AusBonsai

Hi guys and gals,

Some of you may remember this tree from my thread on a dig at Mount Crawford Forest back in Sept 2011. viewtopic.php?f=131&t=9543&hilit=+crawford
Anyway, I collected this Pinus Pinaster that day, and took it to the Grant Bowie workshop over the weekend hosted by Bonsai Society of South Australia.

I am unsure of how Pinus Pinaster grow as bonsai, so this tree was kind of a tree to learn new techniques with. I wanted to put some more movement in the trunk, so asked Grant to help by teaching me the drill-out technique.

Here are some photos of the tree so far...... Any pruning that was done was done leaving a stump to allow sap flow to adjust without bleeding too much and stressing the tree.

Any constructive criticism/suggestions is welcome

Hello Luke, can you please explain a few things to me about this pine...
Has the untouched section in the top third of the tree been left for the moment to help aid in the trees recovery after the bending technique, with the intention for it to be removed in the future?
Or has it been left for the moment to be shaped further down the track?
I am assuming that the future design of this tree is in the section that has been worked, once it grows out a little...with the top section eventually being removed, but as I am a beginner I am unsure
Could you please comment on the future direction of this pines design, and any information that Grant provided you with regarding this...or even a sketch etc?
Thank you as I would find this information helpful...nice work BTW!
Cheers, Dario.

Hey Dario,

Some good questions which I would like answers to myself

I see two possible options for the future of this tree. But firstly yes I have left the top to aid recovery and regain vigor. Although I have removed a small portion of the top to 1) allow more light to the branch which is wired, 2) to remove one of the competing "trunk-lines" where it forked into a V, & 3) hopefully help balance growth and promote back budding (which may be hard considering it is taped up ). As you can see I removed the rear of the "V" and one option is to bring the top back over towards the left and have a triangle shaped apex. And the second option is to remove the upper portion I have left at the fork and develop the branch I have wired into the triangle shaped-apex. With both it will rely on back budding, and future branch placement. But also since there is not much info on Pinus Pinasters I may not be able to reduce the needle length to a convincing length and therefore this tree would only serve its purpose of experimenting with techniques new to me.

I am thinking along the lines of this for the 1st option I mentioned - Hope that helps.

If anyone can offer a better solution/direction for me to take with this tree, I'm all ears

Hi Luke, thanks for setting me straight and explaining your options so thoroughly
I think you will have a lovely pine and I hope you get the back budding you require, and that this species turns out to be great for bonsai for you!
Cheers, Dario. Oh yeah, be sure to update this as it progresses.