Growing out collected Scots pine

Hi,
I have a scotts pine, pinus sylvestris, collected this spring. It has a pretty massive base and just two smaller branches. I need to grow the tree out for a few years for thickening up the next trunk section but I'm (always) struggling with understanding how pines grow.

This tree has a big, evenly distributed rootflare around the trunk. Originally, this pine grew in a "high rise handlebar"-shape but was mowed several years ago. This didn't kill it - two low shoots must have survived, grew on for a few years and then I found it. Now it looks like this:



Base approx. 12 cm wide, top branch is about 10-15 cm up the trunk. I want to make a short and fat Little tree out of this material.

I need to grow the top branch into a new trunk section, eventually remove the right branch and drastically shorten the old stumps. My concern is keeping the sap-flow. The roots at the time of collection seemed alive all the way arund the trunk and I'm worried I will kill off the right side and/or back of the trunk when I start working on it. Do pines work like Junipers with live veins connecting individual roots to branches or are they more "adaptable"?

Can somebody give advice on how to (try to) keep all of the lowest trunk alive while devellopping the top?

I'm not going to do anything at all with it for another growing season but I know of one more tree just like this I am planning on collecting and it made me think of this tree.


Regards,
Ingvar

From what I can tell from your drawing, I would personally think that just about the entire right side of the tree has potentially died off.
The other, left side probably has one or more live veins supporting that remaining trunk and foliage mass. But, there is most likely an area of die-back on the left side of the trunk, as well.
If you're curious about this? I believe the best thing to do, is to carefully dig down into the bark and follow the dead trunk wood down to the main trunk. You'll see that way where the dead wood ends, and the live parts of the main trunk actually are.
Unfortunately, it is very doubtful you will have a large trunk like this that is completely alive, with such significant areas of die-back above it.

Auballagh wrote:From what I can tell from your drawing, I would personally think that just about the entire right side of the tree has potentially died off.
The other, left side probably has one or more live veins supporting that remaining trunk and foliage mass.  But, there is most likely an area of die-back on the left side of the trunk, as well.
If you're curious about this?   I believe the best thing to do, is to carefully dig down into the bark and follow the dead trunk wood down to the main trunk.  You'll see that way where the dead wood ends, and the live parts of the main trunk actually are.  
Unfortunately, it is very doubtful you will have a large trunk like this that is completely alive, with such significant areas of die-back above it.

Thanks for commenting! You're right, peeling off the bark is the only way to know, I'll have do that later, too curioun not to. But don't think the right side is dead (yet) the branch on that side is very much alive and grew a lot this summer.

I would just feed and water it and let it grow. And if another one is still in the ground, if possible, I would feed and water that as well for a season or two before digging it up. Strength, if present, will hopefully show up at some point and, with patience, will help survival and make it less likely that working on it will kill it. Ryan Neal has a great video on Pines on YouTube - search for "Ryan Neal Pines Lecture" - he'll tell you all that is needed to know about top development.

Good luck!

JT @ MKBonsai