Young Japanese Black Pine

[Dub]

I am adding a couple of 2-3 year old Japanese Black Pine seedlings to my collection. I am asking the help of experienced members.
I am aware JB pines have a natural tendency to produce 'Whorls' of buds at the end of branches as these these two are. At what age or stage of development do I start selecting back to 2 buds, that is to produce growth in the direction I desire or maybe to direct growing strength to a weaker area. I do understand Autumn being a good season to bud select.
Or do I just let them grow!
Thank you for any help.

[shibui]

Any time is a good time to reduce whorls on pines. A lot depends on where you see the tree going. Obviously there's no need to worry about parts that will eventually be cut off.
You mention these are just buds at this stage. It is probably not necessary to take off buds yet. It is the growing branches that result from those buds next summer that will thicken the junction.
Bud reduction in autumn is one of the maintenance tasks for well developed pines and those buds are usually small shoots by that time. It is not really necessary to reduce unopened buds on developing trees unless you think they are affecting the taper of the junction. Letting those buds grow should help add some thickness to the trunk.

It would help if you posted a (some) photo so we can see what you are talking about to make sure that your idea of a 'bud' matches what I'm thinking. Otherwise we may be talking about completely different things

[Dub]

Thank you Neil, you do know the 2 pines very well.

[shibui]

In that case they must be very, very good and should need very little work to become great bonsai.

Seriously I don't really look at the smaller trees I sell. I also don't do all the work I would put into the trees if I wanted to keep them for myself because that amount of work would push the prices beyond most people's limits. There's also the competing issues of getting a quick result or a good result.

Photos always help us visualize the whole tree and any surrounding issues that might need to be considered, Happy to help if you want to post.