Austrian Black pine nursery material.

[TrevorLarsen]

I bought this today for 30 bucks. I have only been “doing bonsai” for 3 years so any advice would be amazing. I was able to put some nice bends in it and I think it is quite good looking now. Feel free to bring me back to reality but this turned out better that I ever thought possible. I’m not going to do any root work this year to hopefully not over stress the tree. I’ll post before and after pictures. Thanks for reading.

 

[Shibui]

I agree with your self congratulations. Very nice tree for $20.
Some things for the future:
Try to remove opposite or whorl branches growing from the same level on pines. Leaving them to grow long term will usually thicken that area giving reverse taper.
Develop the apex more toward the front of your tree. Looks much better when the top is slightly forward of the base.
Trunks with big bends look far better when matched with bendy branches. Whatever caused that trunk to grow like that will also have affected the developing branches. Get enough wire on the main branches so you can add some bends to them at some stage.

I will leave others to advise on specific pruning techniques for Scots pine but be aware that after older needles drop it can be difficult to get new buds on the bare sections.

 

[TrevorLarsen]

Thank you for replying! I will for sure move the apex closer to the base once I have more length to work with. Does anyone know how long Austrian pines take to set? Also if anyone has suggestions on how I should bend the branches I would love it. Also I’ll post some pictures for different angles. Thank you so much for the feedback!

 

[A. Gorilla]

Really nice start.

 

[TrevorLarsen]

Here is an update on this tree. I repotted it today.

I think the back will become the front since there are more surface roots on that side. Here is that side

 

[WNC Bonsai]

Leave as many needles as you can if you want back buds. Mine has only ever produced new back buds between needle pairs, never in old bare wood. I let mine grow out all summer then cut off the terminal buds in late August and that encourages production of new needle buds.

 

[Srt8madness]

Ahhh, the testicle pine. I had one but killed it last summer. Yours looks interesting, that's a hell of a curve you got in it!