I think there's a lot of mystery involved with pines to most. Mind you... for the moment I'm excluding white pines all together, and I have very little experience with Mugo's...
BUT... if we are talking Japanese Black Pine, Ponderosa Pine, Korean Black Pine, Lodgepole Pine, and in this case Korean Red Pine.... they don't have to be a big mystery when it comes to growth management and needle reduction.
First off I would have to say... that I do not ignore the fact that what works in Washington may not work in other places, but it is food for thought, and frankly it could take a vast bit of the mystery out of how to manage the growth on these species.
There's the traditional methodology which is often taught, about the management of candles based on a calendar of weeks in the spring. As the candles are extending you are removing the candles based on size.
I propose that there is a much easier.... and equally effective methodology which can achieve back budding and insanely small needle growth.
It's something Daniel has spent a lot of time teaching me about... and which I am applying almost every weekend right now (you kind of get nailed by species in cycles in that place... first it was all the azaleas... now it's the pines...lol).
Daniel's method is pretty simple. Do not manage the candle growth in any way in the beginning of the year up until July.... even mid or end of July, feeding them about once a week from spring. When the candle has extended and pushed it's needles... just cut off all the new growth back to the point of the previous year's needles. This is a one time, take it all off the tree at once, kind of move. And then you stop feeding the trees around the same time that you removed all that new growth. It also ends up being a great time to thin the tree out and make certain that a lot of light gets into the inner foliage. If the tree has incredible vigor... or the tree was given a rest year in the last growing year for whatever reason... you can take off not only all of this years growth, but last year's also. Taking it down to even just a few needle bundles on the branch-lets, to force back that re-budding to areas you desire it.
The premise is pretty simple.... When the tree has expended nearly all of it's energy into making the new growth... removing that growth will set off a reaction in the tree to produce new buds. But... because most of it's energy has been expended into the first growths development, and it is at it's weakest, it has much less to give this second round of growth.... resulting in exceptionally small needles.
To this end... I was asked to work over this marvelous Korean Red Pine. The tree was collected by Daniel in 1962, in Korea, and brought back to the states in a duffel bag.
I have never handled this species before... and I have to tell you... I fell in love with this particular tree... it's foliage is very soft and just gorgeous. This tree is vigorously healthy... and required quite a bit of thinning of the crown to reduce congestion. The tree has beautiful ramification from this process of growth management.
The next couple of photographs are of the candle from this spring... and my removal of it all the way back to last years growth.
The next photo of the tree, is after I have thinned it (no doubt Daniel would have probably been more vigorous about it than I...lol) and removed all new growth from this year.
(sorry about the crumby shot... I was in a hurry as the camera batteries were dying...
)
I have seen this method be so effective on some of Daniel's pines, that the needles can be 1/4-1/2 an inch. I didn't understand it at the time... In fact it made me wonder what species it could possibly be, because I couldn't tell by the tiny needles. But I know it works.
However for the sake of doing something interesting here... I'm going to continue to photograph and track the progress of this tree and share it here. And I may also include a Korean Black Pine that Daniel did the same process to as I was working this one.
I think this may end up being an excellent exercise for anyone who ever felt intimidated about how to manage the growth on their two needle pines.
It doesn't have to be a mystical thing...
Kindest regards to all,
Victrinia