Pine Pinching

FredL

OK, I'm at the point where my Pinus echinatas (Short
leaf Pines) collected last year seem to be in good health and I think it's time to start doing candle pinching. Last year, when I collected them, they were in such bad shape that they hardly had any buds and didn't do much in the way of making new growth until mid-Summer. This year they have very strong new buds that look like they will make strong candles and seem to indicate they have formed good root growth.

OK, so the question is, when and how to do it.

John Naka in "Bonsai Techniques I" recommends removing the entire candles in late Spring (late April to May in S. California), and then pinching again in the Fall, leaving some of the new growth. On this forum, I saw pinching half of each candle in mid-Summer (July) recommended.

I definitely want to start working with these trees this year and would welcome comments.

Regards, Fred

Advertisement

Bonsainut

Fred,
John has revised his dates somewhat since BT1. He now recommends candle pruning later to encourage smaller second growth needles.

This is the sytem he has taught us. So-CAl mind you...

1. You must start with a strong budding pine. You said yours was but that was for the others lurking.

2. Give and early dose of organics to encourage vigorous budding.

3. Around the 4th of July take off the new candles leaving about a quarter of an inch of the stem.

4. Mid august thin the budding that came out at the point of the cut to two buds. You may have three to five buds at each cut.

5. Late Oct. early Nov., pull old long needles. Arrange branching and wire.

6. Repot in early spring as new buds begin to elongate.

__________________
Keep growing,---'Nut



Lethal Use of Farce

FredL

B., thank you very, very much. VERY informative response!

Fred

Brettj_arts

Thanks as well, I always get intimidated when trying to read about candle techniques. You put it plain and simple, very much appreciated.

I only have Mugo pine right now, I have heard they don't respond well to candle pinching? Should I just prune? If anyone knows how the techniques vary for mugho, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks, Brett

__________________
Trees are phalic symbols, The Redwoods are just compensating.

bnsaijim

Unfortunately, while it may sound easy, this is all an "ideal system". Each person's mileage may vary for any given tree.

Fred,

Why exactly do you want to pinch candles? What is your goal for this year- what do you expect to see it do in response?

Specific techniques are done in a particular way and at a particular time to yield a given result.

The other consideration is that you would not want to go through a full gamut of training techniques on these pines. Pines don't recover even nearly as quickly as deciduous trees.

Strong budding can occur from a final surge in response to trauma i.e., collecting- blowing all it's reserves in a last ditch attempt to survive. If you tax the tree you may lose it. You think it's doing well - it's budding, right?- so you do all your techniques - candle pinching, wiring, needle pulling, and then you wonder why it' doesn't wake up next spring...

I have about a 6" high pile of references and notes on training JBP's. A cookbook approach is a good place to start but following what the tree is telling you will produce superior results.

I have a few hundred in various size pots, in the ground, different ages and stages of development, each with a different "plan". Specifically, I have "prepotensai" - stock that I'm working on getting branches within the first 4". Many of these have popped numerous low buds. These may be viable, may not be, BUT I do know that if I wait till August to candle the strong top, the low buds will be dead.

Lastly, most American species of pine are best handled as "weaker" versions of black pines - same techniques, just less rigorous application...

Evergreen Gardenworks has two excellent articles on this topic...

Hope my different take is of some help...

Jim Stone
TX

LivingArt

I’m about to get my first pine. I mostly do tropical plants. This is all very confusing to me knowing absolutely nothing about how to prune pines. Can you recommend a book or web site? I’m more of a visual learner.
Thanks
LA

__________________
TreeBay Bonsai Tools & Supplies

TreeBay

There's a pine candle pruning article at Treebay:

http://www.treebay.com/index.html?t...A=64&B=Articles

I think you'll find a lot more if you search <a href="http://www.memobug.com/treebay/links/">bonsaiTALK LINKS</a> under "black Pine" scroll all the way down to TECHNIQUES->DEVELOPING

__________________

Want to be a seller on bonsaiAUCTIONS? Get authorized today!

bonsaiTALK: Over 100,005.36 Megabytes Served this Month!

LivingArt

thanks!

__________________
TreeBay Bonsai Tools & Supplies

LivingArt

is this bad or good?

__________________
TreeBay Bonsai Tools & Supplies