I have been concentrating lately on bud thinning and needle plucking a few of my Pines and have updated 3 posts on the blog in the last few weeks detailing what I do with my Pines at this time, and indeed at any time they need pruning. I would normally prefer to do this work a little earlier, but we get an extended growing period up here in Bris so can get away with an extended season of pruning as we will still get growth before our very moderate winter.
Whilst Pines require more detailed pruning at certain times of year to get the best results, there is not a lot of difference in the basic requirements of what is fundamentally needed to create good design and ramification to the structure of any tree. Trees need to be pruned to maintain shape and develop more structural branching. With that pruning comes a reduction in foliage size to improve proportion. Taking out a terminal bud will create more buds behind it which will grow into branches. By removing those terminal buds when the foliage is smaller, it will stay small. Keeping a tree well fed and strong means it will create more buds containing smaller foliage, so the consistency of the pruning is the most important and useful way to develop good ramification with small foliage. If there are too many clustered buds the tree will not grow freely, so you need to thin them out.
Don't overthink it and it will be easier to put in to practise. Pines are trees after all. There is a few updates, so click the link below and you can see the stories
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