Collected pine seedlings

[Forest Bean]

Hello nuts,

I collected these three pine seedlings while I was out. I got them in the state of Maryland.



They have 4-5 needles in each fascicle. The only 5-needle pine I know that is native to my area is Pinus strobus the Eastern white pine.

Here is a photo of a Pinus strobus seedling I found on google, it highly resembles mine.



There are other 5-needle pines such as:
Pinus torreyana (Torrey Pine)
Pinus parviflora (Jap. White Pine)
Pinus flexilis (Limber Pine)
Pinus monticola (Western White Pine)
But I highly doubt that non-native pines would have been growing wild in the woods where I found them.

(Imagine if they were Japanese White pine. What a find that would be!)

So if I am correct on them being Eastern White Pines, what are your thoughts? I don't know very much about pines despite them being one of the most common bonsai material.

I don't know if they do, but lets they have unruly growth patterns or horrible needle size reduction, I'll still be reluctant to add them to my collection. I feel more at home having trees native to where I live, compared to having trees native to a country all the way on the other side of the world. Not to say it's a bad thing.

Whatever time it is where you are, I hope you have a good rest of your day.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Congrats on new babies. See some very nice ones on Bonsai Mirai Forums. Techniques for taming P.strobus being worked out presently. Start shaping trunks while small with great abandon and imagination but remembering they will be thicker in time.

 

[M. Frary]

These things aren't the best subjects for bonsai.
Long needles that are hard to reduce,don't backbud very well and take years like 20 or more to get nice bark.
I wouldn't mess with them for bonsai. There are other pines way more suitable with more information as good bonsai.

 

[GGB]

Definitely strobus. Being from Maryland you have access to virginia, pitch, and loblolly pine. All three of those are common where you are and might offer you a little more, plus they're all double flush, meaning they develop faster. I love pines, I think I have 40/50 species but I keep strobus for the landscape.

 

[Forest Bean]

These things aren't the best subjects for bonsai.
Long needles that are hard to reduce,don't backbud very well and take years like 20 or more to get nice bark.
I wouldn't mess with them for bonsai. There are other pines way more suitable with more information as good bonsai.

I already guessed that was the answer. I wasn't planning on anything special with them though.

Well since they grow tall and scraggly, bad back-budding, and long needles.... long foliage can be compensated by growing the tree to be very very large, and when facing the problem of back budding

 

[Forest Bean]

These things aren't the best subjects for bonsai.
Long needles that are hard to reduce,don't backbud very well and take years like 20 or more to get nice bark.
I wouldn't mess with them for bonsai. There are other pines way more suitable with more information as good bonsai.

I already guessed that was the answer. I wasn't planning on anything special with them though.

Well since they grow tall and scraggly, bad back-budding, and long needles.... long foliage can be compensated by growing the tree to be very very large. And when facing the problem of back budding, bunjin style bonsai don't need budding along the lanky trunk.

While I was in the woods, I visited a canyon overlook. Wedged between the rocks, there was a nice pine that I would say to be yamadori material. It's safe to say it was the same species that these seedlings are, as they were not even 100 yeards away from eachother. It would be considered semi-cascade style. I admired it for a quick minute and took a couple photos. I would attach a photo... if I still had them.

I digress from the main point. If I decide to train these little pines, I would experiment around with a couple large bunjin style trees. Possibly 4 feet tall if needed. It would take many many years.

But that's what makes this artform/hobby special. A painting usually never takes years to finish... unless your Leonardo Da Vinci painting the Mona Lisa.

Have a good day, Forest Bean A.

 

[0soyoung]

I already guessed that was the answer. I wasn't planning on anything special with them though.

Well since they grow tall and scraggly, bad back-budding, and long needles.... long foliage can be compensated by growing the tree to be very very large, and when facing the problem of back budding

Back budding on p. strobus is definitely a problem. Buds will only pop from the bases of fascicle groups.

However, p. strobus is very interesting. One can treat them exactly like JBP and produce short or even very short needles!. One can prune them in fall (as late as Thanksgiving in my climate) and one will find fasciular buds have developed in the next spring. One can cut back to these new fasciular buds and forestall the relentless march of the foliage away from the trunk. One can also simply knock off all the candles in spring (in Mar/Apr) to produce back budding.

JWP has similar problems. It will only pop fascicular buds, hence the foliage relentlessly marches away from the trunk. It takes forever to bark up. But, it has the very best foliage there is for pine bonsai. Oftentimes this is dealt with by grafting foliage back, closer to the trunk. Often times JWP foliage is grafted onto other pines that have nicely barked trunks.

Think it over. Think about what your future bonsai ambitions might be. 'Wasting' your time on these EWP actually might be very worthwhile. In my early experiences with pines (JBP, JRP, and mugo) they all 'got away from me', meaning they wound up as a collection of lanky stems with foliage pom-poms on the ends. Ask why I don't tell you that these species are 'a waste of time' as everyone does say about p. strobus. Me, I think bonsai is a complete waste of time (I've never had so much fun!).