Long and leggy japanese black pine

[Kharetore]

I have a long and Leggy Japanese black pine that I got from Bunnings.
It has a reasonable shape but is lacking branches.
Can I cut the branches without any noticeable buds to reduce the length and have the tree bud lower down?

[KIRKY]

Can you post some pictures see we can see and advise how far you can cut it sown.
Cheers
Kirky

[kcpoole]

I have a long and Leggy Japanese black pine that I got from Bunnings.
It has a reasonable shape but is lacking branches.
Can I cut the branches without any noticeable buds to reduce the length and have the tree bud lower down?

pines will not backbud on old wood unless very lucky.. You should as a general rule never cut back a pine or juniper to leave the branch bare of shoots or needles..

Ken

[shibui]

A photo would definitely be useful here.
As the others have stated, pines do not bud reliably on bare wood. There are several options to overcome this sort of problem:
1. wire and bend the trunk/branches so that the foliage is effectively closer to the base/trunk. This needs some skill to make the bends seem natural but can work well and produce a really wild, dynamic tree.
2. cut the whole tree back to a shorter side branch then regrow the tree from that, controlling growth so the long, lanky problem does not recur. depends whether any lower branches are short enough or have appropriate shoots to be effective.
3. Graft new shoots to the bare places to overcome the problem by adding new buds.