When I first got my weeping eastern white pine, and it was still in its giant nursery container it shed its needles in the fall like the traditional knowledge in the videos on Mirai live state for timing indicators. However after repotting it into a bonsai container I have noticed a big difference in the trees behavior. It no longer sheds needles in the fall but instead holds its needles until the following spring at which point the new candles will begin to elongate at this point it begins to drop all of the needles it should have shed last fall along with last years needles on only some of the branches with new candles. Why? Any thoughts would be appreciated.
I have Japanese white pine which behaved the same way. I had a couple of forum Q+A post about it in 2024 and then around this time last year. At some stage (I can’t remember if it was in answer to my question or in some other content) I think Ryan suggested this was fairly common behaviour and may be linked to a fungal infection.
It seems the answer for me was a shin based repot which I did last spring just as the whole tree started to brown just as the candles had started to extend. This year although there is some browning of small patches of second year needlesthey are not falling and around 80%+ are looking healthy. Prior to the repot I was losing almost all second year needles every spring for the last couple of years before the repot just as the candles pushed.
Did you address the shin in your repot?
I couldn’t address the shin the first go around at it was mostly clay that will be the goal during me repot next year though!!! Thank you
Strobus normally drop old needles during the flush as new needles develop
Like other long needle single flush pines
But shouldn’t they drop the third year needles. Mine is dropping last years needles
I think that depends on whether they are being replaced with strong new growth or weak growth. If it’s weak new growth and your dropping last years needles that’s concerning