AusBonsai

It's suddenly mid December which means I need to decandle the older pines.
From experience, too early and the new shoots grow too big = waste of time.
Too late and the new shoots are weak = weak tree for a year and little increase in ramification.
Middle of December seems to be a good time for here.

Decandling is a misleading term as we are not removing emerging candles. When it's time to 'decandle' in December the shoots have well and truly extended and opened up needles.

Normal decandling removes new shoots close to the base of the new shoot. Even small shoots can be removed unless we want that area to get stronger. Some shoots are long with no side shoots. It appears this one was not decandled last summer. You can pick out the cluster of last year's needles, the bare 'neck' below them and a cluster of 2 year old needles. Remember that pine needles only have a 2-3 year life then they drop off. This shoot will soon be long and bare unless we take action.
Normal decandling would remove just the new shoot but that still leaves this shoot long with no side branching. Pines can produce new buds wherever there are healthy needles so it is perfectly OK to cut here. Cutting harder is part of pine development pruning. Many pines can be partly development and partly maintenance until al sections of the tree catch up.

Hi Neil
Do you decandle small black pines or just let them grow? I’m talking ones that are 2 years old. Thanks


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Decandling is a technique for maintaining established trees and for developing the final ramification on trees that are nearing bonsai status.

We use quite different methods on younger trees that are still growing and developing. Decandling would severely limit trunk thickening so you would be setting your trees back each year. It might take 20 or 30 years to grow your trunk to the desired thickness if you decandled each year.

You might get some good ideas for the development phase of your pines by reading through Ryceman3 Pine project thread - https://www.ausbonsai.com.au/forum/view ... it=ryceman
If you don't have space to grow your pines in the ground just substitute a largish container. It will take a few extra years but you'll still follow the same basic procedure.

Thank you, yes I have looked at that one project but couldn’t see if the rest of the pine was shaped while the leader left to grow


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