DAS / Spring Growth / Buds - Pinching

[Bonsai Forest]

Monitoring the new growth as buds have opened and pushed forth


The goal is to identify tiny buds within the bright green fleshy new growth shown here and pinch back to those buds, leaving them at the tips, after this featured growth hardens off. Doing so should result in back budding along interior portions of the branches they’ve grown from.

The same pinching process will then be repeated in the future along those interior branches resulting from what is featured here.

 

[James W.]

Has been discussed elsewhere better but I will comment briefly:
Spruce are not pinched or candle cut except (possibly) in the final stages of refinement or maintenance.
If you want backbudding the timing is important. Shorten branches on a strongly growing spruce in late summer or fall after all growth has stopped for the year. DAS kinda keep growing all summer so finding that sweet spot might be a challenge.
I am willing to accept correction if my understanding is flawed.

 

[Bonsai Forest]

Has been discussed elsewhere better but I will comment briefly:
Spruce are not pinched or candle cut except (possibly) in the final stages of refinement or maintenance.
If you want backbudding the timing is important. Shorten branches on a strongly growing spruce in late summer or fall after all growth has stopped for the year. DAS kinda keep growing all summer so finding that sweet spot might be a challenge.
I am willing to accept correction if my understanding is flawed.

Oh thanks

 

[IckyGuyBonsai]

I personally don't even pinch DAS. Since they're naturally dwarfed as it is, I only get extensions of and inch or so and usually those extensions are loaded with buds to cut back to after hardening anyways, especially with young material. I have a dwarf sitka spruce that I've been treating the same way since it's another dwarf cultivar. Now something like my Colorado blue spruce, threw out extensions of 3-4" so I'll be pinching those to make sure things don't get too extended on me.

As others have mentioned in your other DAS threads, pinching comes further down the road in refinement once you have your primary branching set. The buds you have circled to pinch to create back budding already have buds popping all along their branches, so why not let it flush, then cut it back to some of those brand new branchlets? Once you cut it back and thin things out to let light and air in there, you should be rewarded with plenty of new buds to choose from to cut back to the next season.