Ok to de-candle JBP?

[edro]

I haven't been working with JBP very long. I just got my first one 2 years ago.

I have been busy this summer and just got around to decandling last week.
I only took off a few on top, but then I remembered I was supposed to do the lower half first.

Should I go ahead and de-candle the whole tree now?
If I do, do I wait until the new candles form to remove last year's needles?

Photo is from today.

Thanks!

 

[pwk5017]

In zone 5, I think you are past the safe calendar time span to safely decandle. I believe it takes somewhere around 100 days for a JBP to recover from decandling and harden off the new smaller buds. If you decandled now, you would run the risk of the new buds not forming and hardening off before winter comes. I think someone just asked this question a week ago and some other members suggested doing it immediately and then finding a greenhouse to store it in. This would artificially extend the growing season and allow the new growth enough time to prepare for winter. Without the greenhouse, I probably would not decandle the rest of the pine. There is the option of fall decandling/needle plucking. Jonas at bonsai tonight discussed it last year.

 

[edro]

Yeah, last year I decandled mid June. So I am about 3 weeks late.
3 weeks doesn't seem huge, but if last year was a a little late, I would be real late now.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Looks pretty strong, when is your first average frost? If it's anytime after about the middle of October, you will be fine, but do it now, and keep it in LOTS of sun, feed it hard and water well. At worst case, it will set buds at the cut sites, which you'll have to reduce to a pair of buds in the winter, then start candle-cutting a little earlier next summer. Here is a slideshow I created over the last few years on styling and where you'll find the "100 days" timing of candle cutting: http://www.nebaribonsai.com/Nebari_Bonsai_112109/Projects_files/Candle-Cutting 013011.pdf

Attached is a photo of one of my corkers that I candle-pruned too late last year, and it shows where it only developed buds at the weaker cut sites, small shoots at the stronger sites. Lesson learned; this one doesn't like to be candle-pruned...and it's happy this year!

 

[edro]

It does seem like a very strong tree. Last year, it responded very well to the decandling.

When do I needle pluck? And do I pluck every needle except for the new candles?

 

[pwk5017]

Best answer for that is, "get the boon dvds".

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

When do I needle pluck? And do I pluck every needle except for the new candles?

Pulling last year's needles should wait until the new candles (New Candles = the ones that grow after you remove the candles that grew this spring) are fully open; October-November. If the tree isn't strong or doesn't respond as quickly to decandling, you can wait and pull those old needles in March. The longer you leave old needles on, the stronger the tree will be, as long as some light can get to the interior of the tree.

Sometimes you see/read about people pulling old needles at the time of decandling. This is done only on very strong trees, with LOTS of needles in the strong areas that need to be thinned out; they aren't all removed...usually a few pairs are left on each shoot. Your tree probably isn't there yet.

 

[esteve59]

Brian,
Thanks for posting that slide show.That was an incredibly detailed set of pictures and info...really amazing job !!!.I will probably reference that more than any of my DVD's.....I won't mention names but I have pretty much all the popular ones,,,
I am in Zone 7 (Maryland) pretty similar to you.
Cheers !

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Brian,
Thanks for posting that slide show.That was an incredibly detailed set of pictures and info...really amazing job !!!.I will probably reference that more than any of my DVD's.....I won't mention names but I have pretty much all the popular ones,,,
I am in Zone 7 (Maryland) pretty similar to you.
Cheers !

Thanks for the kind words, glad it's been helpful. I have an update that I need to load that brings it to present; just having trouble with the server...

EDIT...just got it loaded...it is here...(Zelkova project is updated as well).

 

[woodguy]

Great update on the pine progression. Was hoping to see the continuation after the design change. Thanks for sharing.