Japanese black and white pine help

Hello everyone!
Im new to the board and also new to bonsai. Ive recieved a Japanese white pine and a Japanese black pine. Im now in the stages of what to do next with these wonderful plants. The white pine is about 10 in tall from the rim of the pot and the Jbp is 7in. Any advice will be great, Thanks in advance.

Both are very young. Our advice likely is going to be that you either put them in a larger grow box or in the ground and let them grow for a few years.

Texas is quite large (understatement), with a wide range of habitats and climate zones. Knowing from which part of the state you hail will help us give advice.

I live in Round Rock which is 10 miles from Austin.

Should i just get a big plastic pot for each. In the ground isnt really an option.

Let it grow. Each tree has different technic of developing. Best to read all you need here http://www.bonsai4me.com/index.htm Two options in pot- slower...in "field"/open ground -faster Notice "overpotting"

It looks like the wire is really cutting into the second tree, is that the case?

is there a white pine in the pictures ?-it looks like two similar pines with 2 needles per sheath ?

the wire on the lower trunks is fine cutting it - its just a way to speed up the thickening and start to make better bark texture form.

lots of years ahead with them both though - even for a little shohin pine they need time to thicken up.

good luck

Marcus

Thanks a lot for the responses. Yes the wire was eating into the bark. That is how i got them.

If you put them into a larger pot, I'd make it a shallow larger pot. Maybe cut a 10-gal nursery pot 2/3 of the way down and use the bottom (duh!) third as the pot. You don't want these to form roots that only want to grow down.

Ahh ok that sounds good with the shallow pot.

it is more important to identify them properly before worrying about the styling..........

pruning a black pine like a white will just result in poor development, treating a white like a black will kill off the branches one by one. Winter too..........blacks dont like frost, whites need frost, both will weaken with the wrong winter care

both pictures appear to be 2 needle pines by the look of it, (Count all the needles coming from one sheath - does one tree have 5 needles in every sheath)

I'd get the basic essentials right before worrying about shallower pots.

Marcus

After looking at them they only have 2 needles growing out each sheath. What does that mean?

It means they're both the same pine. Japanese black pine has needles in pairs, but so do a lot of North American native pines.

Oh ok. So whats is the next step? Thanks again to everyone with the great advice.

JimLewis wrote:It means they're both the same pine. Japanese black pine has needles in pairs, but so do a lot of North American native pines.

...and Japanese white pines have 5 needles per sheath. Your two pines are most likely Japanese black pines. For what it's worth, black pines are faster growing and more forgiving, enjoy summer heat and would be more likely to thrive in your location.

Alright awesome! So continue with the larger and shallow pot and let them grow grow grow?

Yup.

excelent, two trees with 2 needles - they look a lot like a native pine seedling to me rather than Japanese black pine, but all 2 needle pines will behave in a similar manner so no need to worry about the finer points at this stage.

they will probably have a long and coiling main root in the plant pot - in the spring this needs shortening or you will never make the trees into a convincing bonsai that fits into a shallower pot.

tree one i would do this spring root pruning, put in a shallower but slightly larger pot and nothing else. Tree two i would remove the strong upper section above the main branch fork as well - wire the 2 branches with one piece of wire and bend one up to be a new trunk and one down to be the main branch. then let them grow for a few years - remove wire on the branches before it cuts in, and redo it if needed.

cheers Marcus