JBP

[Albo]

I removed a sacrifice branch from this black pine at the start of the year.
Had just let it go until I finally figured out what I wanted to do with it. Just been fertilising.
Jined a lrg awkward branch that had a lot of section with no back budding.
Just did some wiring to flatten out the branches to roughly where I want.
Will probably change the angle to the first photo when I repot. Roots are circling around the world so will need to address that as well.

[Ryceman3]

I can see why you chose the direction you did.
Try and sort those roots out to make sure you get the best nebari possible and grow the rest out for a few years and I can see it developing quite quickly into something nice.

[Albo]

Ryceman, when I repot how much root can I be looking at removing safely?
The main reason I want to repot is to start to sort out the root spread but also to start to reduce pot size.
Also is end of Aug the best time for repot? I’m in western Sydney.

[Ryceman3]

The amount of root reduction possible is proportional to the amount of usable roots that you leave behind. Sounds obvious, but essentially that just means you need to leave enough viable (finer, feeder roots) to sustain the tree while it grows new ones after you have cut back. This process gets easier the more you do it, as you can rely on previous work to produce a better root system that you can cut back to. Be conservative if you are not that experienced and/or it’s the first time you have worked on the roots of the tree in question. You need to leave more if the roots are long/thick without ramification. Hopefully the work you do this time will then provide new growth closer to the trunk that you can cut back to down the track to reduce root ball size further.
I know everyone likes a ball park percentage so I’ll say between 30-50% reduction is conservative and what I’d look to cut back on an average first pine root reduction.
Late August sounds late for Sydney. I start repotting JBP in Melbourne in mid July, so I would look at mid July to early Aug as about right for me. Need to have the repot done before buds/candles begin to extend ideally.

[Albo]

Thank you for that in depth and thoughtful response.
You clearly answered everything I asked.
Great help, much appreciated

[Ryceman3]

Thank you for that in depth and thoughtful response.
You clearly answered everything I asked.
Great help, much appreciated

To save you the trouble of having to keep telling people your location, you can add it to your profile and it appears under your name each time you post. This helps people give better advice as they can take into account conditions where you live.
Not compulsory… but might be handy.

[Albo]

Repot done. I felt it was necessary to get it out of the garden potting mixture it was in and address the surface roots.Feels like winter is nearly over here in Sydney, 23 degrees today.
As I felt the vigour was not the best I did very little root reduction and used a bigger growing pot. Just removed some dead and lrg course roots. I teased out and repositioned the surface roots (some with wire) as many were circling.
Thirds Akudama, pumice, lavarock.

Has some good back budding from last season. Plan is to fertilise plenty with nutricote and powerfeed and let it just grow at least till autumn.

If anyone feels I should be doing anything different please comment.

[dansai]

Should be happy and grow well for you now.

One thing I noticed with your styling, on both sides of the tree you have one branch going up and the other going down. It would look more harmonious if you kept each side the same.They don't have to be the same both sides.

[Albo]

Thanks Dansai,
I think I understand what you mean about the harmony of the branching and I agree. The primary branch on the left grows straight up. I’m working on bringing it down to the point where it cracked a little so I stopped. I think it’s something I will just need to be patient with and bring it down a bit, let it heal, bring it down a bit.
I don’t want to go to splitting and potentially endanger that branch.

I have used the technique of cutting a small wedge out of the underside of a branch on a juniper to bring a branch down from the junction with the trunk (the armpit) for lack of a better description. That seems to have worked on the juniper. Might use that here eventually.

The goal of my “styling”this time round was mainly to put some curves in the branches and spread them out to get maximum light.