all right so this is a Norfolk Island
pine you usually find a lot of these
around the holidays in your grocery
store or big-box stores this had for
many years now I don't know specifically
how many years but it used to actually
have two more little shoots here that I
think one one just died and then the I
think the other one was so tiny that it
wasn't doing anything I think I cut it
off but the reason why I'm making this
video here is because I couldn't find a
whole lot of information online about
being able to bonsai a Norfolk pine I've
seen a few videos on North yulk pines
but not specifically pruning them to
bonsai them this one here was growing in
this pot actually a different pot but
this one's been growing in this pot for
most of its time and then before that it
was in a different pot which a cat broke
let's just say so honey ways here you
can see the soil is is down about about
three quarters of an inch below the edge
of this pot before it looked like this
it was it was basically overflowing and
spilling over and that's because at the
bottom of this pot here there was a
collection of roots the whole bottom was
basically just nothing but roots that
were going around around and thickening
up and actually was pushing the whole
slowly pushing the soil up and up and up
and coming or so the story is is that I
decided it was time to root prune it so
I took it out of the pot and I pull all
the roots off I didn't take apart the
soil I left the soil alone and when I
pulled it out I basically just ripped
all the roots off the bottom and I left
whatever chunk of soil there was there
without disturbing the rest of it and
put it back in the pot I also decided it
was time to prune it mostly as an
experiment because
I wasn't sure like I said I went online
and I couldn't really find information
if you could actually bonzai these
because I know that they're kind of
sensitive when it comes to pruning and
things like that and generally the way
that they grow it's not very easy to
bonsai them in the first place just just
because they grow kind of weird I that's
all I can really say about it I guess
so anyways these were much bigger there
this was about up to here I would say
and it was branching off that there was
lower branches there was just two and
then it started going into four and four
I think there's two or three sets above
here and it was way too late to try to
prune back the branches or anything like
that and I really wish I kind of would
have gotten to the into the art of
bonsai a lot sooner because I would have
done pruned it off much sooner when it
was this was all still very green and
then would have been easier to do it
then but this is kind of why making this
video because this has already been
growing for so many years and these are
pretty thick trunks coming out of here
already and I wasn't sure what was gonna
happen but what I did it actually is I
cut off down here as you can see and I
left these littles needles here these
are basically just growing right out of
the stem if you were to cut this down to
here and there wasn't there's no green
chances are it's probably not going to
put out any new branches or anything
it's probably just gonna die back so
what I did is these two I cut the tops
off down to about where I felt that it
was okay to do it otherwise I wish I
would have done it lower but I mean it
just that's just not gonna happen
because like I said it would probably
die back these two cut back the tops I
cut off most of the branches and then
this one here is the smaller one I did
not top this I just cut the branches off
here now and this one interestingly
enough what happened was is those
branches that were sticking out here
just like this they were sticking out
and they were green for quite a while
maybe maybe maybe two months and then
they started looking like this one here
I started turning yellow and I touched
them and it basically fell off it's
almost like the tree butted at the
branch like it you know like a lizard
butting its tail a touch and it
basically was just loose and just came
right off and then since then the
cambium layer and everything has been
filling in and healing it over even
though there's hardly any green to this
at all
there was one two three four on that one
I believe so yeah I this fell off and I
thought the whole thing was dying back
but the rest of this is stayed green so
when I came to show here today and I
hope this helps people out there maybe
to answer this question can you bonsai
on Norfolk Island pine and then the
answer is yes and also it depends so the
first thing I'm going to show you here
is probably gonna be very difficult to
show on the video right there there's a
little branch bud right there at the
near the top there's another one below
it you can barely see the tip of my
fingernail and there's a couple more
around there I'm not even gonna attempt
to show you oh this is just basically
just a SAP string coming out of this
it's been coming out for a while this
one over here has the same thing there's
a couple really tiny tiny branch of buds
right in here very difficult to see and
[Music]
there's nothing else on that one on this
one here just a couple little tiny buds
and then on this one what I noticed was
interesting because these branches are
split green basically alive each branch
tip here that had cut off these were
pretty pretty long branches this is
growing four new branches there's little
branch buds right there you can barely
see it but it's right there and then the
same thing on this side there's four
branch buds so these are going to grow
four branches off of these
so when I say it depends I'm gonna try
to be quick about this not make this
video too long here but when I say it
depends you don't want to prune anything
back when it's growing so like during
the growing season you're definitely not
gonna want to you know cut it back when
it when it's actually growing and doing
well you could do it might might be okay
but the best time to do it is when the
plant is mostly in his dormant stage so
very early spring it really depends how
you're growing something but this isn't
a window so it is kind of in sync with
the not by temperature but by sunlight
and everything it's kind of in sync with
these seasons so very early spring late
winter is the best time to do it I feel
and it actually it may sprout a new
trunk out here at the bottom I haven't
seen any grow than that but it could
possibly do that too but my tip is do it
while it's small there'll be the easiest
time to do it and if you cut it back
when they go in that when the trunks
aren't really Brown like this and
they're thinner and green you can top it
you can cut the thin branches off
they're completely covered in green and
you probably okay but for here from what
I'm seeing is that when the branches
start to develop more bark and there's
less of the green on there you're
probably not gonna get any new budding
on the branches but definitely topping
it is proving to be working and I'll
probably make an update video on this at
a later time to go along with my channel
here on my other bonsai trees that I'm
growing I just wanted to give some
pointers
based on my experience here I hope that
helps anyone out there who's questioning
if they can bonsai in Norfolk Island
pine especially when it's this late and
and this heavy of pruning this is this
is definitely a very very big pruning
for this plant so anyways that's all for
this video thanks for watching