Japanese Black Pine longitudinal study; Collaborators needed

[Grant Bowie]

I have a surprising result,
Tree number 1 (fertilized through winter) has not hardened off yet, candles are much longer
Tree number 2 is darker in colour and I would consider that it has hardened off but candles are shorter.

Thanks for feedback.

trees can vary a lot of course and the start point(health wise) can also make differences.

Anything you can attribute the difference to?

Grant

[Grant Bowie]

Update

Today is the 19th of December and both the no 1 and no 2 pines are about hardened off. No 2 is slightly behind but of negligible difference.

No 2 (the non fertilised over winter) has started a second round of growth without even a candle prune yet. I put this down to the fact that it; of the growth it put out; it hardly elongated at all over spring and now that it is warming up it is having a second go.

This is about as late as I can do a full candle removal (In Canberra) and expect a full flush of new buds that will grow, elongate, harden off successfully by Autumn. Around Xmas day is the final cut off in Canberra from past experience.

I candle pruned about 1/2 of my 32 pines about 2 to 4 weeks ago and will now do the remaining 1/2 of the 32 over the next week.

Grant

[Ray M]

Hi Grant,
Here is an update.

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PS I have sent you an updated spreadsheet.

Regards Ray

[Grant Bowie]

Thanks Ray,

The trees are both looking very healthy.

Are you growing in full sun or a bit of shade?

Grant

[Ray M]

Thanks Ray,

The trees are both looking very healthy.

Are you growing in full sun or a bit of shade?

Grant

Hi Grant,
They are both in full sun all day.

Regards Ray

[Grant Bowie]

Hi all,

It is most likely that you will have all done the Full Candle Removal (FCR) by now.

Now for the next stage.

Please Note the date of FCR so we can now monitor the next stage.

Pine No 1. Will the new growth be quicker than pine no 2? Healthier? Bigger? etc

Pine No 2. Slower? Less vigorous? Smaller needles? shorter growth etc?

Which is best/preferable?

How many days will it take for both to fully elongate etc.?

Please Note these on your spreadsheet.

If you now withdraw fertiliser from No 1 pine will the growth on the 2 trees even out?

And then bud selection etc.

Grant

[Jow]

Grant,

Is the idea of this study to span multiple years? I would be interesting to see how each approach compounds year in year out.

Joe.

[Grant Bowie]

Grant,

Is the idea of this study to span multiple years? I would be interesting to see how each approach compounds year in year out.

Joe.

I am certainly covering 2 years in Canberra to give me outcomes worth comparing in my own climate; the spreadsheet covers just one year so far.

grant

[shibui]

I can see tiny new buds on both pines today. Full candle removal 16 Dec to new buds emerging Jan 8 = 23 days. Looks like pine 2 is producing less buds than #1 but need to wait a little longer to really see what is happening.

[Grant Bowie]

Full candle removal on 22nd December of control No1 and No2 and new buds emerging on 4th December, both trees about equal at that stage.

Trees that were decandled a month earlier are elongating already in some cases.

Grant

[shibui]

Full candle removal on 22nd December of control No1 and No2 and new buds emerging on 4th December,

You're a real pines whizz Grant. New buds 2 weeks before you decandled????

[Grant Bowie]

Full candle removal on 22nd December of control No1 and No2 and new buds emerging on 4th December,

You're a real pines whizz Grant. New buds 2 weeks before you decandled????

Oops,

January 4th.

Grant

[Ray M]

Hi Grant,
I'm in a bit of a quandary to know what is best to do at this point. Originally these trees where part of an experiment to see if I could layer Black Pines. I'm happy with the results and believe this part of the experiment is finished. Both trees have candles popping everywhere. There are branches that would need to be removed to try and get any shape to the future design of the trees, but I don't want to mess up the trial you are doing, so I am quite happy to leave all the branches for another year. At this point do you want me to remove most of the candles and balance the foliage to about 12 pairs?

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Regards Ray

[Grant Bowie]

Hi Ray,

Because your trees have so few branches the new candles are elongating at a prodigious rate and will end up almost as long and with big needles as originally.

The trees may benefit from doing nothing right now; i.e. let all the candles stay intact and elongate, harden off and exhaust the vigour in the tree. If you remove branches now you will lose a season of ramification and the new growth will be very strong..

To reduce some vigour in the overall tree you could remove some of the older needles but be careful not to damage the new elongating candles.

I would leave alone till around May and then do the branch removal you want to do.

However your choice.

Grant

[Ray M]

Hi Grant,
Thanks for the advice. I will follow your suggestions.

Regards Ray