JBP reduction chopping/keeping foliage close to trunk

[sheepdawg]

Hi all,

I've been growing a JPB in the ground for awhile now and I really need to cut it back to ensure the foliage stays close to the trunk.

When is the best time to do this?

And what is the best method?

Cheers

[Jarad]

Hey Mate,

Here's a link to an excellent JBP care thread.

https://www.ausbonsai.com.au/forum/view ... 31&t=21582

I hope it helps.


:EDIT:
Are you able to chuck up a few photo's and then people will be able to give you some better advice.

[shibui]

The best time for reduction pruning of developing JBP is before the needles fall off. 3 year old needles die off and drop some time in summer.

How do you know how old they are? Count back from the newest growth - 1yo. There will be a bare 'neck' at the base of this year's shoot to show where it started to grow. There is also usually a whorl of branches growing from the top of the previous growth. Below that will be another straight section with needles and another bare neck at the base (last year's shoot - 2yo) With luck, below that will be another section that is 3 yo but still has healthy needles.

prune pines.PNG

This photo was taken earlier in spring so please allow your imagination to open the needles on those spring candles and make them into well grown summer branches covered in fresh green needles (like the ones below) for a more accurate current summer view.
Note that previous pruning can cloud the roadmap a little and make it more difficult to track individual years of growth.

IMGP6290.JPG

Here's one I pruned a few weeks ago. You can see the new shoots starting to grow from the needles at the top. This just happens to be a very young tree and I am lucky to have shoots also sprouting from the bare section where the older needles have already dropped. That doesn't always happen so don't rely on buds from bare wood when pruning pines.

Other than that we seem to get slightly different reactions depending on the time of year we prune.
Pruning late summer will result in buds forming in the remaining needles but they usually don't start to grow until next spring.
Pruning in winter and early spring will give buds at the base of the remaining needles. Both late summer and winter/spring buds will ten grow strongly through spring and summer.
Pruning in late spring or early summer will give similar numbers of buds at the base of the needles but growth tends to be shorter and needles usually shorter because they don't have the same length of time to grow. This is similar response to decandling.

In summary, it doesn't really matter when you prune. you will get the same number of buds in the same spots by next summer but spring/early summer pruning will give shorter shoots. Whether that's desirable depends where you are up to on the development journey.