Hello,
I’d like to get some feedback about purchasing JBP nursery stock. Pines from what I understand are pretty slow growers and I’d like to see if there is a way to work with some nursery stock. The trees I’m considering are maybe 4-5ft tall with decent trunks on them. The issue I am concerned with is the fact that the first sets of branches are usually, 18+ inches from the base of the tree. Ideally, I’d consider a trunk chop above the first branch and hope to get some back budding below but is that realistic? Perhaps I should just bend the first branch down and work from there? Is it even a consideration I should make? I’d really like to add some pines to my collection but I’m hesitant to work with them, for some reason pines seem more difficult to work with. Any feedback would be much appreciated. The picture below isn’t the exact tree I’m looking at but is similar in the original shape, just imagine it around 4ft tall and more leggy...

My suggestion; buy a really good one, with lots of options and branching, thick trunk and start from there. Chopping it down, of course.
They are slow, and things have to be done at the right time or you lose a whole season of growth. And they don't take two injuries in the same year; if you repot, don't prune heavily, if you decandle in the summer, wait for next summer to decandle again, and so on.
Good luck, it's fun!

You do not treat all Pine species the same. What you do to a Black Pine you cannot do to a White Pine. So you need to use the correct treatment on the Black Pine which is a multi flush species. They are not all slow growing either, it depends on the species and climate.

m5eaygeoff wrote:

You do not treat all Pine species the same.

Yes, you are right.
JBP and JRP are the ones with two flushes, and unfortunately there is no way to grow a JWP or a Mugo Pine in my tropical climate.
But I have some Black and Red pines doing well, growing slowly but surely, and being decandled once a year in the summer.
On the other hand, I've got some seedlings of JBP and Mediterranean Cypress (Cupressus Sempervirens) and they are also doing well, let's see in 15 years if they are any good for bonsai.