Advice on Japanese Black Pine development

[adzthomas]

Help with first Black Pine pls? I have this black pine from bunnings which has me stumped on how to start its bonsai training as i have never worked on pines. To me the branching looks terrible, and i need serious help on where to prune it to start creating a suitable starting point to create a future bonsai trunk and overall shape? I really have no idea on how much or where it should, or could be, branch pruned, needles removed or candles cut ect, at this stage to help its transformation????

[Daluke]

Hi. Did you have a style in mind for it? How thick is the trunk?

[kcpoole]

Wire on the trunk and maybe raffia too, bend the bejeezers out of it to get some movement.
The long straight sections are no good and the foliage is ( except for the first branch) is too far from the trunk.

Not really sure if it will back bud but you can try to cut back hard to promote shoots closer in.

Ken

[shibui]

You have bought yourself something quite difficult to start with

This one desperately needs to be pruned to try to get some buds growing closer to the trunk and lower on the branches so you will have something to make a bonsai with. Now is a good time to prune JBP to get strong shoots and possible back buds.
If it were mine I would cut back every branch to leave just 3-4 pairs of needles on any shoot. You should get new buds grow from the base of the remaining needles. With a bit of luck you may also get some buds grow from the bare branch further back but that does not always occur. If the branch has small side branches cut any long bits back to where there is a smaller side shoot. If a branch has a long section with no needles consider removing it altogether unless you think it is vital in the future tree. This pruning is vital to get more growth closer to the trunk. If you leave it to grow the branches will just get longer and more bare. No point cutting candles at this stage. You need to stimulate more vigorous shoots much further back along the branches.
Feed it every 2-3 weeks even through winter and you will get lots of strong buds growing next spring and summer.
After that you can start to decide on a shape and which bits to keep and which to get rid of.