Hi JB -
I think, if this little pine were mine, I would remove all the wire, just to let it breathe
(I don't think the wire is helping the tree much), and also I'd thoroughly clean off the
pearlwort and other stuff like moss etc, then I'd leave it alone until next year.
About next May/June I'd pot it in into a slightly bigger cascade pot, using a very
coarse and gritty soil medium, and after that I'd leave it well alone for at least a couple
of seasons to let it get stronger and put on some more foliage. It doesn't look from the
photos as though it's very interested in back-budding, so the only alternative is to let it
put on length, (so even more literati), and with the extra length should come some more
foliage and a bit of ramification. I think on the whole that the more you fiddle with this little
tree, the more it will slowly give up. Set it up to grow as best you can, give it best possible
conditions of light etc, then just let it get on with it. One of the most important lessons I've
learned since I started bonsai nearly 20 years ago is that most trees can do with far less
attention than we give them. Fiddling kills, but slowly - we torture our trees to death sometimes.
J.
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