Beginner question - Is this Pine hopeless?

[JustALoneSpirit]

Thanks for all the advice. I eventually went down the literati path and ended up with this for now.

View attachment 580180

I know the wiring is ugly, but I wanted to re-use the seller's old wire at the bottom of the trunk. I will be careful to not cause any more wire scars at the top, and probably let the wires dig in a little at the bottom to gnarl it up a bit. The existing wire scars will probably be turned into shari.

I did not remove the lower branches, as they will probably be turned into jin later. As for the three primary branches on top, I did not remove any needles for now as all three have roughly the same number of needles.

During the report, I barely opened up the bottom fifth of the roots, without touching the main root-ball for now. I used vermicompost to add some organic nutrition along with akadama and pumice. I have read that vermicompost can reduce soil acidity, and so I plan on adding coffee/tea grounds along with fertilizer regularly.

Now I will only hope it survives, and back-buds. I am getting mixed information about back-budding. In Ryan Neil's lecture, he said that decandling is only for reducing needle size and not for back budding. While I have seen a lot of information that decandling causes back-budding. Any clarification would really help.

Indeed demanding may have any one of the 2 outcomes:
Shorter new needles
Back budding + shorter needles

But since your tree has its apex region way up, you will have to wire you apex below one of the lower branches so that it takes over as the next leader. Once you get good growth you could consider cutting one major branch in one growing season(again this depends on vigor) and eventually the height of the tree will be reduced...

 

[souvik1811]

Yeah they don't do really well in the tropics... but on Ausbonsai I saw people growing japanese black pine up in Townsville, which is also a tropical savannah just like bangalore is... our Lowest goes to around 60°F which even I don't think is enough but apparently they do grow in a very similar climate. I suppose we could use alternatives to japanese black pines like casuarina...

Also, I've got an idea to reduce the daylength and sunlight by putting trees in a dark place 1 hour earlier to sunset, to replicate reduction in daylight. So far, it has worked and my japanese maple was starting to lose leaves in India... I don't think daylength alone is enough... maybe we could put it in the fridge only in the night for the winters to provide sufficient chill while bringing them out in the day for sunlight? Just curious if it might work although time consuming and risky

What are the problems one might face with trees in the fridge?
For sunlight we can bring them out only in the day while in the night in the fridge.
Temperature is maintained at about 4°C
Humidity is the main concern, but from my observation the conifers like pines and junipers are adapted to very low humidity conditions, upto 20% relative humidity, so I don't think it would be a problem right? I'm just curious and want to know your opinions on this...

Btw sorry souvik to take your post off-topic

I guess you could wrap up the rootball in plastic before you refrigerate it, to conserve humidity. It sounds drastic to keep it in the fridge, but I totally get the urge of keeping temperate species in our climate. Guilty pleasures!! Sadly, you get used to all the ficuses after a point. I'm considering covering my pots in ice cubes every night starting next winter.

 

[JustALoneSpirit]

I guess you could wrap up the rootball in plastic before you refrigerate it, to conserve humidity. It sounds drastic to keep it in the fridge, but I totally get the urge of keeping temperate species in our climate. Guilty pleasures!! Sadly, you get used to all the ficuses after a point. I'm considering covering my pots in ice cubes every night starting next winter.

I think ice won't really help, as it would cause root shock and kill the roots... in winter even in very cold climates the soil remains at higher temps...

 

[souvik1811]

Indeed demanding may have any one of the 2 outcomes:
Shorter new needles
Back budding + shorter needles

But since your tree has its apex region way up, you will have to wire you apex below one of the lower branches so that it takes over as the next leader. Once you get good growth you could consider cutting one major branch in one growing season(again this depends on vigor) and eventually the height of the tree will be reduced...

I guess the point of going down the literati route was to accommodate the branchless first two-thirds of the trunk. I now want back budding only on the three primary branches on the top, but I don't expect any major trunk chop hereafter.