AusBonsai

Hi all, I bought this regular pine bonsai starter about 2000 I think. wasn;t sure what to do with it so bent it over, used a coat hanger actually. Anyways, this is the first pic I took of it in Nov '04. Now, after a few more years of training, and too many years in small pots (I stuck it in this pot about 10 months ago).

Please critique - don't worry, I have thick skin.

G'day Marc,

Coming along nicely there mate. Is there any chance of a couple more photos ? Maybe one from the left side, and one from the right? It will just make it a little easier to see the position of all the branches.

Cheers,
Leigh.

No problemo...

oh, sorry, should say, the pot itself is 30cm high, so the tree is from tip to tip say 40cm. the trunk at it's base is about as thick as my thumb...

That scar on the top of the trunk was a branch that broke off when the tree feel about 18 months ago, dammit!! but it seems to be healing quite easily. This tree produces buds all over the place, so it is very healthy. It hasn't coned yet...

I have 2 main concerns, one is getting it to thicken up, and two is the top branch being a regular branch wired up, not exactly an ideal top...

that is showing some nice form

hey marc there is promise here thats for sure; one word of warning though. when developing a cascade, you must be careful of the energy balance ( especialy on a pine). the cascade is the most impotortant to keep strong. you do this by 1 letting the end of it run and keeping everything else in check graduating back up to the apex being the least 1 bud. so the tip of the cascade is the strongest and the head on top is the weakest. the top part of the tree will always catch up and over take the rest in no time, thus weakening your cascade. there is a great article on this in the pine masters series.

G'day, yeah, this was one point i was pondering. as the tops of pines are usually dominant, how to get growth strength in the tip down below. however, so far I have been lucky here. I was thinking that perpetual trimming and pinching up top and letting the tip grow was the way to channel this energy into the tip...

This one seems not old enough to cone or flower yet. I'm waiting for some age and thickness to start in, but so far I'm really happy with this one, it seems very healthy, so fingers crossed.

thanks for the tip.

i love it what about may be a shorter top really get that cascade going strong

Hi Dayne, thanks for the comment. I'm in two minds about the top at the moment. I want to develop it a little to get some more branches in there. But I know in doing that at this stage could result in less growth being pushed down the cascade... so I think I am tending towards this, trimming to top more aggressively to push more growth down the tree....

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