The progress continues on a Japanese black pine I’ve been working on since digging the tree from Lone Pine Gardens some years back. This summer’s work consisted of decandling, thinning a few needles, and reducing the two temporary branches at the top of the tree.
Japanese black pine, approximately 18yrs old – before decandling
After decandling and cutback
The straggly branch at the top left is keeping the trunk alive until a couple of grafts take. I don’t need much growth here, but I want to keep the sap flowing past the grafts. The straggly branch on the right is part of the new apex. I’m letting it grow until the apex is closer in size to the trunk. Once enough grafts take and the apex has reached adequate size, I can remove these branches and actually get an idea of what the tree will look like as bonsai.
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