5yr Native Tree & Pot Challenge - Pinus Sylvestris (ShimpakuBonsai)

[ShimpakuBonsai]

I will enter the challenge with a Pinus Sylvestris seedling which I collected in autumn last year (2020).
The tree was collected during a walk trough the forrest which is part of the Veluwe in the Netherlands

At the time of collecting I think the seedling was 2-3 years old and it already had some nice curves in the trunk.
When I collected it I was able to ding it out of the ground with a nice amount of soil and all of the roots.
At home I just put it in a plastic container with the original soil and cared for it during the winter of 2020.

In March 2021 I repotted the tree and there was a nice amount of mycorrhizae in the original soil.
I transfered the mycorrhizae into a new soil mix of 1:1:1 akadama, lava and pumice.

The only issue was that at the base of the tree there were only two main roots with smaller roots on them.
At the time of repotting I didn't dare to cut of one of the main roots so I made it into a litte root over rock tree.

The tree budded out nicely this year and I have cut most of the candles in half at the end of July.
I reduced the amunt of needles at the tips of the branches a few days ago.

At the moment the tree is 7cm tall measured from the rim of the pot.
I want to try to keep the tree as small as possible and ideally under 10cm tall at the end of the challenge.
This winter I will start wiring the tree and think about the way I want to go with it.

I don't have any previous pictures but here a few pictures which I made today to document my tree.

All 4 sides of the tree

 

[ShimpakuBonsai]

And some pictures of the details of the tree.

 

[Stella]

This looks like a very nice project to follow.
looking forward to see the progress and steps in creating such a small tree as I would really also like to try

 

[ShimpakuBonsai]

I totally forgot to post some pictures of this tree.

This is the tree today.

 

[ShimpakuBonsai]

This tree was repotted early spring in a slightly later pot (size nr.3).

Today I pruned most of the candles.

Before pruning

 

[Tieball]

Well done. Thanks for sharing the tree history. Mighty fine!

 

[ShimpakuBonsai]

After pruning

 

[czaczaja]

It's a pity the tree only has 2 roots to straddle the rock. I guess once the roots are well established, stability wont be an issue

 

[ShimpakuBonsai]

At the end of last year I discovered that the root which was over the rock had died.
After thinking what to do with the dead root I decided to cut it off.

Yesterday evening I pruned the shoots again.

Before pruning




After pruning





This tree is still in the (high) no.3 Japanese training pot and the total height of the tree after pruning is around 8 cm measured from the soil level.
The year 2025 will be the last growing season for this challenge tree.

What to do before the challenge will close on December 31st 2025?
- wire and style the tree this fall / winter 2024
- repot the tree in spring 2025 (or fall 2025 at the latest but not ideal) in it's final pot (@cishepard - Does this still need to be a native pot like stated in the first post with the rules for this challenge in this topic?)
- hoping for a good growing season in 2025