It's Almost That Time

[Thomas J.]

For a hair cut that is, otherwise known as decandleing. This pic was taken a few weeks ago and by now this semicascade is practically falling over from all the thick foliage that this years candles produced. A very healthy tree for sure and one of my favorites in my collection.

 

[R_F]

Can't wait to see the results after the "hair cut"

 

[Si Nguyen]

That's a beauty!

 

[banzaibonsai]

Nice, how often do you thin out pines at this stage of development?

 

[Walter Pall]

You have missed that time by six to eight weeks. You should have broken the candles as they elongated. Now is the time for plucking needles.

 

[bonhe]

You have missed that time by six to eight weeks. You should have broken the candles as they elongated. Now is the time for plucking needles.

Hi Thomas, you have a beautiful pine.

Hi Walter, are you talking about the schedule in your area? In my area, with the almost done JBP, I apply June schedule. With the young developing one, I use September schedule.
Bonhe

 

[Thomas J.]

Walter,
When I first started working with the JBPs, I took a few lessons with the Smiths who have passed along their knowledge from working with Boon. Their way is to not break the elongated candle but instead to let it grow until decandeling and then remove it as far back as possible. Of course this is for well developed JBP such as this one. We also do this in late June to early July here in Texas. Below are a few pics of this tree and another taken four months later in Nov. which is when we do our plucking for balance. Some plucking is done now if needed, but the majority is done for winter work. This system works out very well for me. I tried the candle plucking a while back on a few small JBP before I heard of the present way of doing it, and it never worked out well for me.

 

[Walter Pall]

Thomas,

now that I know you are in Texas that changes everything. Yes, there you can let grow and cut back ruthlesly in summer for new growth afterwards in the same season. Up north and in Central Europe you would kill a tree or endger it at least.