Ground growing black pine

[Abarnes93]

Hey everyone,

I have put a black pine in my garden that was planted a couple of months ago. I am hoping to turn into a future bonsai. I want to get the trunk nice and thick and also have good taper and movement. I was wondering iff I should let it grow the next year or 2 and then cut back the leaders? I was told when I bought it to not prune at all and let it grow but wouldn’t that create inverse tAper? Down low there are branches that come out from separate sections but above that there is a section with manly branches from the same section. So just wondering iff I should cut them back to 2 branches and just let the leader grow for a year or 2 or just leave it as is?

Thanks

[shibui]

Allowing growth is the fastest way to thicken a trunk but pines are a special case because they don't usually bud on bare wood so may need to cut occasionally even if that slows growth. Better to go slower than not get a bonsai at all.
There's more to bonsai than thick trunks. Trunk taper is important for scale and to look older. Nebari (root spread) is another important feature so I hope you've spread the surface roots and pruned down roots before planting it out.

There's a couple of ways I use when growing pines:
1. Grow free for 2-3 years then cut everything useful back hard. The reason for 2-3 years is that old needles fall at around 3 years old. After that it can be harder to get buds on the bare wood but cut back while needles are still healthy and you get lots of new buds so chop before oldest needles drop off.
2. Allow a leader to grow free as a sacrifice branch. It doesn't matter how tall it gets or how many whorls or inverse taper because you'll cut it all off when the trunk is thickened. Just make sure there are some healthy shoots down low that can take over when the sacrifice is cut. Not always easy with pines as strong apical shoots tend to dominate and lower shoots may weaken or even die off. This spring I chopped some tall leaders as the lower shoots were not strong

I would not be worrying about that whorl of branches as it is unlikely that section will be part of any (good) bonsai in future. Chopping back to a lower branch will give you much needed taper in your future bonsai trunk. It will also add a great bend to the trunkline.

[LeeBee73]

I can’t really give first hand experience, but I have read a lot of things about pines on this forum and in terms of reference material I think it’s hard to go past this thread. It appears to have it all!

viewtopic.php?f=131&t=25843

A lot of information here from first hand experience… everything from pot to ground grown pine examples, I encourage you to have a read through.

[Abarnes93]

Thanks heaps for the advice. That makes sense about leaving it to grow and that the whirl doesn’t matter for now and that I can pick a very low leader later on. I have arranged the roots wider too to try get nice nebari. And awesome I’ll have a look through the hole thread and see what I can find