Pine seedlings

[squizzy]

Hi All,

I thought I might post up my experience so far with pine seedlings. I have attached 1 picture showing 2 small seedlings in 100mm pots.The seedling on the right is what I believe to be a radiata which I collected seed locally.I believe the seedling on the left is a JBP but I cannot be certain as I cannot tell the difference between JBP, European black pine austrian pine etc as I find the similarities all to confusing and the souce of these seeds I am not 100% confident in. Anyhow. I germinated these seeds in autumn of this year gone and left them to be in the open with about a half day of shade. In early spring I pulled the ( Black?) pine seedlings out and cut the tap root to leave only 2 feeder roots and repotted them into there existing pots ( I thought I might try the seedling cutting thing but was a bit hesitant as this is my first batch of seedlings). The radiatas were a bit later in germinating so I repotted them in the same manner about 1 month later. I currently have about 30 of each variety.

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My questions for the more experienced are. What should I be doing with these seedlings in reference to pruning? Should they just be left to grow for 12 months or should I be pinching out the tips to get some additional side branching happening straight away? Should I treat the radiatas differently from the black pines? if I was intending to keep them small sized trees would this be a factor in how you answer these questions?

Any how I will keep this thread going to show the progress of the seedlings either way.

Cheers

Squizz

[shibui]

I've been pinching black pine seedlings at about the stage you've pictured to get shoots low on the trunk so I can grow a few low sacrifice branches later. I pinch out 1/2 to 2/3 of the seedling and they sheet back quickly at this stage.
If you leave them you get tall, thin trunks with few low branches. Radiatas should respond to the same treatment but I have not grown them.

[squizzy]

Just an update on a the pine seedlings.

The healthier seedling is the black pine and the other is the radiata. These are both typical of the batch of pines I have potted at the moment

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Cheers

Squizz

[Tony Bebb]

Hi Squizzy

A good thing to be doing with seedlings this young if you want small Bonsai is to wire the trunk and bend them into all sorts of weird and wonderful shapes with tight movement. Don't remove all the tip candles, but take out the strong centre one leaving smaller side candles. This will still keep the low growth. Feed well and let grow as you will need strong growth to get trunk thickness. The idea here is to let the wire cut in very deeply before removing to create scarring that will even out as the tree thickens giving you great character and movement to the trunk and bark.Use the thickest wire you can at this stage as it will not grow over and will be easier to use.

Usually one of the top shoots will grow stronger than the others, and you can remove it in 6 - 12 months and then use one of the others left to get strong. Keep the needles on the sacrificial growth away from the future branches to keep the sun on them and they will stay healthy. This cut and grow method will still keep lower branches to use for the future tree, while still fattening the trunk quicker. You can even put them in the ground when around three years old to fatten even more if you have good soil and conditions. After 3-5 years, preferably 5-7 years you can remove the top and create with the low branches.

Give some a try and have some fun with it.

Tony

[squizzy]

Thanks for the info Tony. Thats a great help.

Cheers

Squizz

[Craig]

Squizz, here a radiata seedling, it's one from seed sent by 63pmp-Paul-, i think - in september 2010.

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, first stage of twisting , next stage needs wiring soon,

[Tony Bebb]

No worries Squizz. The method has been used for some time.

That's the bending Craig, like you did with the juni's. This method the wire is left on longer to get the scarring required. Not recomended for smooth bark trees, but the roughies can handle it. One thing I learned through trial and error was to make sure the coils start low around the trunk so the inital reverse taper is reduced. Can certainly be rectified when young.

[squizzy]

Here is an example of what I have done with last years seedlings.

I hope it produces the results I am after. Please let me know if there is something obviously wrong with what I have done.

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Squizz