AusBonsai

Wild Willy is about 5 years old, it nearly died in a small plant pot bought for $3.00 from the ABS stall in April 2010 only then possibly 10 inches high. Was not sure of the genus, it's 2 needle, and grew very quickly in 4 years. The label just said Pine.I trimmed the candles last spring, and the new ones grew well but some of the small branches will have to go I feel.
See what you think. The old needles some were 6 -7 inches wrong giving it a very untidy look, so I trimmed most to 1 inch. Left some though. I gave it a good water and feed with weak Seasol. Don't know what to do with the dormant candles. Do I cut them in half when they sprout, leave them all or what?

Bit quick on the submit button. Here's the rest of the pics. It's still untidy, but I didn't want to denude of needles completely. What do you think?

Pictures not good and the tree can not be seen from the grass.

Put you tree up on a bench with a plain background behind it and get some pictures level with the pot from different angles. This will help people see your tree better and then give better advice.

Don't rush in to anything with your tree until you understand the advice that you are given. With pines, there are things you need to do at certain times and in certain ways to achieve good results and these will depend on where the tree is in its development. Sometimes your tree will look untidy and it's important to remember what your goal for the tree is and what you need to do to get it there, rather than to do things because you think it looks untidy.

Anyway, get us some good pics and give us an idea of what you want to achieve with your tree and I think you'll find you will get wonderful advice and guidance.

A couple of things for me,

Firstly, I don't think this is a radiata, for me it looks like a JBP. The needles look very strong, and are in clusters of 2, I know radiata can be either 2 or 3 but the needles are nowhere near as stiff or rubust.

Secondly I'm not sure what the reason you cut the needles was. The untidiness of this tree in my opinion is due to a lack of structure with the branching, and overly long growth. This isn't too much of an issue as the tree is un-styled but it will impact what can be done when you do come to styling.

There should really be no reason to cut the needles on a pine, there are techniques that are used to reduce needle size, and cutting needles will always lead to browning of the tips and a messy look, and will in most cases be seen as an indication that the grower doesn't understand pines and what needs to be done in order to reduce needle length.

IMO you should have done, or do, either of these 2 things,

If you want to get budding down lower on the branches to bring the foliage back, needles should have been left intact and the branch itself should be cut, don't ever cut back past the green needles though as this sill result in the loss of the branch.

If you wish to work with the branches as they are, I would be removing the needles further down the branch, and then in mid summer work on cutting the candles that have grown from the spring flush in order to push the second flush and work at reducing your needle size this way.

At this time though pines should be allowed to grow unhindered, allowing a pine to grow now will help to diffuse the trees energy, and when the time comes to implement the techniques above, especially the cutting of candles, you wont have the problem of a tree with excess energy that will translate into a strong second flush and long needles/internodes

As stated by Neli/dansai in other threads of yours, pines have specific needs when it comes to their development as bonsai and you won't likely get away with things as well as on a deciduous tree is mistakes are made

Hope this helps,

Kerrin

Thanks everyone, it is a heavy pot, I can't lift it, but son will do for me. Then I will take more pics. Well it could be a JBP, but I bought it as a small 10 inch thing from the ABS stall at the Autumn festival for $3.00. My thoughts are they wouldn't be taking seeds from a JBP. But you may be right. Follow this space later today. It just had a label Pine on it.

Kerrin is right...1000%.
You said you have a mentor...I dont really want to know who he is but from now on it is better to get lots of advise before doing anything on this tree.
If it was mine This is what I will do:
get better pictures.
fertilize every two weeks
remove all weeds
Dont decandle the next candles, but cut back branches in autumn, the branches you want to keep, so the tree builds energy and back buds.
do not remove/cut any needles.
In autumn I would select a sacrifice branches, remove side shoots and wire them sideways so they dont shade the branches you want to keep.
Start balancing the growth between sacrifice and keeper branches the year after that and decandling .
We will help you where to cut in autumn...just be patient for now.

Hi, well I took more photos, but will give you an idea. I really don't know what do with it.
There's certainly some little side branches I was think of getting rid of. I can't lift this thing it is a concrete pot. The pics of the two top new candles that were removed last spring, and have shot up. I wasn't going to do anything to the dormant ones until they show growth.
But I clipped the existing old needles down to about one inch, but left some. I should have taken a pic from the front. Will do tomorrow, Unless you would like to see close ups of each branch especially the longest one?

Thanks for any advice.

Pat

Personally I like it as it is but tidy it up again for now. I'll have a koala climbing up to the top branch too. 'Gawd' (I can hear you think) 'her and her ornaments!' (I know Koalas don't climb pines, so what!') Or maybe being chased by Garfield.

Willy looks better now...Just do what I told you to do and fertilize him every 2 weeks.

Thanks all. Neli and Gerald particularly. RSA and Zambia. Well Willy is going well, and these are the latest.

Just look after willy well, let him grow unhindered...
Dont remove any needles...Autumn we cut him back...he needs to be strong so he gets lots of buds,