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Hey guys
Ordered this young black pine online from a nursery in my region and what I received was this long, skinny stick in a nursery container. Im not sure if the bend happened from shipping or from the disproportionate amount of foliage on the apex of the tree. So far I've slip potted the tree into a pond basket with a well draining soil and plucked a few needles for better sunlight distribution. I've also applied a healthy amount of organic fertilizer which I plan to stop when I decandle. I've spent hours reading conflicting information on when and how to decandle trees at every stage of growth. Based on what I've read, my plan is to cut all the new candles in mid June and stop fertilizing until Autumn to get shorter needles. Other than that, I'm completely clueless as to how I'm supposed to redistribute some growth to the lower parts of the "trunk". What do you guys think? Is there anything that can be done about this tree or has improper development early on limited its potential for bonsai?

Decandling & smaller needles are not something you want. You want loadsof growth to get a bit of trunk on that seedling. Proper care shoudl get you some low buds too, which will eventually become your tree. I think I would focus this year on backbuddging. Wire this trunk in a bit more pleasant shape. Once you have a low bud, Let one candle extend into the sky.

hoody yolkin wrote: Based on what I've read, my plan is to cut all the new candles in mid June and stop fertilizing until Autumn to get shorter needles. Other than that, I'm completely clueless as to how I'm supposed to redistribute some growth to the lower parts of the "trunk". What do you guys think?

This is a very young pine that you need to work on from scratch. Part of that is stimulating development of new buds.
Do NOT pluck needles. If you must remove needles better is to cut them using sharp scissors. If you pull them out, you'll also pull out the part that can generate a new bud. If you cut them, they'll dry out and fall off. This seedling doesn't look like it needs needles to be removed.

You should not decandle. The tree needs to grow to get a decent trunk size.
You do have a lot of candles though... you might consider removing a few that are on the same height of the branch. Cannot give you real good advice as I cannot see where the candles are. Personally, I'd wait a couple of years.

Needle size reduction is of no concern at all at this stage.

I guess you've seen this guide already:

Here is the best photo I have of the candle situation. Would the fact that I have 6 candles in the same area create an unattractive “knuckle” in the future if left to grow?

Yes.

Normally I would say, remove all but 2 of the candles at each position. In this case I am fairly sure you will eventually clip all that off. But to be certain you avoid troulbesin the future, you could remove all but the biggest 2