Eastern white pine bonsai, I've got it!

GGB

GGB

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Pinus strobus (Eastern white pine) has always been near and dear to me as a local tree. It's a five needle which makes it unique and everything about its growth habit seems to make it completely unsuitable for bonsai. BUT what if it was used to make a 2.5 to 3 foot tall literati style bonsai?! I betcha that'd make the hard to dwarf needles look small enough. Anyone care to join me/weigh in on my f*** you to everyone discounting this neat tree?
 
GGB said:
Pinus strobus (Eastern white pine) has always been near and dear to me as a local tree. It's a five needle which makes it unique and everything about its growth habit seems to make it completely unsuitable for bonsai. BUT what if it was used to make a 2.5 to 3 foot tall literati style bonsai?! I betcha that'd make the hard to dwarf needles look small enough. Anyone care to join me/weigh in on my f*** you to everyone discounting this neat tree?
Click to expand...
Is this a typo?
 
Nope, I manically typed that before work. maybe I could've reworded it with commas
 
GGB said:
Pinus strobus (Eastern white pine) has always been near and dear to me as a local tree. It's a five needle which makes it unique and everything about its growth habit seems to make it completely unsuitable for bonsai. BUT what if it was used to make a 2.5 to 3 foot tall literati style bonsai?! I betcha that'd make the hard to dwarf needles look small enough. Anyone care to join me/weigh in on my f*** you to everyone discounting this neat tree?
Click to expand...

The problem is finding the material. If you can find a nice tall trunk with a little movement, and some rough bark, then I think you could make that happen. It will take a hunt, but good trees are worth hunting for!

Also look into pitch pine!
 
No pics, no material, yet. I've heard pitch pine makes a decent tree. I have collected seedlings for pitch and white but nothing worth mentioning.
As a side note i was being silly with the "f you thing". Like I said, obviously eastern whites are terrible subjects for bonsai, but I want to see if I can make something worth mention, someday
 
GGB said:
BUT what if it was used to make a 2.5 to 3 foot tall literati style bonsai?!
Click to expand...

http://bonsainut.com/index.php?threads/eastern-white-pine.13002/

I don't think needle size is too bad on mine. Problems I have encountered are that they seem to be brittle and don't backbud eagerly. I've gotten a few new buds but most aren't where I needed them. And of course there is the whole smooth bark for an eternity thing. I had a setback this year with bugs attacking the buds, so I lost some new growth. Pine tip moth I think? and wooly adelgids have been a problem in my area as well. It's nothing great but I still like my EWP and enjoy working with it
 
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Nybonsai12 said:
http://bonsainut.com/index.php?threads/eastern-white-pine.13002/

I don't think needle size is too bad on mine. Problems I have encountered are that they seem to be brittle and don't backbud eagerly. I've gotten a few new buds but most aren't where I needed them. And of course there is the whole smooth bark for an eternity thing. I had a setback this year with bugs attacking the buds, so I lost some new growth. Pine tip moth I think? and wooly adelgids have been a problem in my area as well. It's nothing great but I still like my EWP and enjoy working with it
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Holy smokes man! Should've known someone beat me to it. That tree looks pretty darn good so far. Definitely inspiration, I've seen a few people on here working with EWP but all are pretty young and all experimental.
 
Here's mine. They are big babies and take much time to recover. They backbud very well, but only after they are healthy. For a pine on which you expect cool bark, they are a waste of your time. Even a 40 year old tree out in the woods still has smooth bark on it. I gathered this tree because the roots and the trunk held some interest. Needle length is an issue, so a good sized tree helps. Good luck.
 

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You need to find a young one with smooth bark, then work on it for 15 years, then you will bad mouth strobus just as viciously as the old timers do.

If you can find one with good rough bark, that is the tree to collect. But first, practice on a young one until you get the techniques down, they are different. Generally culture is similar to JWP, but they are not as tolerant of drying out at JWP. And they definitely have styling quirks that are different than JWP.

So get some practice material, and then you will be ready when the one in a million rough bark short enough to use as bonsai EWP comes along.
 
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I think the thing that bothers me so much is the foul attitude assumed; before someone has had time to encourage the aforementioned attitude and made the invective valid. This in itself begs the more legitimate question; If you thought that the response to this tree was going to be universally and overwhelmingly bad, why did you post it in the first place?????? If that is the case you should have followed it with photos. So---instead of being a hero by assuming the difficult task of making a bonsai of a very difficult tree you made of yourself a sphincter by assuming you would fail, and that everyone would jump down your throat for it.
 
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Vance Wood said:
I think the thing that bothers me so much is the foul attitude assumed; before someone has had time to encourage the aforementioned attitude and made the invective valid. This in itself begs the more legitimate question; If you thought that the response to this tree was going to be universally and overwhelmingly bad, why did you post it in the first place?????? If that is the case you should have followed it with photos. So---instead of being a hero by assuming the difficult task of making a bonsai of a very difficult tree you made of yourself a sphincter bay assuming you would fail and that everyone would jump down your throat for it.
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Not a hero at all! I just started bonsai. I guess I should've just written "white pine literati possibilities, need advice" that's all I meant. Really and truly, I just wanted to see if anyone had a literati EWP or wanted to join me in trying to make one.
 
fourteener said:
Here's mine. They are big babies and take much time to recover. They backbud very well, but only after they are healthy. For a pine on which you expect cool bark, they are a waste of your time. Even a 40 year old tree out in the woods still has smooth bark on it. I gathered this tree because the roots and the trunk held some interest. Needle length is an issue, so a good sized tree helps. Good luck.
Click to expand...
I figured the smooth bark would just have to be a compromise, but it's good to know they'll back bud readily
 
No double flush here, but plucking the candles in half before the needles come has always created back-budding up the branch for me.
 
Osoyoung, I know that the western white pine is a little different. Unless you know that it is the eastern variety that may be why.
 
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