Black Pine (Yatsubua): The Eff'd Pine

[anthonyW]

Hmm interesting Mark, look forward to your progression, you have a solid trunk there and I can see a very handy tree in there with your foundation.

Just a bit of fun with your bones...

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[Ryceman3]

How did this pine pull up after your first decandling MJL?

[MJL]

G’day mate - nice morning ‘eh! Feels like my fingers are about to drop off. Here’s a few quick shots in the sleet 5 minutes ago. Going well, I think? Healthy. I’ve lost my face to face pine lessons due to COVID so this spring I am on my own, I guess! I know it’s silly but I still get a tad confused as to what to do when bit getting there.






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[Ryceman3]

G’day mate - nice morning ‘eh! Feels like my fingers are about to drop off. Here’s a few quick shots in the sleet 5 minutes ago. Going well, I think? Healthy. I’ve lost my face to face pine lessons due to COVID so this spring I am on my own, I guess! I know it’s silly but I still get a tad confused as to what to do when bit getting there.

Howdy MJL,

What a great day to be in lockdown! It is a tad brisk/wet/arctic to say the least...
This is looking good, all seems to be going to plan I would think. Shame about your pine tutorials, hopefully they can get back underway in the not too distant future. I'll give you my 2c on what to do, but as is the case with everything in bonsai though, it's information that is up to interpretation and modification however you see fit (or just ignore it!).
Stuff to do now :
Look to have your needle counts balanced, I aim for something between 10-12 pairs. This balances energy across the tree. Reduce again at decandling.

Ensure only one terminal bud per shoot. I have left two in the past but if you are planning to decandle in Dec I find that one bud elongating means the new buds (second flush after decandling) only form around one stub and this results in more options for acute/attractive ramification. Not sure if I explained that all that well, hopefully you get what I am saying.

Start your fert regime so the tree is pumped and strong for decandling in December. I usually wait a month after repot to begin fert, and if not repotting I start laying down fert bags mid September. I also use liquid fert throughout Spring in conjunction.

Like I said, that's my program ... take from it as much or as little as you like. Your tree has a good structure set so your main goal now would be to build ramification, once you get the routine down it's really the easy bit!

I like this tree, thanks for the update ... nice!

[TimS]

Good to see it's survived the inital hard chop back and getting into the drastically smaller pot there! Within a short time with how densely budding this cultivar is i'm sure it will look excellent