Picea pungens repot

[Tim.E]

Hey guys,

Thought I'd share the repot I just did on my CBS. Found a big surprise underneath which turned out to be a 3" trunk at the bottom with I'm pretty sure an unusual graft. I'll get better pictures of it tomorrow as I have another CBS to repot tomorrow as well.

Some questions about the tree. Would it be appropriate to also pinch the new shoots despite the repot and fairly drastic root pruning? Or would it be better to let the tree grow freely for the year?

 

[0soyoung]

Would it be appropriate to also pinch the new shoots despite the repot and fairly drastic root pruning? Or would it be better to let the tree grow freely for the year?

Let's think this through:
Your tree has lots of foliage and it is dense. Needles on the inside are going to be shed --> foliage is going to be walking away from the trunk if you do nothing.

I'm thinking 'pinch' the new growth -- like remove half the length of each of this season's shoots; that will cause some back budding. BTW, the convention is to do this 'pinching' about now, but in my experience it is more effective for back budding after this season's growth has hardened - like August.

But these buds will go for naught if they don't get light. I wouldn't want to thin the branches, though this would accomplish this objective of more light to the interior. Some branches might be cut back (being sure to keep a couple of new shoots) - again, Aug will be a more effective time than now if it were to be done.

• Since I have no idea what styling you're going to make, I opt for wiring branches and positioning them so that little foliage is shaded and light gets to the interior.
• On the other hand (speaking hypothetically), I have in mind making a jin of the apex, slanting the trunk and making an image of an aged tall tree on a stream bank. If so and/or as such, I will want to shorten all the branches back to leave only one to four new shoots and wire them down, so I had may as well position them so that as little foliage is shaded as I possibly can - I'll wait until Aug to do this; meanwhile fertilize to improve vitality (nitrogen is essential for budding) and recover the roots from the inherent damage of repotting.
  
• Yet another idea is to make a Christmas tree. If this is what you want, wait until August and shear it into a nice conical shape. It won't be very impressive for 2016, but it will be a fabulous cone of blue needles by Xmas2017.

I think this tells you everything you need to know. Now you need to decide why you bought this tree - that's the hard part.

 

[aml1014]

With me, I only do one insult per year on conifers. Generally I'll leave the tree in the pot I bought it in (as long as it's not root bound) and do a rough styling, removing unneeded branches. The following year I'll repot since the root system doesn't have that much foliage to support anymore.
Here's my spruce project for the year http://www.bonsainut.com/threads/bacheri-blue-spruce.22260/

Aaron

 

[PiñonJ]

These guys are tough, and nursery stock comes with way too many branches for bonsai purposes. You can remove a few branches this year without impeding your progress next year.