Got backbuds?

[Adair M]

Here’s a few:



JBP will backbud at old candle bases. They can also backbud between needles, but I usually don’t have to worry about those as I get plenty from the old bud junctions.

The key to making this happen is to keep your internodes short. Wiring branches out so the old junctions are exposed to the sun, thinning out old foliage so the junctions get direct sunlight, and strong root growth.

 

[Hyn Patty]

Oh nice! I'm starting to get some back buds on my itty-bitty mugo pine, too! I am very happy about this, though I'm hoping for a lot more yet. Yours looks awesome. As this little mugo is my first pine I am really excited to be working with it, though reading up a lot too. I really don't want to mess it up. I removed a few bar branches and opened it up a bit more. Probably won't do anything else to it for a while at least until we complete our relocation. Hopefully my JBP seeds are at the PO Box waiting for pickup today.

Also, I keep copying and saving notes on things you say about pines so I can have easy, fast references later. Meanwhile waiting on the Bonsai Today Pines edition to arrive.

 

[0soyoung]

JBP will backbud at old candle bases. ... The key to making this happen is to keep your internodes short.

You are saying that if the internode is too long, the node (old candle base) won't bud?

 

[Adair M]

You are saying that if the internode is too long, the node (old candle base) won't bud?

Not exactly.

Having short internodes creates more places along the stem where backbudding is likely to occur. On a JBP, there is a section on each candle where there are no needles. There are no buds there. You will never get any backbudding on that section of candle. Long internodes. (Long candles) usually have long necks (budless sections). Short candles have very short necks. So by having short candles, you have short internodes, which yield short necks. All this means there are more places that can backbud!

Now, remember that anyplace where there was once a needle, there is possibly a dormant bud. So, having short necks yields more bud locations.

But beyond all that... 90% of all the backbudding I get comes from the nodes located at the former bud bases. The shorter the internodes between bud bases, the more places that budding is likely to happen.

 

[KeithE]

Makes sense. If one candle is cut, backbuds, and those are then cut again, it turns into 3 forks. So now 6+ candle bases instead of potentially one long candle.
How old are the branches/candles that typically backbud for you?

 

[Wilson]

Pines are budding like champs!

 

[Adair M]

Makes sense. If one candle is cut, backbuds, and those are then cut again, it turns into 3 forks. So now 6+ candle bases instead of potentially one long candle.
How old are the branches/candles that typically backbud for you?

2 to 3 years old will still backbud well. Once the bark gets thick, not so much.

 

[Japonicus]

I have a few on my dwarf EWP. Doing some Fall candle cutting/pruning and removing yellow needles
that come off with little or no resistance. Many of the branch tips have 3-5 terminal buds with one more
just off to the side so up to 6 terminal buds.
Where I cannot determine where to cut this years candles I'm simply knocking off all but 2 or 3 buds.

About an inch and a half inside my ^wrist to beyond my little finger, is a row of back buds rather symmetrically distant from the trunk.