Couple of pines

[PeterH]

Its that time of year for work on my pines and for a change I have some time on my hands.

Peter

[Craig]

Very nice looking Pines Peter Great work mate

[rawhide]

awsome pines a credit to you in a hot climate ,what doe you use for your medium

[rawhide]

my mistake thought you were in WA no matter still 2 very nice pines .I still would love to know the mix you use

[NeilW]

Quality work Peter, a lot of time and effort gone into your trees my friend, thanks for sharing....cheers.

[kcpoole]

Beautiful Peter

Can yo outline roughtl;y what you do to pines and when?

Decandle
Pluck needles
Repot and Root prune?
Hard pruning
Wire

These questions were raised again a few days ago so be nice to summarise
Thanks

Ken

[PeterH]

Thank you all for the comments.

There are some members on this site that have a lot more experience with pines than me ( eg Grant and anttal63) and I have over the years listened to and read there advice and others over the last 16 years.

Also I do work on my trees when they look like they need it.( sometimes not the best idea but I do learn what not to do)

In answer to Kcpoole and rawhide,

As you can see I thin out ,cut the needles and wire this time of year and break the candles in spring ( keeping an eye on the wire). I feed with lots of osmecote and the occasionally dynamic lifter during summer.

Soil mix is the same as my natives,

Richgro Australian Native Mix with 20% Zeolite.

Peter

[bodhidharma]

Nice Peter, i like the last one a lot. Its good to see work being done on them

[daiviet_nguyen]

Hi Peter,

I like the second very much... It looks old too. Was it a general purpose nursery tree before, or it was trained for bonsai since the beginning?

Best regards.

[soda]

....cut the needles....
Peter

I was all set to pluck needles until a recent visit to one of our better nurseries told me never to pull needles as thats where a lot of back budding comes from. In the time since my pine is now awash with long needles and I've lost all confidence in where to start the thinning out process.

Is cutting needles back to the say 1inch length an acceptable thing this time of year. So often I've read pull out the 2nd year needles but this is exactly where I want action

[alpineart]

Hi PeterH .nice pine's there mate .I'm with you on when it comes to playing with them .I don't have a timetable on trimming and styling i just know and do .With so many variables in the weather this season it would have thrown the timetable out for sure . Thanks for sharing .Cheers Alpine

[kcpoole]

....cut the needles....
Peter

I was all set to pluck needles until a recent visit to one of our better nurseries told me never to pull needles as thats where a lot of back budding comes from. In the time since my pine is now awash with long needles and I've lost all confidence in where to start the thinning out process.

Is cutting needles back to the say 1inch length an acceptable thing this time of year. So often I've read pull out the 2nd year needles but this is exactly where I want action

I never cut the needsles on mine. I wa stold that if you do so, the tree will look god for 1 week,a n crap for 18 months as the ends brown off. I also only pluck needles i do not want. The one pointing up and the ones down.
If you are Plucking needles to Stimulate back budding, then the tree is in in development mode so why luck any that may be advantageous. ie do not pluck needles just because they are old ones.

If the tree is in Display mode, then you would want to get rid of all old and long needles as they will ruin then look of the tree.

I always under the impression that you cannot have a JBP in display condition while you are still trying to develop the tree?

Ken

[PeterH]

Yes cutting the needles is not the best for developed trees, and I am still learning the finer points. As many of my pines are still being developed and me being time starved this method stops the tree loosing its basic form and enables me to work on its basic structure. I let the scotts pine go last year which has cost secondary and tertiary branch development as seen in the cable tie adjusting straps.

The scotts pine was a general nursery plant originally.

Peter

[bwaynef]

The buds that will be stimulated by needle plucking are NOT needle buds, but adventitious buds lying dormant until something sufficiently "encourages" them to grow (into a visible bud and further into a candle/branch). You'd have to be doing something VERY wrong to disturb them when plucking needles.