Hi all, and a question about JBP

[Harshadg]

Hi All,

This is my first post here... been lurking a while. I'm very much a beginner, and recently acquired some very rough nursery stock of JBP that I want to practice on. Most resources on the internet that I found seem to discuss maintenance of JBP bonsai, not so much development of nursery stock. I do apologise if my naive questions have been asked before - but with a subject such as a JBP, I'd rather be careful before I make irreversible mistakes and let the tree grow out of control.

So I got a young plant see here a few days ago (https://imgur.com/gallery/h1X4bCf). The stem was straight so I twisted it using 5.5 mm wire. I want to keep this a small tree - current size is good. What I want to do with it is develop the whorl at the top into an apex and restrict it to this size. I'm leaving the buds at the base of the trunk so that they can help thicken it over time.

I have two questions:
1. Should I be taking off needles below the whorl at the apex? I imagine I should do this because I want the trunk to taper, and having the needles just below the whorl won't help. I didn't really take off any needles for now, mostly because I don't want to make a mistake.
2. As far as developing the apex - the whorl consists of 8 branches. How do I go about developing an apex? Do I chop off some of the branches - maybe leave a leader or three, and ramify them over time? Or do I leave all 8 and ramify over time - I imagine this will lead to inverse taper? If branch selection is the answer - how many branches should be left? I imagine now is a good time to select branches?

A lot of my questions arise from the fact that I haven't seen a JBP grow - it feels like once I see it grow a full season, I might be better able to tell what to do, when (and of course all the resources on the internet will make sense).

Thank you for any direction on this...

Cheers,
Harshad

[shibui]

I like the bends you have put in the trunk. Much better than the usual S bend.
I would advise against basing the design on a whorl of branches. Pines quickly thicken near a group of branches and reverse taper does not look good, especially at the top of a tree. Always try to reduce whorls to just 2 branches - 1 is a branch, the other continues the trunk.

For the time being you could leave all those upper branches on and use the current apex as a sacrifice branch to help thicken the trunk. Later, when the trunk is a suitable size you would cut off above one of the smaller branches along the trunk to make a new apex.
The needles won't hurt but they will be feeding the tree so it will grow better this year. Needles are valuable on developing pines. As well as providing food they are also a source of new buds. Each needle has a dormant bud at the base that can grow if the pine is pruned. The needles only live for 2-3 years then drop off. After the needles have dropped or been removed it can be quite difficult to get new buds to grow on the bare parts.
Always try to have either healthy needles or shoots where you want branches in future.

[Harshadg]

Thank you for your response shibui. Very helpful.

Just want to follow up since the answers might impact what I do with an emerys dwarf (nursery stock) and a slightly larger, equally untrained nursery stock of the wildtype JBP ([url]here: https://imgur.com/gallery/FxLhRVE[/url])): is now a good time to prune/select branches at whorls if I want to start wiring my plants? I'm really looking to just introduce gross bends while I still can.

Cheers,
H

[shibui]

Any time is a good time to prune and select branches. I've seen some growers who won't prune pines in spring because they 'bleed' but I have not noticed that with my black pines.
Wiring and bending can also be done any time you have the materials and inclination.

That black pine has very long internodes and branches. I would be inclined to prune most quite hard to get more new shoots where they will be needed.

The dwarf forms require a slightly different approach. They tend to have shorter internodes naturally but have lots of shoots at each whorl. It is necessary to remove lots of those shoots so the nodes don't swell.

[Harshadg]

So this is what I've done to the leggy JBP https://imgur.com/gallery/RTiwNrj.

I'd like to keep the branch pointing up in the apex as a sacrificial branch to build trunk thickness, and the former leader is now the tail, so I've just left it as is. I'd like to get branching and backbudding in the tail. I took out some of the extra branches at the whorls.

I don't want to style it much more at this point, but I want to create more branching so that in the future I will have options to work with. Is there something else I should be doing at this stage?

I really just want to grow this out and so I'm thinking of slip potting it in a foam box.

Thank you for your advice.

Cheers,
H

[shibui]

It would make it so much easier for us if you could upload photos to your threads so we don't have to keep going to a 3rd party site to view them. Photos will need to be under 1MB (was 1/2 mb for a while? so it the larger files are not accepted try reducing a bit further.)

In the photo you still have a 4 way split at the first junction - main trunk, sacrifice branch and 2 other side branches. You may get away with that for a season or 2 but it will eventually thicken, especially when that sacrifice takes off.
You have shortened one of those side branches and it will bud from the needles in spring. That will give you some options for further ramification on that particular branch.
The only sure way I know of getting buds on pines is to prune them back to the needles where you want the buds. If you really want some more branching and back budding on that main trunk you will probably need to prune it. It may seem a backward step to cut so much off but the reality is long, bare sections if you leave it as is when those needles age and die. Same for any side branches.

You don't need to cut back now. Any time in the next year should be OK for this tree.

A foam box would be fine for this. I would wait for spring and check the roots properly when potting into the box. Good looking roots are very important part of bonsai. Tangled and twisted roots do not look so good. Smaller, thin, young roots can be untangled and pruned if necessary but thicker, older ones are much more difficult and thin tangled roots quickly become thick, tangled roots when you grow a tree for trunk size.
I don't know what the roots are like on this tree but it would be a shame to miss the opportunity only to find later you have a really thick mass of ugly tangled roots and have missed the opportunity to deal with them.
Putting a really small tree in a very large pot can cause problems but this one should be larger enough and vigorous enough to utilise a foam box of root space.

I suspect you will not appreciate the lazy S bend you have made in this tree one day. That branch halfway along the trunk is the key to this tree IMHO. It will allow you to get a more natural bend in the trunk when you eventually cut the tail off and replace with the much better bit you grow with that small branch. Look after that branch! Prune it in spring to get buds and ramification. Keep building good bends and changes of angle with any shoots that grow after you prune it.