Just another Akamatsu

[Shun]

Hi guys.. just wanting to share my newest aquisition.

Bought it and repotted the day after.. i know the pot isnt the right one but it was the one I had on hand. I'm still undecided on which style to go on this one. Had to repot as this was rootbound but had plenty healthy white tips.

Maybe I was too harsh on the rootwork but I'm hoping the change from the claysoil to fresh bonsai soil will make things just fine.

Hope you guys like it! I'm just a newbie on this bonsai thing! If you guys have any suggestion I'm all ears! Design-wise I believe this pine offers quite a few options

 

[0soyoung]

I like the trunk line and nebari from this view.

 

[Shun]

I liked that line also but the nebari is too much "in your face". All those roots growing towards the viewer looks like a horror movie! hehehe..

The current front I chose is the one pictured after the tree was repotted.. I liked the trunkline also and I think that the natural shari gives the tree a little more character..! But I enjoyed your point of view!

I'm struggling on the styling of the tree.. If I should remove that long and leggy branch from the first branch and build the first branch with just the shorter and more compact part or maybe keeping it and try to work around... I even thought about removing the first branch entirely because I dont like how it emerges from the trunk.. It's too upward... The design of the tree usually follows what the first branch dictates and I wanted to make a old pine tree impression and with an upward growing first branch that idea is hard to pull off.

Let me know what you think!

Thanks again!

 

[clevetromba]

The nebari is the best part about that tree, don't hide it, accentuate it. If you bring it down gradually over the course of several years, you might be able to get that first branch on the right down far enough with guy wires. It can be shortened up by wiring in some snaking curves, and also hopefully by backbudding.

 

[0soyoung]

I'm struggling on the styling of the tree.. If I should remove that long and leggy branch from the first branch and build the first branch with just the shorter and more compact part or maybe keeping it and try to work around... I even thought about removing the first branch entirely because I dont like how it emerges from the trunk.. It's too upward... The design of the tree usually follows what the first branch dictates and I wanted to make a old pine tree impression and with an upward growing first branch that idea is hard to pull off.

I agree.

The trunk is very thin and straight and the branches are high up on the trunk and almost all are long - very challenging.

One can always make a slanting cut into the trunk above a branch by sawing diagonally into the crotch (often called 'notching a branch' even though it is notching the trunk, not the branch). Then you can then more readily point it downward.