Austrian Black Pine and Bosnian Pine

[damienw133]

Hi all,

I was just wondering/hoping someone on here might have had some experience in using either Austrian Black pines (Pinus nigra) and or Bosnian pines (pinus leucodermis) in bonsai or niwaki.

Theres a couple of landscaping trees at one of my local nurseries that i'd like to develop into fairly large niwaki garden pines up to about 3 meters tall but i'm a bit concerned about how well these two varieties respond to candle pinching to force back budding and finer branching.

I've had good success with Japanese black pines but as i understand both Austrian and Bosnian pines are single flush pines and rather a different kind of beastie to deal with...does this mean i should follow advice related more to scots pines or Japanese white pines when i'm working on them?

Any help would be muchly appreciated!

Cheers,
Damien

[Matthew]

I have a Austrian pine used as a garden tree about 2 metres tall near one of my ponds . I treat it pretty simular to my Japanese black pine maintainance has seemed to respond well. Ill decandle it in two weeks and do a light thinning, ill then select buds a few weeks later than come autumn ill do a major thinning and needle pluck. any large pruning I wait till winter

[Ryceman3]

I have a Austrian pine used as a garden tree about 2 metres tall near one of my ponds . I treat it pretty simular to my Japanese black pine maintainance has seemed to respond well. Ill decandle it in two weeks and do a light thinning, ill then select buds a few weeks later than come autumn ill do a major thinning and needle pluck. any large pruning I wait till winter

This is interesting to me Matthew as I have been under the impression that Austrian Black Pine are treated as a single flush species! I only have little ones so they are growing on and as such I haven't really applied any techniques to them yet. Is the fact it's a garden tree something to take into account or do you think as bonsai Austrian Pine could take a similar kind of regime?
Always learning!

[shibui]

Alpine Art has grown quite a few pines he identified as P. nigra. I'm pretty sure he was using similar technique to JBP for the ones he developed as bonsai.

[damienw133]

I have a Austrian pine used as a garden tree about 2 metres tall near one of my ponds . I treat it pretty simular to my Japanese black pine maintainance has seemed to respond well. Ill decandle it in two weeks and do a light thinning, ill then select buds a few weeks later than come autumn ill do a major thinning and needle pluck. any large pruning I wait till winter

Thank you!
As you've got quite a large one, i'm a bit curious if you grew it from very small stock or from more advanced material to start with....if from larger have you found it back buds on older wood fairly readily? Or would it be necessary to wire and contort longer branches back closer to the trunk and then build the additional branching from those?
Only asking as the better looking tree at the nursery that i'm looking at has some flexible but leggy branches that need addressing....

[shibui]

As you've got quite a large one, i'm a bit curious if you grew it from very small stock or from more advanced material to start with

That's getting a bit personal

[Huw.S]

I have had a small Pinus Nigra in a pot for a few years now and have noticed a few things about its growth. The first 2 years I owned it (in a black plastic pot), no buds or candles opened at all. They opened one spring after repotting (into its current pot) and fertilising, all the buds opened without elongating and the needles stayed very short. Since then the new candles do not seem to elongate before opening and the needles stay relatively short throughout the season! I treat it as a single flush and simply remove any bud junctions with more than two buds and generally clean it up.

Here is a photo of it before this years new growth, looking a bit shaggy but will be cleaned up soon. Im still working on ramification and maybe de candling would speed this process up, open to suggestions in this regard. Hope this was helpful!

[Matthew]

My garden tree . tree is starting to take shape . I do major needle thinning in autumn it looks straight in photo but has quite nice movement and a flare base.

rsz_1rsz_pine.jpg