When to repot these pines?

[rockkcorful]

Hello all.

I have these JBPs I would like to repot this year if possible. Pine (a) and (b) started their training about a month or so ago. From red dragon actually if anyone had gone to the recent sale. They were very dense and have been cleaned back and had branches selected.

Pine (c) started training last spring and has since been worked on in the summer and bud selected a month or so ago aswell.

They are all starting the back bad/produce candles

When is it ok to re pot?

76A65B1C-41E7-4D5D-A4DF-0A0C03C1B2A3.jpeg

[Jarad]

Hey Mate,

Check out the thread below, there is a shedload of useful info there.
https://www.ausbonsai.com.au/forum/view ... 31&t=21582

Do you have pictures if your trees in their entirety?

[shibui]

Pines do not seem to mind a late spring root prune. I generally do mine at the end of my spring repot schedule - around October but earlier would not hurt.
You are somewhat warmer up there so it is possible that you could safely repot even earlier. I think the key is that the trees need to be growing soon after root pruning so the roots can regrow reasonably quickly.
There are many who follow the 'one insult per year' school on pines meaning they only do one of pruning, styling or repotting at a time. I have not been constrained by that and frequently repot in the same year I have done major pruning or wiring and have not had problems with poor growth or ill health. You will need to decide which to follow.

It is quite difficult to see detail in your posted photos due to the small size. I know files need to be under 1mB for Ausbonsai but try to compress the file rather than reduce the physical size if possible so we can see some detail in the photos.

[rockkcorful]

Hello sorry about the quality try this.

[shibui]

That's so much better now that I can see some detail. I find that Ausbonsai seems to turn pictures round to landscape orientation, even when you originally took them in portrait - hence the sideways images. I just stick with landscape when taking photos for ausbonsai so that they end up posted the right way up.
Those trunks look quite chunky. Definitely the time to start developing ramification and refining the branching and apex.

They are in decent sized pots and bags so it does not look to be urgent for repotting. Give a few of the northern pine growers a few days to respond to see if they have different opinions on timing for repotting pines but otherwise plan to wait until at least August?

[rockkcorful]

Thankyou. Why August? What will I be looking for then that will tell me it’s ok to re pot?

[shibui]

Apologies. I thought you might be in a hurry to repot. Down here August would be my earliest for pines but I happily repot them right through to early November.
As long as growing will commence within a few weeks you should be OK with repotting. If you want something to look for that would signify time I'd say candles starting to swell but no need to get bogged down in technicalities. Plants are pretty tolerant and weeks, sometimes months either side of the 'right' time is fine.
That's why I'm not certain of your timing up there. Milder winters can have pines growing all year round. I know that Brisbane bonsai growers repot Chinese elm all year round. maybe pines can also be done any time as it does not get cold enough for them to go fully dormant.

[tgooboon]

General rule in Mackay is early August, my guess Brisbane would be a few weeks later. I bought one of those pines recently too, I think they could go another year easily before being repotted as they are not solid with roots, depending how much of a hurry your in.

Great stock plant. I wish I had bought 2.