If you treat your seedling as a bonsai, you will
retard its growth. Sounds like a jack pine should be
a larger tree to carry the needle size. If you can,
my advice would be to put your seedling in the ground
and let it go for a couple of years. You do want some
curves in the trunk, which will be easier to do sooner
than later. If you do put it into the ground you
should check the rootage now and then to make sure you
have some feeder roots up high enough so when you dig
out the tree, you can put it into a pot.

Kitsune Miko
--- wrote:

I have a Jack Pine seedling which is about 2
1/2 years old. It's
5-inches tall and has a trunk which is about 5 mm
thick. It sports
needles which are 4 inches long. The bonsai book I
own advises that
two-needle pines should have all their needles
removed in the Autumn
(with the exception of 6 pairs at the end of each
limb.) This seems
to make sense in my case since the needles are so
*long* and their
sheer weight is making my seedling lean to one side.
Should I go
ahead with this procedure on such a young specimen?
What about the
remaining needles on the ends? Should I trim their
length down?

Thank you in advance for any advice.


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=====
****
"Expectations are resentments under construction."

Anne Lamott

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