Candles in a podocarpus...

Bonsaifreak

Tried posting this thread under the techniques section but had minimal expert traffic...

I recently purchased a nice cascading Podocarpus. It is doing well and recently started growing nice and strong candles. I was not aware that's how they grow and I was reading they are actually considered conifers. What should I do with the candles, do I pinch them off or let them grow freely? Do pine training techniques work for this sp.?

Thanks,

Jorge

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Bruce Winter

Well they're evergreens but not conifers, and those are catkins not candles soooooo, cut away, according to your vision. They bud back well and are pretty hard to kill.

Attila

Bruce, they are conifers.

But the good news is that, as you said, they bud back profusely. With one condition though: the hard pruning should be done during the growing season. When hard pruned beyond the green foliage during winter, you can lose the branch. But you can prune it any way you want during the active season.

rxweitz

Actually, Bruce is wrong on two counts:

1) Podocarpus species ARE conifers.

2) Catkins are not buds. They are the flowers of trees in the birch, beech, willow, and other families.

I can't really tell you anything about the pruning of Podocarpus, but they are fairly popular penjing subjects in China. According to Robert J. Baran, they are the specialty of the Nantong school of penjing. I found the following links that might be of some help:

http://www.bonsai4me.com/SpeciesGuide/Podocarpus.html

http://www.bonsai-bci.com/species/podocarpus.html


Rainer

Attila

No need for pine training techniques. They are too conservative for Podocarpus.
You need to use much more aggressive techiques here, similar to techniques applied for deciduous trees. Except that you leave the aggressive pruning for spring and summer and don't prune beyond the green in the winter.

Bruce Winter

Here is a picture of catkins on Podocarpus:
http://tinyurl.com/h5ztn

ozzerbon

Many thanks for this interesting article dude,

Just yesterday I planted three small Podocarpus atop a very porous limestone 'moon-rook'. Was beginning to think that I had lost the plot, removed all the old wires, and pruned away all the unhealthy bits, had it/them growing [neglected] in a darkish corner in three seperate pots [outside], now plan to keep them inside for a period, although sparsish foliage they look healthy enough.

As to what you call candles look like flowers to me, would be very helpful if you could post a reasonably sized pic of your tree, have seen them in flower before, but only once, as they develope they become very messy to say the least, so I'd prune them off.

Good luck to you mate.

Regards,
Nigel

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agraham

Thinking,thinking

Bruce has a good point.I spoke up in a different thread and "assumed" Jorge was speaking of the new shoots.It is entirely possible that what he is seeing and thinking of as "candles" are the flowers(catkins).

I don't think they are conifers either.Their fruit is more of a berry.

andy

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ozzerbon

Simply put, they are conifers and they do not produce candles.

[BUT i may be wrong] ;-))

Regards,
Nigel

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