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Making the cut – redux

June 21, 2013 by Jonas Dupuich

I mentioned last week that an important aspect of making the decandling cut is leaving some new tissue. Having decandled a number of pines this past week, I thought I’d illustrate the point with a few photos.

One thing that can make it difficult to see how far one can cut is that the base of spring shoots aren’t always green, particularly on more vigorous shoots which sometimes appear tan or whitish in color.

Decandling

Tan base of a vigorous spring candle

Decandling

Whitish spring candle

Decandling

Green spring candle

Whatever the color, it’s important to leave some of this tissue when decandling as adventitious buds emerge from it. Removing all of this tissue forces the tree to produce needle buds. Needle buds are great, but they don’t emerge as predictably as adventitious buds do and young needle buds are particularly susceptible to breaking until they’ve grown for a year or two.

Here’s an example of an appropriate and an inappropriate cut.

Decandling

Spring shoot

Decandling

Spring shoot removed – about 1/8″ of new tissue remains

Below is the same branch after making an additional cut to show how much is too much. Note that the base of the needles actually stick out above the level of the cut.

Decandling

Cutting too much – all new tissue removed

While this is technically not decandling – no adventitious buds will develop – cutting into last year’s growth can be a useful technique for redirecting vigor to interior shoots.

✕

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

Previous Post: « Techniques for controlling vigor
Next Post: Pulling pine needles »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Chris Cochrane says

    June 21, 2013 at 6:28 am

    The advice is so elegant that I’m now sorry for not accepting earlier advice to feed MORE strongly. It makes sense to cut into last years growth for redirecting vigor to interior shoots, but the tertiary branches on which that is done would, perhaps, need more vigor than those I’m now (noting this advice!) considering in late June/early July. The sub-branches are VERY healthy but not ‘super-fed’-robust.

  2. Dan L says

    June 21, 2013 at 8:15 am

    Might you post a photo of an emerging “needle bud”?

    • Jonas Dupuich says

      June 21, 2013 at 8:27 am

      Hi Dan – will do as soon as I can find one. Thanks!

      • Jonas Dupuich says

        June 23, 2013 at 7:45 pm

        Thanks to Mac for the following shots of needle buds:
        http://dupuich.smugmug.com/Bonsai/General-Bonsai/25775457_dV9cKb#!i=2593145105&k=K9BfnsV&lb=1&s=A
        http://dupuich.smugmug.com/Bonsai/General-Bonsai/25775457_dV9cKb#!i=2593145380&k=5ZMskpv&lb=1&s=A

      • Dan L says

        June 24, 2013 at 8:04 am

        Thanks Jonas and Mac. I had the impression that those types of buds were “good”.
        So the desirable type is the bud directly opposite/below the needle bud with the pointer in this photo http://dupuich.smugmug.com/Bonsai/General-Bonsai/i-K9BfnsV/0/M/20130624-1-bonsai-M.jpg ?

  3. Jon Britt says

    June 23, 2013 at 3:34 pm

    This is greatness!

  4. Jonas Dupuich says

    June 24, 2013 at 8:56 am

    Hi Dan – needle buds are good, but they aren’t the primary kind of growth we’re looking for when decandling. I’ll be posting shots of young adventitious buds soon – they’re already starting to appear on trees I decandled a couple of weeks ago.

  5. Mac says

    June 25, 2013 at 6:01 am

    Dan L. The other bud in the photo you referenced is also a needle bud that for some reason the needles are gone. If you look close you’ll see that it is simply two needles that are extending, not a clump of needles forming a candle.

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