More on decandling technique. (You knew there'd be more technique, right?)
There are two schools of thought on decandling. Both work. One school is the 10 day school. The other school is the "do the whole tree in one day" school. I subscribe to the "all in 1 day" school. But, let me describe both. You can choose which one you like best. FYI, I believe Brian Van Fleet, another accomplished JBP artist prefers the 10 day school.
The 10 day school:
It's called the 10 day school because you will come around to each tree every 10 days to decandle parts of the tree. The tree is divided up into zones: Strong, medium, weak, and very weak. The zones concept is common to the 10 day and the all in 1 day technique. Under both schools, the very weak candles are NOT decandled. These are usually the newly popped back buds, weak buds on lower branches and interior buds. Leave these alone until they grow strong enough to be considered at least "weak" instead of "very weak".
Decandle the "weak" buds on day one. We do the weak buds first to give them more growing season (summer) to grow back.
10 days later, come back and do the medium candles.
And finally, 10 days later, come back and do the strong buds.
The idea is that at the end of the growing season, all the buds will show about the same strength. Remember that "balancing" stuff. Yeah, we're back to that, again.
Now, when you decandle using the 10 day school, you cut the candle straight across right at the bottom of the candle using sharp scissors. Cut it flat across. Don't leave a stub, but don't cut into last year's growth either. Doing so would remove the dormant (invisible) adventitious buds we want to grow.
Ok, got it?
That's the "old school" way, and it works great. Except, wow, I can hardly remember to take my blood pressure medicine on a daily basis, I would lose track of 10 days, which candles am I doing today? etc. (Let's not even MENTION my wife's birthday and our Anniversary, ok? Thanks!)
The All in 1 day school:
Same zones as before, and again, don't mess with the very weak. We're going to cut all the other candles on the tree. But, here we're going to use some Vic's and Jeanluc's auxin to help us out. The weak candles, cut off at the base, just as with the 10 day method. The medium candles, cut them off straight across, but leave a bit of stubb. Maybe an 1/8 to a 1/4 inch. The strong candles, leave more stub. Maybe 1/4 to 1/2 inch. Do the whole tree. You're done.
Ten days later, call Brian Van Fleet and remind him to go decandle his trees! LOL!!! Just kidding!!
What happens is the auxin that remains in the stub still suppresses the adventitious buds for a little while until the stub dries up. Leaving a longer stub keeps more auxin around for longer.
At the end of the summer, both techniques produce the same results! The one day technique does have one disadvantage, however. It leaves a stub. I clean those up when I do the fall bud selection. I examine the new buds, remove the ones I don't want, and remove the stub remaining from the decandling. If I had done the 10 day thing, there would be no stub.
Things to bear in mind:
Use sharp scissors.
Cut straight across the candle, not on the diagonal.
Timing is important. WHEN you decandle has a lot to do with how long your needles will be. Decandle early in the summer, the tree has longer to grow until fall, your needles will be longer. Waiting until later in the summer, your needles will be shorter because there's a shorter growing season.
Therefore, decandle shohin trees later in the summer!
Those of you who live in the northern climes will decandle before us Southerners do. Boon decandles in late May, early June. I don't decandle until July 4th. (Why July 4th? It's a date I can remember. Unlike my wife's birthday.) I do my shohin 10 days later, July 14th day. It's Bastille Day. I have a mini I did a week after that.
Some trial and error on your part will determine what the right day for you. And don't forget that Mother Nature has a say in this. Some summers may be wet and cool, you wont get the growth you usually do. But a general rule of thumb (remember, I like rules!) is to give your trees 100 days before the first frost to grow summer candles. For me, that's around Halloween. So, decandling during July gives the trees a little over 100 days to grow.
Jonas on his blog. Bonsai Tonight has posted some excellent photos on decandling techniques.
Jonas is also one of Boon's first students. No one calls him an SOB. He shares extensive information on his blog. Complete with excellent pictures. If you think the info I've put in this thread is good, check out
www.bonsaitonight.com. It's better. WAY better.