Japanese Black Pine Candle Cutting In Winter??

[River's Edge]

If you post four pictures showing the four sides of the tree, I will provide a couple of suggestions to consider for future development. It would be very helpful if you temporarily shifted the surface soil to expose the surface nebari. That will make for more informed suggestions. I do note some initial movement in the lower trunk but it is not clear how the branch placement occurs with just the one picture. I find it is best to work with what the tree offers at this stage rather than try to fit the tree into a specific pattern. The tree is still young and appears to have potential if handled correctly over the next decade.!

 

[WavyGaby]

My comments are succinct for a reason. The Op needs to begin to understand the developmental process before applying specific techniques. When I read Brian's comments, I believe they mesh with my experience and training, as well as what I was expressing.
The difficulty with selecting a video or set of instructions is that the development of each tree varies as does the process used by the grower. When you purchase a tree the process begins with that particular situation.
This tree is in a very common stage found with Japanese Black Pines under development. The trunk has been chopped too soon, without developing a secondary sacrifice leader to introduce taper and build the next section. The branches are thin with respect to foliage and have been treated the same when some should have been pruned as sacrifice and others developed as primary branches from the beginning.

Needle pulling is not the first step at this stage! The branches are bare where the back budding needs to occur! Wiring down the branches will open them to light and air. Removing any extra foliage at this point will reduce the vigour and health of the tree! Bud selection or shoot reduction can occur after growing out and improving the trees strength. That will improve the back bud response. In this particular situation there is no shading taking place that requires thinning to let in light and air.

River, thank you for elaborating. I see your points more clearly now as there are not needles along the small branches. I was thinking needle pulling around the tips of the coarse left branches and partially on the small branches would be useful to promote backbudding. I see the concept of leaving needles beneficial for the reasoning you presented though.

 

[MaciekA]

I would heed the above advice to preserve needles and tips, deferring any reduction (whether tips or needles or buds) until later. But I would immediately lay down growth with wire to tilt the odds in favor of interior growth as Frank describes in comments above.

I try to stay on top of improving the odds of interior budding as early/often as is sensible, since the window of opportunity is always cyclically closing for a given set of weak buds or elder needles on the tree.

Reduction via cutting / shortening can certainly induce budding, but think of it this way: You already need to place (with wire) budding sites into intentional locations even if you were to proceed with a cut/shortening.

If lowering tips with wire improves the odds of interior budding and you had to wire anyway, cut or no cut, then you can have your cake and eat it too by skipping the cutting for now, since you won't lose much if anything (later your tip shoots will be strong and dominant, but the posted tree is far from that and is in a shallow bonsai pot, no sacrificial leader, etc).

As long as you stay on top of wiring and selecting you can get quite far into JBP development without significant cutback or shortening. Since you're not cutting much, vigor continues to build even as you manipulate some structure and that greatly improves the odds of budding where you want it, which in turn informs where you will eventually begin to cut back.