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Scots pine 1 year 3 months ago #78832

  • Russell.A
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I've been looking at this tree at my local nursery for a while. I keep thinking about it as I like the trunk that's starting to bark up nicely and for the money I'd never get the same in a "bonsai"

There are floors with the long internodes, straight'ish trunk and whorls but after watching too many YouTube videos I keep thinking about possible things to try...so with 10% off the price I bought it.

This is going to be a real project tree!

Possibly approach grafting, as the long thin branches will easily bend to where I'd like to graft.

Possible wedge cuts and bend the trunk.

But I will need a repot at some point.

What order would you start working?

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Scots pine 1 year 3 months ago #78833

  • Tropfrog
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Have you ever seen a successful wedge cut? I have seen several unsuccessful ones but just one successful one. This is an advanced technique that in most cases kills the tree. Moreover, it is not needed. If you want to bend this tree it not too late. Just use thick wire and move slowly.
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Scots pine 1 year 3 months ago #78834

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I am wondering about wrapping the trunk and using thick wire, as you said this probably the way to go

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Scots pine 1 year 3 months ago #78835

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Regarding in what order to make things.

Below a photo of my scots pine collected 5 or 6 years ago. This is how I have done it:

1st year spent to establish it in the pot

Spring year two it was wired, bent and I removed all branches that after wiring was in the incurve of the bends. That left me with two banches in each outcurve.

After that I started candle pruning each year. I made a video when this was done last year:



Note that this video is made later in the process. Its just for your reference how to do it.

After two or three years of growing and candle pruning it was time to remove the remaining excess branches on each place. I made a video about that as well:



Somewhere in between I wired it up one more time to place the branches.

This is how it looks today:



Last week I found an excellent pot for it and just had to get it. But I am still hesitating to put it in a shallow pot just yet. I want to develop it a few more years in that huge pot. I think it still needs ramification closer to the trunk. In order to achieve that I need to keep on pruning candles. This development is soo slow once in a shallow pot. What I think I will do is to take it out this Spring. Do some root work and put it back in the pot for further development. If done this way it will not come into a shallow pot until 3-5 years from now.

This is just how I do it on this tree. Anyone else may have another approach on it :)

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Scots pine 1 year 3 months ago #78836

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I am wondering about wrapping the trunk and using thick wire, as you said this probably the way to go


That was what I did. Using raffia to protect the bark.

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