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Thinning Japanese black pine

June 14, 2011 by Jonas Dupuich

Here is a recent photo of a Japanese black pine I decandled last fall. The new shoots began growing in fall, paused during winter, and continued growing in the spring. Now the needles are mature and the tree is full. This is how pines decandled in spring typically look in November.

Fall growth

Black pine – June 2011

The goal of decandling the tree in fall was to encourage new interior buds. Now that several of these buds have appeared, I want them to get stronger. To further push the interior buds, I thinned new growth in strong areas to a single bud.

two terminal buds

Two new shoots – this branch is strong

Thinned to one bud

Branch thinned to a single shoot

I also shortened as many branches as I could to further encourage the interior shoots.

After thinning

After thinning and cutback

When the interior shoots get stronger, I can shorten the branches and further reduce the tree’s silhouette.  A lot of work for such a young pine? Yes! But from this work, I’ve learned a lot. And so far, I’m happy with the results.

✕

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Filed Under: Bonsai Development Tagged With: Black Pine

Previous Post: « Best repotting of the year
Next Post: Refining cork bark black pine – decandling »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. steve says

    June 15, 2011 at 9:23 pm

    HI Jonas,

    didn’t this idea come from Kondo? if i understand this correctly, you gain more interior buds sooner for ramification? then will you continue to decandle this way? or will you revert back?

    • xwires says

      June 16, 2011 at 1:00 am

      Hi Steve – that’s right, Kondo suggested decandling in fall to push new interior buds. He looked at a tree with no buds and suggested decandling in fall to produce interior buds. The schedule: year 1 – decandle in fall; year 2 – do not decandle; year 3 – decandle in spring.

  2. steve says

    June 16, 2011 at 7:47 am

    brilliant. thank you for sharing. we could be looking at the pine that takes another Kondo award!

  3. gaycarboys says

    July 1, 2011 at 7:36 am

    This is a really pretty tree.

  4. Christopher Glanton says

    July 3, 2011 at 9:45 am

    Very interesting process Jonas, and one that’s working out quite well with those new interior buds. Thanks for sharing and the updates!

  5. gaycarboys says

    July 4, 2011 at 8:02 pm

    It looks good. I’ll read more on the decandling process. I haven’t had the eureka moment yet so that and thinning the needles still makes no sense.

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