Does this look normal on my JBP

[Keels]

Hi everyone,

I was working in my garden last night and noticed these buds forming on my Japanese black pine. They look a little odd compared to other I have. Is this normal?

Cheers.

[Ryceman3]

Hi Keels,
That looks like juvenile growth to me... kinda like what can happen with scale junipers (Shimpaku) which revert to needle foliage after heavy pruning etc...
My guess is that it may have been pruned/decandled at a time (or in a way) that stressed it out a bit perhaps?
I don’t think it’s the end of the world, from what I know it will revert to conventional foliage over time but I think the growth might need to be cut back into as the growth has quite big internodal spacing and the foliage isn’t as attractive ...
I don’t have huge amounts of experience with it but that is my take on your pic.

[Keels]

My guess is that it may have been pruned/decandled at a time (or in a way) that stressed it out a bit perhaps?

I chopped the branch back to the two smaller branches but maybe they were too young to do such a heavy cut back

[shibui]

This is indeed juvenile growth on JBP. Most young JBP will grow new juvenile shoots after pruning, especially after spring pruning and especially after pruning back to older needles.
It is no problem. You have done the right thing with your pruning. Cutting back to oldest needles is and important part of developing JBP.
The next growing cycle will usually produce normal adult growth. You can prune juvenile shoots just like any other JBP shoots if they get too long.

Another possibly useful aspect is that juvenile shoots like these root much better than adult shoots so if you need some cuttings, these may be useful. I often intentionally prune some of my JBP to get juvenile growth with the specific purpose of making cuttings because seed is so hard to get. I made a bunch of cuttings last week. Yours are probably a little small yet. I usually let mine grow to around 40-50mm long before making cuttings.
Even if you don't want cuttings you should thin out these shoots at some stage. Leaving the whole bunch will cause localised swelling.