AusBonsai

Hi all,

here are the latest pics. The needles are elongating and starting to open. The needles may be a bit longer this year than last year but that is a good sign as far as I am concerned. It means the tree is doing well this year after all the work done to it and a repot as well.

When we do the summer prune in early January I will try and cut the top as short as possible to keep it compact.

Grant

Hi all,

The tree has done really well this year and the tree in its new mix is very healthy compared to when we first got the tree. We left 2 years worth of old needles on the tree to help keep it vigorous last year but after this spring we should be only keeping one years worth of old needles on during summer and then the old needles are trimmed off in April or May.

So on or around the first of January here in Canberra we now cut back the new growth that emerged this past spring. With scissors we cut back into the new growth and leave a minimum of 4 sets of needles (but mostly 5 or 6 sets) in the strongest areas and then progressively cut and leave more sets as we move down the tree and into less vigorous areas.

In a medium vigour area we might leave 6 or 7,8 or even 9 sets of needles and in the weakest ares we don't cut off anything at all.

We cut flat accross the growth or angle the cut slightly upwards.

New buds should sart emerging within a few weeks.

Grant

Well where did summer hide this year? It has been quite cool here in Canberra all summer; especially over night.

Anyhow to continue this thread here are some photos of new buds emerging; however much slower than I expected due ,I feel, to the cool weather. Where we did not trim growth this summer you can see the buds that set earlier in the year and they are reddish and set for new growth in spring. Grant

Today we removed some of the old needles from the tree.

We currently have 3 years worth of needles on the tree, plus new buds that have emerged since our summer prune.

I would still like to see a lot more buds and branchlets on the tree so I decided to leave two years worth of needles on most of the tree although we plucked out some of last years needles on the stronger portion of the tree near the apex.

The tree has budded back on older wood quite well this year. It may take another few years before we get the ramification I would like and so we will probably leave two years worth of needles on the tree till it starts to get much more compact.

We did fertilize at a higher rate this year so it may have helped with the back budding .

Grant