Bonds Guy Pitch Pine#2

[Bonds Guy]

I got this pitch pine in april or may of this year. At the time, the foliage towards the top of the tree had a yellowish tint but the bottom foliage was deep green.



My main focus was getting the tree healthy so I freed the roots on the outskirts of the rootball and slip potted it into a grow bag. Then I just let it grow. Last month I seen the tree was healthy and took until yesterday to do some styling.



I wasn’t aware that I’d have to double wire this tree to get it to bend. Luckily, I had just enough wire. I’m thinking early spring I might go at it again and put some bends in the bottom trunk but I’m unsure.

For now I’ll leave it alone and go get some more wire. Come october though, I’ll wire the branches.

Criticism is welcome

 

[CapeCodBonsai]

I got this pitch pine in april or may of this year. At the time, the foliage towards the top of the tree had a yellowish tint but the bottom foliage was deep green.

View attachment 563111View attachment 563112View attachment 563113View attachment 563117

My main focus was getting the tree healthy so I freed the roots on the outskirts of the rootball and slip potted it into a grow bag. Then I just let it grow. Last month I seen the tree was healthy and took until yesterday to do some styling.

View attachment 563114

I wasn’t aware that I’d have to double wire this tree to get it to bend. Luckily, I had just enough wire. I’m thinking early spring I might go at it again and put some bends in the bottom trunk but I’m unsure.

For now I’ll leave it alone and go get some more wire. Come october though, I’ll wire the branches.

Criticism is welcome

The only advice I can offer is don’t undersize your wire if you wire the trunk again in early Spring. I made that mistake with my largest Pitch Pine (when it was a little younger). I guess the other part of my screw up was that I wasn’t paying close enough attention to it.

I wanted to let it grow out a bit to get strong & vigorous. It had a phenomenal year/year and a half of growth. The tree became so full I couldn’t see much of the trunk anymore. By the time I realized that it had overcome the gauge of wire I used, it had completely straightened back out. The trunk became too rigid to bend again without it being a major operation (which I couldn’t do at the time).

Good luck with your tree. Love the species!

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

The only advice I can offer is don’t undersize your wire if you wire the trunk again in early Spring. I made that mistake with my largest Pitch Pine (when it was a little younger). I guess the other part of my screw up was that I wasn’t paying close enough attention to it.

I wanted to let it grow out a bit to get strong & vigorous. It had a phenomenal year/year and a half of growth. The tree became so full I couldn’t see much of the trunk anymore. By the time I realized that it had overcome the gauge of wire I used, it had completely straightened back out. The trunk became too rigid to bend again without it being a major operation (which I couldn’t do at the time).

Good luck with your tree. Love the species!

If that happens, consider some wood screws and iron garden wire.
I bent a scots pine an inch thick by stringing it like a bow: two screws and a wire in between, with a rubber protected piece of wood in the center pushing the trunk in the direction I want it to go.

It now also serves as a two string banjo that hits just one note. But it allowed me to do bends I wouldn't be able to do with copper wire.
The Spaniards are using this technique a lot in a bunch of their videos.

 

[CapeCodBonsai]

I bent a scots pine an inch thick by stringing it like a bow

Great advise. I actually thought about doing that after I discovered how much it had straightened. It was already too thick at that point (3”) so, I decided I would chalk it up to experience and make it more of formal upright style. Here where I live, a large number of them tend to grow fairly straight and tall.