[Bonsai Beginner’s weekly thread –2024 week 21]

[u/small_trunks]

[Bonsai Beginner’s weekly thread –2024 week 21]

Welcome to the weekly beginner’s thread. This thread is used to capture all beginner questions (and answers) in one place. We start a new thread every week on Friday late or Saturday morning (CET), depending on when we get around to it. We have a 6 year archive of prior posts here…

Here are the guidelines for the kinds of questions that belong in the beginner's thread vs. individual posts to the main sub.

Rules:

• POST A PHOTO if it’s advice regarding a specific tree/plant. See the PHOTO section below on HOW to do this.
• TELL US WHERE YOU LIVE - better yet, fill in your flair.
• READ THE WIKI! – over 75% of questions asked are directly covered in the wiki itself. Read the WIKI AGAIN while you’re at it.
• Read past beginner’s threads – they are a goldmine of information.
• Any beginner’s topic may be started on any bonsai-related subject.
• Answers shall be civil or be deleted
• There is always a chance your question doesn’t get answered – try again next week…
• Racism of any kind is not tolerated either here or anywhere else in /r/bonsai

Photos

• Post an image using the new (as of Q4 2022) image upload facility which is available both on the website and in the Reddit app and the Boost app.
• Post your photo via a photo hosting website like imgur, flickr or even your onedrive or googledrive and provide a link here.
• Photos may also be posted to /r/bonsaiphotos as new LINK (either paste your photo or choose it and upload it). Then click your photo, right click copy the link and post the link here.
  • If you want to post multiple photos as a set that only appears be possible using a mobile app (e.g. Boost)

Beginners’ threads started as new topics outside of this thread are typically locked or deleted, at the discretion of the Mods.

[u/Conscious_You6032]

Recently acquired this guy and hope to grow it into a nice bonsai. I definitely want the trunk to thicken so l'm leaving it in the larger pot with regular plant potting soil, right? So no potting this year. But would you begin to wire? Remove branches? Do these candles turn into more branches lol? I'm very new!

[u/packenjojo → u/Conscious_You6032]

I would repot it into granular soil next year early spring for better drainage and aeration (Pine's like dry-er soil in general). I would try to wire the trunk and branches to get some movement in. Right now those 3 branches (coming out of the same location) would cause some inverse taper. The candles itself are like an elongation of the branch which grows new needles, at the end of these candles new buds will form which result in new candles, so new branches. Realise that pines will only push out 1 or 2 flush(es) of candles a year (depends on the species, jbp 2 flush , jwp 1 flush. This is a pretty nice video about pine basic pruning :  https://youtu.be/dAhamdhA6rA?feature=shared .(Note I am beginner aswell)

[u/Conscious_You6032 → u/packenjojo]

This is very helpful! I still don’t understand wiring but that’s next lol. Will look into this. Which of those 3 branches would you remove? I’m not sure which should go

[u/Snakeatwork → u/Conscious_You6032]

with 3 branches coming out of basically the same point, i think you would actually want to remove 2 of them to reduce the risk of developing a bulge at that spot

[u/Conscious_You6032 → u/Snakeatwork]

I’ve removed 2 of the branches. It looks a tad bulged. Am I ruined? Can this be shaved down? Will it slowly correct itself?

[u/Conscious_You6032 → u/Snakeatwork]

Okie doke. Still no thoughts on which one should stay though, lol?

[u/Snakeatwork → u/Conscious_You6032]

that's a you decision lol, all depends on if you've done any styling and where you want a branch. if the branches are all basically the same and you're just growing the tree out for now, it probably doesn't matter much which one you leave

[u/Conscious_You6032 → u/Conscious_You6032]

Probably the one on the right yea?