Flower Cones and Pink Tips?

[roberthu]

I have a Kotobuki JBP I have had for 8 years and it grew very little during that period. This year it produced a large amount of flower cones and I wonder i need to remove some.

i also notice that on a 2 year old seedling, there are pink tips on the longest candels. I have never seen these before. Anyone know what these are?

 

[Potawatomi13]

Tiny pink baby little pinecones. Do not remove flower cones. Likely will do damage to living immature wood these grow from. In 2-3 weeks these dry up and can be brushed off with no damage.

 

[Shibui]

Yes, that is the difference between male and female reproductive parts on pines. The male cones that release pollen are usually near the base of the spring candles. Female cones develop at the tips of the candles but occasionally I have seen them all over a strong spring candle.
Female cones on JBP take around 18 months to mature so if those are fertilized the seed won't be ready until late summer next year - if you leave them on that long.

Flowers or cones on conifers do take some energy to produce but those have already grown so the energy has already been wasted. Hardly any point removing them now.

As the tree develops and you move into decandling and maintenance pruning most cones are removed when you trim.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

I remove the female cones from the tips.

 

[roberthu]

Thank you all for the information! I had never noticed that the tips of the female cones are pink....

 

[Potawatomi13]

Not all are pink. Others may be different colors. Pinus longaeva blue, P. balfouriana purple, P. ponderosa green for example.