Bosnian Pine Taper

[We're all Mad Here...🎩]

I bought this Bosnian Pine a year or two ago and planted it in a garden where it ended up really being the wrong place for it, so I dug it out and repottes in the same soil to make sure I didn't shock it dead. It's done relatively well and I'm starting to want to work on it, though there isn't much taper in the trunk, which I know isn't a guarantee with every nursery stock tree.

My question is, assuming a sacrifice was chosen to create strong growth, where on a Pine trunk do you suggest looking to create that cut for taper? There are a couple options down really low, but removing that much growth would surely shock/kill said Pine (I'd think. I imagine I can wait until next year to do anything to this tree, or perhaps late summer, and maybe get it in some better soil, but wanted to see what any of you thought about this tree and recommend any styling possibilities. Thank you

 

[TrevorLarsen]

I would recommend when you cut off the sacrifice branch I would do it over 2 years or so. Just cut a chunk out of it one year and cut it completely off the next. I think I would cut it down to either the second or first set of branches depending on how big you want it.

 

[Gabler]

If you just dug it up, wait to chop it. For conifers, there's a limit of one major insult per calendar year. Chopping and root pruning are major insults. It'll take three to four years to replace the soil and reduce the trunk, depending on how much you chop off at one time.

 

[We're all Mad Here...🎩]

If you just dug it up, wait to chop it. For conifers, there's a limit of one major insult per calendar year. Chopping and root pruning are major insults. It'll take three to four years to replace the soil and reduce the trunk, depending on how much you chop off at one time.

I dug it up probably two seasons ago and it was pretty small, so it's been in a pot for a while now, sadly in some very heavy clay soil. I did read that bosnian pines tolerate crappy soil very well, and if it's survived this, that'd a good sign to me it's a trooper. I'm the worst at starting on plants due to fear of destroying something I've been keeping alive, but I saw a great example of a Pine today and I think I will try to model it after that so there's a plan. Is late summer or fall the best time to do the big cuts?

 

[TrevorLarsen]

Yeah fall is good. You might want to cut off all the foliage that shades out the stuff you plan on keeping and just keeping the top strongest buds so it thickens the trunk still. Do that in fall also.