A couple of Black Pines - Autumn maintenence
Posted: April 25th, 2021, 5:59 pm
Seeing R3's JBP post the other day made me keen to start on my own, so today I worked on a couple of small Black Pines I've had for about 5 years. Needle plucking and thinning out the shoots were the main tasks, plus a little wire. Both trees were decandled in early December.
The first tree put out reasonable secondary growth after December, but it was still quite uneven. There were a few shoots with really long needles so I cut them back by about half (I have no problems with cutting needles if the tree is still in development stage).
The second tree was repotted last August and I was unsure at the time if I would decandle, but the first flush was so strong I went ahead. The second flush on this tree was much better, with more even needle sizes across the tree and less weak growth on the lower branches.
It's been a weird year for growth around here. My pines didn't put on as much secondary growth as previous years, and most of my deciduous were sluggish and I've had no Autumn colour to speak of. Everything else seem fine though.
Matt.
The first tree put out reasonable secondary growth after December, but it was still quite uneven. There were a few shoots with really long needles so I cut them back by about half (I have no problems with cutting needles if the tree is still in development stage).
The second tree was repotted last August and I was unsure at the time if I would decandle, but the first flush was so strong I went ahead. The second flush on this tree was much better, with more even needle sizes across the tree and less weak growth on the lower branches.
It's been a weird year for growth around here. My pines didn't put on as much secondary growth as previous years, and most of my deciduous were sluggish and I've had no Autumn colour to speak of. Everything else seem fine though.
Matt.