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Decandling shohin black pine

July 5, 2011 by Jonas Dupuich

Decandling Japanese black pines is the process of removing spring growth to produce summer growth. If we decandle early in the season, we give summer growth more time to mature and produce long needles. The converse is also true – decandling later produces shorter needles. For this reason, we typically decandle shohin pine bonsai about a month later than larger pine bonsai.

My smallest pine bonsai produced lots of spring growth this year. It’s hard, in fact, to tell the front of the tree from the back of the tree.

Shohin black pine before decandling - front

Shohin Japanese black pine – front

Shohin black pine before decandling - back

Shohin Japanese black pine – back

Once I started removing the spring growth, I began to see the outline of the tree. Before long, the tree had returned to the basic shape it sported in winter.

Shohin black pine after decandling

Shohin Japanese black pine – front

Over the next four months, the summer growth will fill in and it will be time for fall work. I’m looking forward to fall because this tree, like so many of my pines, is due for a lot of cutback and wiring. Time to book more workshops!

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Filed Under: Bonsai Development Tagged With: Black Pine, Decandling, Shohin

Previous Post: « How to create seedling cuttings – Japanese black pine
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jeremy says

    July 6, 2011 at 11:43 am

    What kind of work will be done in the fall?

    • xwires says

      July 6, 2011 at 1:08 pm

      Some notes on fall pine work (plenty more coming this fall!):
      http://bonsaitonight.com/2011/01/07/refining-shohin-black-pine/

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