Hi everyone - I’m commencing practicing Ryan’s Black Pine process through the year and wondering what any Southern Hemispherians experience is of the timing of candle cutting Black Pines.
I’m in Melbourne, Australia and want to get the timing of my commencement of fertilizing right. Does Ryan’s 1 June candle cutting translate directly to 1 December at my latitude? Also, do you use a sign from the tree to commence fertilizing or do you count back the timing from candle cutting and start fertilizing on 1 September?
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Hi PFP,
I too am in Melbourne… in fact I’m pretty sure I know you!
I decandle mid December for “largish” shohin sized trees. I would decandle a week or two earlier for larger trees and maybe a week later for smaller ones in order to achieve a ‘scaled’ needle size. The earlier you decandle, the longer the second flush needles (as a general rule).
I’m currently repotting pines including those I plan to decandle this year. Generally I leave them a month or so after repotting to recover before I start fert, so mid Sept for first application … which eventually lines up with mid Dec decandling, hope that makes sense. If I’m not repotting, the calendar is a good reference point for when to start fert depending on your decandling start date, at least for me.
Good luck with yours, pics are always good! 
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Hey Ryan,
thanks for the reply - yes we do know each other.
That’s really helpful. As you can see from the pic - I have a reasonably big tree. Ryan and I styled it last year in Canberra at this time. I am now moving it into refinement, but you can see even in the bad photo, that the apex is undefined. I am growing the large leader as a sacrifice to heal up an old cut site. I’ll probably go somewhere between the first week in December and the 15th depending on the candle stem colour. I appreciate the advice about the timing relating to the eventual size of the second flush shoots. It will be interesting to see what results I get, I’ll need to take note of what I do when so that I can learn what happens in my area.
The trees I got from you are thriving. I just potted them up into 175mm’s today. There seems to be a range of responses from coarse to fine needles relating to stem or root cutting. I’ll take a few photos to show you. Have you got any more seedlings on the go?
Regards,
PFP
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Your timing sounds good, and your tree looks great. I’m sure it will take it to the next level and in a couple of years you’ll really be able to see the progress.
Glad the trees you picked up from me are going well, I have repotted some of mine too, the JBP in particular are strong growers! I haven’t noticed any real difference in the ‘coarseness’ of the needles between stem-cut and root pruned trees so that is interesting - I’ll take a better look at what I have with this in mind and see if I notice anything. I have 80 pine seedlings and a similar number of mel seedlings (various kinds) from last year to keep me busy for the next few months so no propagation this spring for me… I am running out of room… 
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In Canberra I have been told if you haven’t finished decandling by Christmas you might be too late. You might have more time in Melbourne. The main issue is the time it takes for the second flush to harden off, I think our runway is a bit smaller in Canberra.
I use to live in Brisbane and it has taken me time to adjust to the cool temperate climate. You can decandle twice in Brisbane which I took for granted.
Regards
Bruce
Thanks Bruce,
I really appreciate the feedback. when you say you could decandle twice, does that mean you could actually get three flushes?
What trees are you growing and what lights your fire tree wise.
Regards,
PFP
Yeah three flushes. I thought that was normal until I was on a shorter runway with just 2. I still class myself more a tropical bonsai person so I love my ficus. Poor suckers are in a greenhouse. I am slowly adding trees that can handle the cold. Our local club had a bonsai dig over the weekend and I got my first hawthorn. What would you say is your favourite?
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I’d kill for a decent Hawthorn… They exist down here for sure but I’ve never seen one that floats my boat (and I’ve been looking), good luck to you!
Bit of a difference between Brisbane & Canberra huh! 
… and everybody reckons Melbourne is cold!
I’ve seen lots of nice bonsai/trees in ACT though so it’s not all bad…
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I’ve been a horticulturalist in the past (last century!) and grew trees for a living, but only started bonsai a few years ago, so my focus is still coming, but I’m noticing that the pines and other rarer conifers keep getting my attention. I’ve got straight black pine as well as Kyokko Nishki, Sylvestris, Nigra, Contorta, a dozen black pine seedlings, dwarf blue spruce, another spruce that I’ve forgotten the name of, a grey Cypress, a shimpaku and a Japanese Yew as well as a Swamp Cypress. I’ve got a few deciduous and evergreen trees - actually quite a few. I probably have a tree collecting problem - don’t tell anyone. I grew up in Canberra - so I was surrounded by big conifers and deciduous trees early on while they still looked after them.
Do you think the three flushes are all to do with heat, or do you think that day length has something to do with it as well?
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Plenty of Hawthorns out here in the Yarra Valley on the road side, - I’ll see what I can find for you over the next season. I’ve just cut a few road side wild oak seedlings back to see if they grow this year before digging them up and I found a clutch of cork oaks as well.
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I think it a combination of heat and day length. Winter if can call it that in Brisbane is so short. The region is so large so you get a lot of variation in how the plants behave. From my observations I have found it easier to manage the growth in Canberra and I think it is easier to get more compact growth(shorter internodes). I am not sure however if that is because of my increased knowledge so I am keen to get back there to utilise some of my new Mirai knowledge in that climate. I would definitely have to leave behind some of trees now that I know how much they like to have a sleep in Winter.
Bruce
