New to Scotch Pine

[stosh]

The Scots pine is starting to push 5 or 6 new candles on the very top. Is it safe to prune candles this time of year?

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

The Scots pine is starting to push 5 or 6 new candles on the very top. Is it safe to prune candles this time of year?

Can you include a photo? Moat likely these are buds setting for next spring. If they're on a sacrifice branch, it's ok to let them stay. If they're on a final branch, you'll want to reduce them to a pair, evenly-sized, and positioned across from each other, rather than one above another.

 

[stosh]

Here's the pic.

 

[Paradox]

Those are next year's buds

 

[Stiple]

Those are next year's buds

I have the same buds on a scotch pine I recently bought about a month ago. Just this week needles started to unfold and slowly burst out of the buds.

 

[crust]

The buds in the picture are set for the winter and based on your relatively northern location should not open until spring. One can select and remove some of these buds this fall.