Pinus caribaea - Caribbean Pine

[wattynine]

Not widely used as a bonsai as far as I can tell from forum activity and I have one main reason I use them - I can get them for nothing.
I have a spot in NQ, near Cardwell to more teasing, where these grow on the side of the road. It is near a forestry plantation, bl##dy near in fact. I know them to be this species as I have researched the forestry website and they use elliotti or caribaea or a hybrid of both (mine might be the hybrid) but these are definitely not elliotti due to the bark texture. Which I will say apart from being free is the other main reason I love this pine, man has it lovely chunky, scaly, deep fissured bark, enough I'm getting excited about bark again.
I sought the landowners permission for admission as now I have some with I hope more to follow.
The downsides, yes the needles are long, I am working on them and it is successful but will it ever get to Black Pine size, NO I DON'T THINK SO, LIVE WITH IT. When these are grown they are grown in an absolutely straight telegraph pole standard with a bit of foliage at the top, that by the way is the way we NQ'ers see Pines, straight with all the branches pointing at the sky and then only at the top of the tree.
So to get these things to bend and accept it can be problematic again these things can be overcome, in young trees they see to accept the bend quite well, in the older trees, well I visit them one year, cut the top off them and bend the new growth, you will see examples as follows.
I found this site about five years ago (dammit I have to say it, Liz, my wife found it, there it's out) as we drove through NQ. Since then I have visited the site frequently and removed the following trees. Over these years I have wired them on site, thrown bits of truck tires over them to bend them down, cut the tops off them, simply bent them by hand, de-shooted them, added dead foliage to the base for water retention, basically treated them as my own. This has also been met with much disappointment as the site has been wiped out twice by cyclone, and once by the following roadworks. On my last trip north in November, road signs were out again, right on this corner, to say major roadworks were about to happen again. I fear for my next trip north in February to see the site demolished and any trees I have commence are yet again Graded to the ground, we'll see.
See what I mean about back stories, they help you picture the tree (or you just aren't reading this cr#p and just lookin' at the picture,
without further delay.............To the trees
(and yes theres a few photos this time)
This was one of the first to be removed, pencil thin it was and yet still with the lovely corky bark, which by topic of conversation only appears on the tree after about five years of age, so this tree regardless of it's size is now more than ten years old.

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I have attempted to bend this tree in the past and it resulted in a lot of the bark flaking off, not a result I was looking for, see photo

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So much wiser (?) I proceed for the second time,
my second pair of hand

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all raffia'd up an no place to go

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and wired for sound

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and the bending result

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[wattynine]

next tree
one more recently acquired only probably three years old, in captivity since it was a seedling

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added a shari for future purposes

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[wattynine]

Next tree
Go this one while still young enough to bend so went for an experiment, your comments (or lack thereof) will tell me if that was adviseable/successful but the twist was put in last year, secondary wiring today,
before

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again the second pair of hand (I'm only using one of them) comes into use to take off the heavy wire

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[wattynine]

Man this next one was so close to death I though it was't coming back, but new shoots at the top and the bonsai gods favour me again, not sure were it's going (windswept literati?).
Again a side not regarding the dirt (yes Leong, I said dirt again), I read a few internet sites about the removal of trees from the wild and most were quite specific about getting as much of the local dirt as possible, all done in every case of the earlier pines. They grow in a very red hard when fry, sloppy when wet clay mixture, naturally. In all case of taking them home in this dirt after about two seasons the tree begins to deteriorate, so these ones you see that have just escaped death was using the right season to repot them and into my potting medium (is that better Leong?). I can only say they thrive on the dirt in the wild but in an enclosed environment this is not a long term option.
Back to topic
the next tree

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Next tree,
again collected whilst still supply so bends were applied, (on all of these I hope to be able to recover the back story photos, Cryptolocker got them all back in September, still hoping there's a cure for the virus t o be released soon)
before

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great bark on these trees

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[wattynine]

Next tree
this is a result of cutting the tree onsite and collecting it later with new growth

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and now the new bends

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Not touching this one as it's just back from the brink of death.
But a question to the readers, leave it as a majestic informal upright (granted ramification and back-budding aside) OR bend the top half of the tree from the dead wood jin up, back down to lie against the trunk?

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or this ?????????????????????????????? (don't laugh at the vert)

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[wattynine]

Next tree
I removed two of these, side by side in the ground, same day, same conditions, same potting medium, same potting treatment, same pot, same everything, one died, one survived, sometimes it just doesn't work the way you hope.

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my extra set of hand is deployed for heavy wire removal

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and a glimpse of a nearly finished tree, nearly

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Last but not least, the largest I have removed from the site, and my only formal upright in any tree species.
I struggled with this (and continue to do so) my idea of a pine has had to change dramatically from the pines that I grew up with, as mentioned straight upright with all the branches at the top third or quarter of the tree and all pointing at the sun.

These snow compacted tree of Japan and snow laden trees with heavy boughs are absolutely new to me as a NQ'er so I am attempting to come to terms with it.
This tree has so far to go it's not funny, need back budding, ramification, more styling ect, but am interested in any feedback as to my direction with it for now
before today, initial wiring to bring the branches down was done about two years ago.

as it was today

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did I mention the great bark?

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removal of primary wire, looking for fronts?

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secondary wire in place, looking for new fronts?

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and that's my pine story, hope you enjoyed, great mornings work.
Watty

[kcpoole]

Nice watty
Lots of trees to play with there and the results may be interesting too.

Re Crypto locker,,, Try this site which has a decrypter available for the original virus.
https://www.decryptcryptolocker.com/

if it one of the newer strains then you are stuffed as there is no way to hack the encryption on the files. 2048 bit encryption is virtually impossible to crack and with cryptolocker the only way to recover you files is from backup, or pay the ransom within 3 days on the original computer.

Another reason why I use linux.

Ken

[Isitangus]

Hi watty re the last pine and your coming to grips with "the snow laden branches" idea-there's no rule to say it has to be styled like that-seek the inspiration from your memories and natural surrounds, it'll end up looking far more natural and you'll not it more.
That looks like a nice species of pine to work with. Is the bark brittle/soft like allocasurina?
Anything free is good to work with and experiment on!

[wattynine]

Thanks Isitangus, I had this for two years as an Australian pine typically described in the post, my problem with it was, it screamed "youth" not "age" so this is the second style attempt after having been to Japan and New Zealand and concentrated on pine design while I was over there. I hope I am getting close but this tree has YEARS of development to go yet.
Watty

[Tambrand]

Watty,

thanks for showing, I enjoyed those pines, and am glad to see someone else growing them.

On my side they are lumber trees, and mine are from seed , as well as purchased as seedlings from the Forestry Division.

Soil is 5 mm silica based gravel and a compost that is aged for a year.
They grow with rain and watering.
Been trying the J.B.pine techniques on them.
Hope you don't mind me showing.
Later.
Tambrand

[wattynine]

Go for it Tambrand, it's interesting seeing yours as well you know, for comparisons. I f I may just add a small quickly learning amateurs opinion, you probably need to get into some branch bending, it's about to get very "leggy" on you
What is interesting is the fact that all of mine I have contorted into the "snow crushed" bonsai of Japan (the formal upright being the only exception) and yours being the classic bonsai style, (right left back) that we are not trying to copy them as from nature. As mentioned in the previous comments I don't think they show their age well as a formal upright with the branches all upwards as well.

And apologies Isitangus, didn't get to you bark question, new formed hardened bark will come off if left under pressure of wire too long, as the bark gets older it will come off in large chunky scales if dealt with too harshly, I wouldn't say necessarily soft/brittle is a description of this bark. The outer layers as the bark thickens will come off but as you get closer to the tree the bark becomes quite attached.

hope this helps

thanks for viewing

Watty

[wattynine]

I think, the last of the bad news, everyone of these has passed.
I think my impatience killed them.
A. Re-potting, although amazingly careful, I attempted it with two years of collecting, bad move?
B. Harsh bending, research tells me these are grown for straight growth and lack of growth to branches, my experiments on getting some shape to them may have killed them.
C. Pruning, again my impatience, should have left them the hell alone for a while to recover.
D. was not careful enough on my watering regime.

Have been a great learning experience and I have successfully collected another one. Although where I collect from has very little re-growth happening, my guess due to poor climate conditions, lack of a wet season now for three years.

It may come back and if it does, I'll be back there with my shovel.

Watty