Update on Japanese black pine. Can I work on it?

Beginners
1

Hey folks !
I’m creating a new post to follow up on my previous one, as the title is no longer accurate.
You’ll find the tree’s history there : Pot broken, do I repot now?

My question was:
According to Ryan, June 1st is the ideal time to cut the candles, remove old needles, and eliminate unnecessary branches.
However, I’m not entirely sure the tree is vigorous enough to handle all of that this year. The energy distribution seems uneven:

  • On the right and back sides, candles are around 3–4 cm
  • On the lower left branch, they’re only 0.5–1 cm
  • At the apex, they’re about 2 cm

There are also quite a few branches that aren’t helpful for the design — or for the tree itself — as they’re very interior, small, and mostly shaded.

Here are the options I’m considering:

  • Cut all the candles / reduce to ~12 pairs of needles per branch / remove unnecessary branches to open up the tree
  • Just reduce to ~12 pairs of needles per branch / remove unnecessary branches
  • Only remove unnecessary branches to improve light and airflow
  • Do nothing and wait until fall

I’ve attached some pictures to the previous post.
What are your thoughts? What would you recommend?

Thanks a lot for your help,
Have a great day!

2

Nobody can help :cry: ?

3

It sounds like you need to build the overall strength of the tree and even out the energy distribution. Here is what I would do:

  • Remove any truly unnecessary branches, particularly from the strong and medium strength areas.
  • Reduce the number of needles in the strong and medium strength areas leaving 12 pairs in the strongest areas and 20 pairs in the medium. You may want to leave a few older, lateral needles along the branches to serve as spots of new buds.
  • Break the candles in the strongest areas leaving 1/3 - 1/2. The medium areas may push out longer candles that can then have their tips broken off. This should help even out the energy in the tree for next year.
  • Fertilize at a moderately strong level.

Remember that candle cutting is a refinement technique on a strong tree. It may take a couple of years to increase the overall strength and energy balance. Getting the tree stronger should also result in back budding. When cutting back to interior branches on a pine, at least 1/3 of the total foliage on the branch should be remain (Ryan normally says the remaining foliage should be at least 50% of what is cut back - the same ratio as I stated).

4

Hello Marty,

First of all, thanks for your reply—I really appreciate it!

If I understand your feedback correctly, you believe it’s okay to work on the tree despite the repotting done at the end of January. Noted :slight_smile:

However, I don’t fully agree with the approach you mentioned. I watched Ryan’s video on the Red Pine again yesterday, and he very clearly says to reduce the needles to 8–10 pairs (I’m going with 10) and to cut all the candles across the entire tree in order to reset the energy distribution system.

That said, I will follow your advice regarding the removal of truly unnecessary branches.

Thanks again for your input!

5

I am urging a more conservative approach since you repotted this year and are not reporting very strong growth. I think you will find that the pine Ryan was working on was most likely repotted at least the previous year and was probably growing fairly strongly.