Kotobuki nursery stock

[Harshadg]

This is a JBP that I acquired from a conifer nursery in Vic last year. In that time I tried to wire it and learned that I hadn’t kept the wire on long enough and it pretty much bounced right back.

In the meanwhile I realized that some of the obvious flaws with the tree - the local swelling due to whorls - can’t be readily fixed and decided to use this to learn various aspects of JBP care.

At the end of winter I decided to see if I could start sorting out the roots and realized that I have a curl grub issue (in this and other pots). This trees roots were in good shape so I ended up deciding to straighten the roots and pot up this ugly duckling. It seems to be doing ok after the repot.

A nagging thought I can’t seem to get rid of is whether I just bite the bullet, chop off the main trunk (at the right time in the season), wire up one of the two lower most branches as a new leader, and work from there? This gets rid of the inverse taper, the bar branching and gives a chance to create taper. Don’t think that I can do anything about the graft.

Are there any other obvious design solutions that I might be missing?

Cheers,
Harshad l

[Pat3222]

G'day, thanks for sharing. Depends what you want to get out of bonsai and this pine in relation to that? I'm all about having fun and hoping to make my next tree better than my last as opposed to chasing text book perfection. If it was mine, would still remove the bar branches, from the first pic - bottom left and the second bottom right. Then one from the top, hard to suggest which from the pics but you'll need something for the back and front so it's not 2D. Then try to get more movement into the trunk. Push it left and forward from the first branch then emphasise the existing curve above back to right. That way you'll have the branches on the outside of the curves. Apply the wire anti clockwise as the first bend will need the wire tightening while you bend more than the second does and try to have the apex finish off centre from the base. Doing it this way gives you something to learn on right now and is a good reminder for your next bonsai shopping trip - what to look out for good and bad. That's just my 2 cents, good luck with it whatever you do. Cheers

[tgward]

I would attempt a new base with a wire tourniquet layer method at the middle of the bulge and repot much deeper for a few years -- would definitely deal with all ofthe bar branches now cos I think they would always look wrong. would also wire some trunk movement

[treeman]

IMO, the first step is to induce taper. You do that by cutting hard and making a new leader. As it is, it's too tall for the trunk diameter and should probably be cut back about half way to achieve a superior tree in the future. We should forget about size and look for quality first. This could make a good tree or a mediocre one.
If it were mine, I would cut at the yellow lines here or at the least at the red lines. (I know that's a lot to ask )
Cutting at the yellow, you could easily twist the new leader clockwise as you lift it to give it a curve (3 dimensional) as it ascends and create even more interest in the future trunk.

koto.JPG

[Harshadg]

Thank you all for the advice. Yellow is where I was thinking of cutting it too but just feels too drastic. However, in the long term it will get rid of key flaws. In some ways, the graft for this cultivar is a fact of this tree's life and potentially can be addressed.

I guess the next question is, when is it advisable to make the cut (considering that I already repotted it a few weeks ago)?

1. It seems that the time to make big cuts is past for this season given that we are well and truly into spring here (and candles are elongating for JBP here). Working from the principle that you want to minimize bleeding of the sap, would it be reasonable to create a wire tourniquet to minimize bleeding?
2. Alternately, it might be worthwhile waiting until next winter to give it a bit of a rest. However, it would make the inverse taper issue even worse over the course of this years growth.

I don't have the experience to know which of these is a better strategy. I appreciate your advice.

Cheers,
Harshad

[treeman]

I guess the next question is, when is it advisable to make the cut (considering that I already repotted it a few weeks ago)?

No rush. Wait until May-Aug