Determining needle age?

[shibui]

Going back to the original question - how to identify age of growth.
It is much easier to see on unpruned growth. Each year when new candles elongate and open they have a bare 'neck' at the base and needles on the upper part. That means that you can work back down the branch looking for the bare bits that show the base of each year's growth. Here's a picture where the bare bits are very obvious.

black pine growth habit paint small.jpg

You should be able to make out the few remaining 3yo needles which are looking a bit yellow because they are just about ready to drop off at the end of their life. Just look at the main trunk, not the side branches.

When a tree has been pruned the nice neat telltale bare bits may be reduced in size or may have been pruned off altogether so it gets more difficult. Shouldn't be a problem though because 3yo needles will all be falling off at this time of year anyway which will save you the worry about doing it.
In any case I don't think your pine is up to the stage of needle plucking and candle cutting. You need to identify the trunk line you want to keep and the branches you will probably use in the design and cut them back quite hard to force the tree to produce more buds as close to the base of the branches as possible so you can start to build up good ramification. you can prune pines back as far as the lowest healthy needles because new buds will grow from any healthy needles. Branches that are not going to be used in the design can be allowed to grow long to thicken the trunk and/ or branches.

[Piscineidiot]

Kerrin, that's a very generous offer. I'll be in touch.

Dansai, I noticed the same. Heaps of information on the final stages, but not so much to do with the beginning stages. Even less on correct aftercare.

Thank you for the photo, shibui, very helpful. I'll keep an eye out for 'necks' in future.

Cheers all,

Owen

[Jarad]

On a side note, if you think you've killed it, don't worry coz you probably haven't. Sometimes they just sulk after some abuse.

I thought I killed mine a month ago, but earlier in the week I saw buds appearing all over the place.

[Piscineidiot]

That's comforting to know! Gotta love a tough plant...