JBP needles pluck or cut?

Vonsgardens

There is a fairly common misgiving among many that plucking needles on Japanese Black Pines is a difficult technique that can lead to the destruction of nascent buds found at the base of the needle pair. Opponents of needle plucking will prune the needle pairs back to the "sheath" at the base of the needles. This technique is frequently used on Japanese White Pines, Ponderosas and some other types of pines.

For JBP, it is best to pluck the needles with good straight tweezers (Such as the Masakuni 812 or 8812). Grasp the needle pair near the base, pull it firmly in the direction that needles grow and discard. A large Japanese black pine well along in development will take several hours to complete. It really works, and if applied correctly can lead to spectacular results.

Below is a picture of a tree that posted a few weeks ago after pruning and wiring. I stated at the time a key reason for plucking needles and wiring was to stimulate bud development back along the branches and in the old needle areas. As you can see from this closeup, both have happened, indeed you can see a pair of buds emerging through the cut paste at the end of a rather large branch.

Cheers,
John

Attached Images

JBP buds.jpg (73.0 KB, 142 views)

__________________
"Wiring is simple; However, it is not easy to do it right" Boon

Advertisement

Claus

Hello John , When do we cut the needles on the Ponderosas ?
CK .

Vonsgardens

You can do it now,cut the old needles- 3-4 year needles (they are the ones closest to the trunk), they will usually be in sets that are separated by a short interspace- which might be virtually indestinguishable.Leave at aleat 10-12 bundles per branchlet or branch end.

John

__________________
"Wiring is simple; However, it is not easy to do it right" Boon

anttal63

taken on board thanks pal

__________________
Antonio . . .
------------------------------------

eeiko321

well i usually cut the needles & gives me the dead/discoloured tips....

i know there is techniques for selected plucking can make the new growths shorter

Mcspeed

Yep he just gave it to us. Oy! Someone needs a hobby.

__________________
If at first you don't succeed -- skydiving is not for you.


Always remember that you're unique -- just like everyone else

Enjoy this day.
Bill

waltr

The devil is in the details as they say. I've been doing pretty good with my pines but there is a ton to learn. Do I guess correctly that on the pine in the picture that you pulled the needles where the new growth is last year? and that the new buds broke this spring and are now growing.

Thanks John.

BunjinEnt

Great Post, John.
We can never have enough reiteration of techniques for pines. I was reading Brent Walston's JBP development on his web site. He was describing candeling in conjunction with needle plucking as a way to get buds to pop. And care of adventitious (sp?) buds. Do you see similar results?

I know I'm going to open a whole can of worms here, but damn the torpedos...

Some questions about five y.o. seedling development (Seedlings in ground):
When trying to grow large stock, is it best to allow the main candle to grow as large as it needs without pinching the candle, then use plucking to get buds to sprout when the needles between the top of that candle and the whorl from which it came are 2-3 years old? or is it better to work it more slowly to improve taper, by candeling for reduction until I get it to the overall tree the size I want?

If I do leave the main candle, do I reduce the number of secondary candles to two from the same whorl to reduce the chance of reverse taper? And should those two branches be about 120 degrees apart from one another?

If I do remove the main candle, do I do it after the needles have pushed out to about 45 degrees or wait until they are fully extended and harded off or do it now and allow a secondary candle to get the spring energy? then do I reduce the number of secondary candles to three? one for the new leader and two for branching?

That's a start, thanks for your help.

-Wm

BTW..I live in an area where I can get two buddings and candleings in a season.

__________________
Life without Bonsai would be...well, death.

Vonsgardens

Waltr,
The tree was not decandled last year as it had a major root reduction in order to move it from a nursery can to a training pot. See the tree in the following post to see where it started in February. http://forum.bonsaitalk.com/f15/usa...-jbp-27484.html .

I plucked all of the old needles (greater than 1 year old) from the entire tree. This left needles that had developed in the spring and summer of 07 and a few from a second round of candle development in the fall of 07. The tree was then pruned and wired.

Simple Method of Decandling JBP (and JRP)

In a normal year of development, one would break really long candles in early spring (march-april depending on where you live) then in June or the first week or so of July (up north early, down south later; Big trees first, small trees later) you need to remove all of the candles from the tree (except in places where you either have extremely weak growth, such as the interior; or where you may want to increase branch girth or length). Then you go through and pull the old needles, leaving 5-6 pairs at the top and more as you go down the tree to balance growth (All on the weak interior branches or buds). This is key as JBP are profoundly apically dominant.

When do you do this in your area? Well, you will need to see what others in your area do and then experiment. If you are overly aggressive, either removing too many needles at plucking, or doing your decandling too late- your needles can be too short (yes- too short) and may not mature completely. If you do it too early or leave too many needles, your needles can be too long and have a second round of budding- not good either. Neither tends to be fatal- 3 years ago I decandled a bunch of stock trees in August (mid), They did not bud back normally the next year.... Now they are fine, but I have learned my lesson.

The next step is that in the fall/early winter after the tree has hardened off getting ready for winter, you need to do phase two- that is pulling the old needles and reducing the new needles to 5- pairs per candle and then reducing the number of candles (needle bunches) to two per branch/branchlet. Alternate the buds being vertically aligned vs horizontally aligned. Do the whole tree, again leave extra needles at weak points.

Repeat this every year- now you know why it is tough for someone to have a whole lot JBP- they become your life.

Cheers,
John

__________________
"Wiring is simple; However, it is not easy to do it right" Boon