AusBonsai

Hi everyone,

I having a bit of a "Love / Hate" relationship with my Nishiki. Love the bark / texture (even though the graft is high up on the trunk), however getting frustrated with the development. All I seem to get is a heap of new buds without any significant growth on the branches. Last summer I did not get any candles growing on the tree. However I did last year put the tree into a bonsai training pot which may have contributed to this issue. Regardless, even when the tree was in a typical black planter pot, there has not been much branch growth - lots of small buds and needles.

Like my other pines, I went through the tree in December and cleaned the tree of all unnecessary buds eg. underneath branches, at branch joints and kept two main buds at the end of the branches. Since then the tree responded in providing a heap of new buds to replace the ones removed. The buds left untouched hoping to gain some growth have not moved.
This is typically across the tree - the only variation is less buds on the bottom branches.

For a Black Pine, I would notionally wait till March before I select buds. However for this tree I think I may need to clean this out again. As the buds are with needles, this will also reduce the needle density (the tree seems healthy so it may be able to handle a light needle reduction). Or should I just cut the central bud, maintain two of the new buds and remove the others. For those that are growing Nishiki's, what would you recommend / suggest to encourage the central bud to extend?

Thin the buds to 2 every years and remove needles in winter as per usual for black pines according to strength. You can leave 3 buds on weak areas. So, you would leave the strong central bud plus another smaller one on the weak shoots and remove the central bud and leave 2 weak ones on the strong shoots. Always balance the strength by removing strong bits and leaving weak ones. Let the 2 shoots elongate then pinch them according to strength. Remove branches to let light into the tree. If you get more buds developing, try waiting until the new shoots are well under way and remove the weak buds then. Don't worry about wire unless you want to re-direct a branch. Branches will naturally lower themselves in time. Rinse and repeat until you die. Eventually you will have a bonsai. (hopefully before you die)

Thanks Treeman,

Appreciate your advise. There is more effort required on these trees than the normal JBP. Hopefully i can get this tree to some resemblance of a bonsai before then. Trying to find the routine that works for me will be the challenge.