The reason I’m saying wait for now is you can’t tell on the candle if the little green bumps are going to be needles, or pollen cones. Yet.
The pollen cones will be on the bottom of the candle. So, it’s possible to mistake them for needles, and pinch back too far on the candle, removing all the future needles, and leaving only pollen cones! I’ve done it! I don’t want you to. So wait a week or two. Until you can tell. Then pinch (break) back.
The idea when breaking candles, is to match strength. So, if you have two growing from the same spot, if they are the same strength, either pinch them both back the same amount, or don’t pinch them at all! How do you choose which to do? Look at all the other new growth on the tree. Are these two stronger than most? About the same as most? Or weaker than most?
If they are stronger, pinch them back to where they would have the same number of needles as most of the others. The middle and weak pairs, leave alone.
What if one candle is strong, and one is weak? The general rule is to pinch back the strong one to match the weak one. There are exceptions! If this pair of candles is in a section of the tree that is weaker than most of the rest of the tree, don’t weaken it by pinching. Leave them both as is. If the weak candle is really weak, you might consider removing it. The theory is that it is SO weak, it’s probably going to die off anyway, so why have the tree waste energy on keeping it alive when there are other places the tree could feed and get a better return on investment.
There is only one chance to do this each year. So, you might want to get an expert to help you get started. It’s always much better to wait a bit and get it right.
