The grafts I made to some young black pines have now been in place for 10 months. If I continue to let the original foliage grow unchecked, the trees will have little reason to invest in the grafted branches. As I want to replace the original growth with these scions from a cork bark pine, I’m starting to reduce the original foliage. I first removed about half of the existing branches and then pulled last year’s needles.
3.5 year-old black pine with cork bark scion
After removing half of the branches
After removing old needles
Here’s the same process repeated on two other young pines.
Before removing branches
After removing branches
After removing old needles
The third young pine
After removing about half of the branches
After pulling old needles
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brendenstudio says
Jonas–since you’re on the subject of grafting, would now be a good time to do so? I have some cork bark scions I saved from doing fall work and this gave me an idea to use them on some black pine seedlings I have sitting around.
Jonas Dupuich says
Hi Greg – I usually try to graft on cold days around the end of the year, not long before the spring growing season kicks off, so I don’t have as much experience grafting pines in fall. What I do know is that when grafting on the early side care must be taken to shelter the scions from hard freezes.
JP says
nice job, !!
could you please tell me the size and age of the black pines?
Jonas Dupuich says
The trees are about 3-1/2 years old and around 5-6″.
JP says
thx
so 3 years is a good time for grafting
brendenstudio says
Thanks for the reply. I guess there’s no rush, I can hold off until February.