I’m relatively new to bonsai, starting last May, and over the summer I found a Mugo in a nursery with fantastic trunk movement and nebari, but I’m not sure quite where to go from here in terms of branch selection and design. Right now the branch structure resembles a warehouse push broom, and I’m wondering how to improve on the design. The forum will only let me upload one photo, so I don’t have any picture of other angles, but here’s the front:
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I’m also wondering what the best time of year would be to do significant restyling for Mugo pines 
Found an article from Harry Harrington that warns not to remove too much foliage and to work slowly to keep the pine vigorous and healthy.
The picture looks healthy! If you repotted this year, you may want to allow it to get acclimated to its new substrate and location. Ryan addresses the care of Mugo in the stream Mugo Pine Advancement. Mugo Pine Advancement | Bonsai Mirai Live Your tree is in early development. Cleaning out old dead needles and cleaning out bottom growth and crotch growth could allow more air movement and light to the interior. Too much foliage removal may compromise the health of the plant. If obvious branches come from groups of three or more, some small amount of removal to slowly reduce the number of branches. Watch Ryan’s technique to clean and remove bottom growth and crotch growth. DO NOT REMOVE ALL OLD NEEDLES! It will starve the tree. Watch the stream before you do anything. Nice find! Hope to see more photos as this develops. The branches Ryan is working on will develop on your tree with time. The tree in the stream was grown in the field and is at least 6 years old.
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So aside from fixing potential inverse taper locations where branches split into 3+ tertiary branches, should I just let it grow for a year or two to get some length and development? Or should I clear out some of the vertically growing branches to direct energy (and light and air) into the remaining ones?
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I would let it grow for a while to gain a good root structure as that’s where pines get their energy. If you take off too many needles or do too much work too early you could make it ill or it will react the other way and the needles will become massive with really long candles as it fight to replace what you removed. Have a honest look at it in September and if it’s healthy and strong, plus if you can give it adequate winter care you may be able to style it then. But in the meantime be patient and buy lots of nursery material for you to work on during this year’s growing cycle…
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One difficulty with that is there are several branches originating from the same area and expanding that area to be reverse taper. Growth should continue in the branches not needed for future use. Some really should be removed soon.
When was the tree repotted? How much root was taken off. I appreciate the worry of inverse taper, but panicking about it and removing too much foliage too quickly will seriously harm the tree. The most I would take off next year would be 2 branches. Then a possible style in September without taking any more off, just to lay out the branches, and in 2022 start reducing 3 to 2 and 2 to 1.
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I potted it into a bonsai pot (from a plastic nursery pot) in early August 2020. I removed a pretty significant amount of roots when I potted it, since it was nursery stock and a bit pot bound. Should I leave it for a year and let it recover and regrow lots of roots?
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Best to wait to see how it grows this year. It didn’t have a lot of recovery time before winter. If it surges on you can probably do some work later in the year starting to reduce the branches from the swelling, but if it stands still, then it is more than likely building roots and in that case it’s best to wait.
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