I have seen a few postings about male pollen cones but never experienced seeing any until now. A very old JBP repotted this spring (zone 6) from compacted soil is showing quite a few male pollen cones at the base of many buds. Otherwise tree is quite healthy. I assume I just leave them and they will naturally fall off? As well, I wasn’t able to find a definitive reason online for their presence - good health or health issues? Any insights would be appreciated. Pic attached.
thanks
Gary O.
Hey Gary,
I don’t have experience with JBP specifically, but I do work a lot with Pitch Pine, which is another multi-flush species. I usually see male pollen cones on all my pines each spring, so I’d guess their appearance is mostly a matter of maturity.
My Jack Pine, which is single-flush, also produces male cones every spring.
From what I’ve read, the presence of male cones can be a sign of either good health or stress—kind of like a last-ditch effort to reproduce. The advice I’ve heard is: if the tree looks healthy otherwise, it’s likely due to maturity and overall vigor. If it’s showing other signs of trouble, it could be a stress response.
Wish I had a more specific answer for you, but that’s what I’ve got! If I have time later, I’ll upload a couple pictures of my pines and their male cones as well.
–Pat
I had these all over mugo pine last year and the only time I own this mugo pine in 4 years.
Might be ‘hey let me reproduce’ out of panic as @_semper mentioned . I did some reductions of primary branches the year before and wired others so that would explain.
This year is growing strong even after repot into a smaller container and has again only candles and some back buds.
I did no work on it last year, not because it was having polen cones, more less by coincidence there was nothing due but it might have helped in order to recover and regain strength.
PS: I ignored the cones. At most I was poking them and had fun seeing them puffing out clouds of polen 
Hope this helps 
Pat - thanks for your response. Have you been leaving the cones on or remove them?
Gary
I’ve been leaving them on. The actual cones I try to remove early on—they’re easy to spot and prune off. I’m definitely not a pine expert, but from what I understand, reproductive growth takes a lot of energy from the tree, which could impact other areas. I leave the male parts because they show up so quickly, I can’t imagine they take as much energy as the actual cones do.
