What shall I do next on my Pinus thunbergii aurea

Beginners
1

Hi,

I did buy 2 nursery stock pinus thunbergii aurea ( that is way the label says) last week for 15,- Euro’s each.
1 I did put in the garden to become a garden tree and just become bigger, maybe for the future bonsai.

So I was wondering was do I want to achieve with this 2nd tree?

I want to try to make it into a large bonsai, also I want to ensure I can have more pines to practice on. So needed more trees, and this is my 2nd pine next to 1 Scots pine.

My problem:
It is in the middle of spring here in the Netherlands after a cold start and things are finally growing.
All my other “projects” are in a growing / “do not touch state” as prunning and re-potting is done already.

So asking for some advise what to do on my pine?

  • Option1. - Very carefully do a repot is a bigger training container just less deep but more spacing on the edge and leaving most of old soil.

  • Option2. - In 2-3 weeks perform a decandeling, as this is a dual flush tree and just watched the cool video on dual flush pines. But as I don’t need energy re-balancing or brach ramification yet.
    This looks the worse option to me?

-Option3. - Do some branch selection and cutting to give it a bit more shape and to see what do we have here and if possible some wiring ? Not sure as normally this is not a good time of the year I think ?

Option 4. Shorting some long candles to ensure the inner node distance will not be to big for the new branches

Option 5. Zero … just wait some fertilizer

Any suggestion are welcome as not sure what is the best next steps if any steps are needed now in spring.

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2

I would let it grow and gain strength. Wait another couple of weeks to fertilize. The goal now is a strong tree. You can cut off any overly long growth in a year or two and use the back buds. Remember that aura and similar cultivars tend to be weaker than the species.

3

Thanks for the feedback!

4

Nice material. I agree with MartyWeiser. I also suggest that you clean the dead needles that are on the top of the soil to minimize the chances of disease.

5

Best is to let it grow vigorously. Dont worry too much about design yet. Let the trunk thicken and once you see backbudding turning into new candles and shoots you can start moving energy downwards and inwards and cut back to make it compact