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Old 2-May-2004   #5
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Japanese Black Pine Decandling

It's tough to cram an entire discussion on decandling into a bonsaiCAM session, but a request was made for some Black Pine work.

It's still mid spring here and a little early for the type of decandling I practice. Ordinarily we'd begin decandling in mid June (roughly, but with a lot of trees, you start early and finish late!)

Anyway, we treated this tree as if it were later in the season to get some discussion material, and it was rather healthy so there won't be much ill will on its part!

Pines are strongly top dominant. If they had their way they would become tall trees, shedding all their lower branches in the process. This is not what we want for bonsai, so we need to keep strength in the interior and lower branches by pruning and thinning, particularly in the stronger areas.

Begin by reviewing the tree and seeing the zones of strength and areas of weekness. The typically strong areas on the top and outer branches, especially the branch tips tend to throw nice fat candles that are long. Here's an example of one.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg 2004may01pine2.jpg (39.6 KB, 258 views)
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