

I would cut those long shoots to get those lower buds moving. If you leave the tall shoot the lower buds will remain dormant or even die off. You can still prune now - sometimes the lower buds will not shoot late in the summer but will take off in Spring.
Pruning will give lower shoots to thicken the base; taper which just wiring can not achieve; and changes of direction that I reckon is far better than wiring achieves. I usually prune my seedlings when they are about 10 cm tall to get low shoots growing really early.

Thanks shibui. That's what I was thinking of doing.