First yamadori (Monterey pine)

Beginners
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Hi All,

Last year in spring (Oct as I am in New Zealand) I collected this Monterey pine, it was my first time collecting so the after care it received was, shall we say, less informed than it could of been. Despite this, it seems to have survived well, and there are an abundance of buds along old wood and it has set a large number at the end of this seasons growth. I collected a reasonably good, large root ball as it was growing on a rocky ledge. I only potted it with the original soil, augmented with a bit of pummice.

I’m looking to establish a plan going forward and would love some input, however I feel there are a few things that need to be addressed

  1. The native soil seems to drain reasonably well as it’s quite sandy however it’s definitely not ideal as you can see there are some large pieces of stone up to about an inch long and I’m anxious to get it into something more suitable.

  2. I fertilized in the spring so have some nice needle growth, In hind sight this might not have been a great idea however I stopped during summer yet I’ve noticed some buds breaking this fall, is this normal? Or is there some process at play I should potentially be concerned about here?

  3. Styling: This is probably going to be a bit difficult given the lanky nature of this material but am keen to hear peoples opinions on this? I have applied one piece of wire on the skinny portion of the trunk in order to give it more shape and position what I envisage as being the new leader in the apical region (it was initially just a long skinny branch pointing to the sky.

I would very much appreciate any advice on how to balance the need to re-pot into a more suitable medium with pruning considerations, or whether I’m being a bit premature in re-potting given that it seems to have done okay so far.

Here is a link to some more photos of what I’m working with: Imgur: The magic of the Internet

monterey pine 1 (2)
monterey pine 1 (2)898×1112 528 KB

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Have you considered using compression for the design similar Ryan’s Lodgepole Pine No. 1: http://www.bonsaimirai.com/node/480 Your pine shares many of the same characteristics.

My general feeling repotting wise is that your pine was collected this past spring and you are about to enter winter, so give the tree a full year to grow its root system before you even consider repotting. I also think the Yamadoria Aftercare video with Randy Knight will answer a lot of your questions: https://live.bonsaimirai.com/library/video/yamadori-aftercare-with-randy-knight

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Thank you James! Yes it does look like it shares some characteristics, there was a literati stream I watched where Ryan discussed similar design concepts and I definitely think that’s the direction I want to head. As for the aftercare I will give it a good watch, I wasn’t planning on touching the tree again until spring next year but like to have a clear plan in mind so I can set it up for success now and not do anything too stupid :grimacing:.

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