Hey everyone! I live in Naples Florida and I am new to Japanese black pines as they are hard to find here. I have watched a lot on JBP candle curing, bud selection and so on. I have learned about pine need reduction techniques and will continue to learn more. I noticed Ryan was cutting his needles. I was told not to do this, but he does it very naturally. Can anyone elaborate on this technique for shortening needles or point me to a resource that may help? I’m still trying to find an archived video where Ryan talks about this other then just trying to manage growth. Can I use this to expedite getting smaller needles on my JBP?
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As far as I remember from some of the black pine streams, needle cutting is appropriate if you’re doing it to control transpiration. More needle = more transpiration, and vice versa. So if you’re refining the tree it’s possible that trimming the needles is the right move. I think Ryan discourages needle cutting for aesthetic reasons. In other words, don’t just do it for the sake of making your tree falsely appear to have short, refined needles.
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I believe the other uses are to allow more light to the interior and to adjust foliage mass while keeping more needle pairs where buds are apt to form. For example 12 cut needle pairs versus 6 full length ones.
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Trim mainly for transpiration reasons as others have stated. The cut areas will brown. This is not suggested if you are going to show the tree, or if the tree has been refined and has naturally small needles already.
If the tree is in training, cutting needles to balance foliage mass across the tree is a common practice.
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Thanks everyone! That makes sense.
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It should also not be done if the tree was repotted in the spring or if you plan to repot the following spring!
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Yes! I just saw this in his video. I have now made it fully through all the black pine videos and just caught this thank you!
which video was that?