I did a similar thing 3 years ago. What I do is is more step wise, I bend the trunk to the shape I want little by little, say every 2-4 weeks, I twist the turns tighter. This allows time for the wood to adjust and grow into the direction of the bends. No raffia needed. Sometimes the rafia is needed for more radical bends or older bonsai materials/different species, or as in the case here, a little "added insurance". If you only had a couple of seedlings, or bought this one, then there is more risk than say, if you have 50 to bend this season. If you do 100-2000 trees, well, you pretty much know the limits, but you may still snap one and kill a tree rarely. I've done a few hundred, no deaths "yet" haha. So I would suggest a tree or two, most bonsai keepers might err on the side of caution(use the rafia!). Those with a tray of 100 seedlings, well, you can afford to lose a few, so you can do more radical things. I wire earlier, at about the 8 month stage, late summer mid Fall. I just leave the needles on the trees. Wire around them as best you can. More needles= more growth. If I kill a few needles with the wiring, not issue. Needles can be removed whenever you chose. I'll remove the wire in the spring(or until it bites the bark good), wire again in some cases, or I bring out the zip ties and fold the shape into a more twisted tighter bends and smaller overall trunk space. Zip ties work like the twisting the wire every few weeks also, you can tighter the zip ties every few weeks also. Zip ties make wiring and unwiring a far easier process. Generally after 1-2x wiring like this, one or two zip ties, you have a crazy looking trunk. You can plant in the ground if you want the tree to get larger, or you can up pot and using thick wire to get some bite and swell the lower trunk(I often leave the initial 1-2 wirings on till I get that sunk in bite look). If you can try say 10-50 seedlings, try a few different methods and see what works best for you.

Using the Brexit method of hydroponics and CO2 at night, I get 1000 times the sugar content of normal JBP's and they are bigger and with almost black needles and ready for a bonsai pot and wire in only 12 weeks.The trunk is as big as a pinky finger. Perfect Bonsai material. 30 plus years in Bonsai and owned 2 Bonsai businesses. Now retired and only grow JPB's to line my deck and patio and have fun trying new things.

Thank you !

Very interesting I am very curious how that will develop? As always your videos are extremely educational to the art of Bonsai.

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Hey! Can we see how this tree looks today?

good bonsai work 👍 greetings 🙏

it is also my problem on how to bend my 2-3 yr old JBP...thanks for the idea

I assume that you wrapped it first so you won't have scarring from the wire

Thanks for the video. This is exactly what I was looking for. I just purchase a black pine fairly similar to this one. Can I ask what you are using for soil?

Fantastic video, what you you use for your substrate? The white small gravel is zeolite or something else?

Love your demonstration! one question i have is it safe to do the bending and repotting at the same time? I'm just curious as I'm always told you should not do major trim or bending with barerooting and repot. Also with it being a pine does it not need some original soil left or is it ok to do this because it's so young? I'm just trying to learn and I'd love to try this technique. Thanks

You should have just cut the needles with scissors instead of pulling them. Needle base are the source of new buds and should not be damaged by pulling. Also, why do you have to put rafia on such a very soft and easy to bend young trunk? Now you've sealed the trunk and prevent it from back budding