Attended a class today taught by Rodney Clemons in the styling and care of Japanese Black Pine (Pinus thunbergii). He was absolutely great, discussing the cycle of bonsai care, insect pests , insecticides and fertilization types and schedules. After this, each student received a small Pinus to begin needle pruning, being careful to not remove the base sheath that will promote future budding. I worked on my tree for about 3 hours and had basically removed only the needles from 2 or 3 years back.
I had defoliated well over half of my tree so decided to hold off and give it a few months to recover from the trauma. After picking a front and settling in on an informal upright style, Rodney made some great suggestion on some branch removal and suggested I whack off a substantial part of the apex in order to train a new leader and shorten the tree. The shortened specimen indeed looks better and I will start some wiring in the mid-December time frame to start moving some branches into an informal upright style. Today's culmination:
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