Young Mugo Pine Styling - Need Your Opinion

Jur

Here Mugo pine (mughus), height 25 sm, sits in a 5-liter pot, all ball is braided with roots.
I’m thinking to make shohin, planning to repot in a flat dish next spring.
Now is considered to be a favorable time for pine repotting, how far can I go with root pruning without any risk, together with removal of some branches? Is it OK for the pine to have root pruning in the fall and next spring or it’ll be better to wait one year more?

Attached Images

mugo-01.jpg (49.0 KB, 205 views)

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Jur

Here a variant arising first of all and therefore it’s seemed not very interesting, maybe the angle seems too sharp? What will be your opinion?

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mugo-03.jpg (30.1 KB, 170 views)

Jur

And here the image virtually cleared from bottom branch and some other details, i.e. more likely preparation for the further work. Or maybe you suppose this pine isn’t worse any efforts?
I’ll be grateful to hear (or to see) your vision about styling this tree.

Attached Images

mugo-02.jpg (42.2 KB, 158 views)

Will_Heath

In my experiance I have found that mugo's respond well to top pruning and not well to root pruning. I never remove more than 1/3 of the roots at a time.

I know that you are from russia but I am not sure of your growing zone, so I can not offer you advice on what time of year to do this work.

Persoanlly, I would repot, cleaning up the roots a little while combing them out gradually. I would then remove the unwanted branches at the whrols that are creating bulges, cut back the apex a little and then leave it alone until next spring.