So this tree looks a little ill, could have been the early candle cutting in 2013 followed by the candle cutting then restyle in 2014. Or it could be the soil that hasn’t been changed yet since I got the tree and was holding too much moisture??
Either way it won’t be needle plucked or bud selected and we’ll just see what it looks like in spring. In the mean time will try and keep it as dry as possible over winter.
So I cut the weak candles on the 14th June 2015:
I then cut the stronger candles on the 28th June 2015 (10 days later):
Had a workshop at Windybanks nursery last friday 12 Dec 2014 and styled this tree for the first time:
This tree has been feed heavily over the passed 3 months and the candles have extended to around 10-20cms and the new needles are poking their heads out of the sheaths.
As per the virt I drew previously I am going to be getting rid of all branches except to the to left in the coming winter, so when I cut off the candles i left a stub on all branches except the branch I will be using to create the new top with.
The stub left over
The candle on the branch I will be keeping and developing in the future:
With no stub left to restrict new growth:
And here is what the tree looked like after:
I bought this Black Pine at the Swindon Bonsai Show in Feburary 2014 for £150:
The tree was very healthy and I liked the nebari and the thick trunk. The main faults with the tree where:
1. There where no branches in the middle of the tree to use
2. The bar branch at the base
3. The tree had heavy branches at the top
One solution would be to graft some branches onto the trunk. I have created a virt of what it could possibly look like:
This does not solve the taper issue that the tree has.
The other possibility would be to create a literati style tree, something like this:
This is much quicker to achieve than to graft branches etc..
Bindi Bonsai 