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Decandling a red pine forest

July 4, 2014 by Jonas Dupuich

If there’s a single bonsai in my garden that grows quickly, its the red pine forest below.

Red pine - before decandling

Red pine forest

Japanese red pines are very similar to Japanese black pines. The most common differences I notice include thinner needles and slightly reddish colored buds, though sometimes the two varieties can be hard to tell apart. This forest exhibits fairly typical characteristics of young red pines, right down to explosive growth. I tend to decandle the tree a little later than I decandle black pines of equivalent age and development, and I usually get more summer buds per branch than I do with black pines of the same age. As a result, at decandling time, there are a lot of cuts to make on this bonsai.

Red pine - after decandling

Red pine forest – after decandling

The tree was still fairly full after decandling as I had yet to thin out last year’s summer growth, so I did a lot of cutback while I worked, limiting summer growth to two shoots per branch. After removing all of the spring growth and extraneous shoots and needles, I added enough wire to space out the buds so there would be room for the summer buds to fill in. The moss added when the tree appeared in Bay Island Bonsai’s 14th annual exhibit had mostly disintegrated beneath fertilizer so I removed it and replaced it with shredded sphagnum moss to help retain moisture and prevent soil particles from washing away.

Red pine - after decandling

After cleaning the surface of the soil and applying sphagnum moss

I’ll begin fertilizing again in a few weeks and will increase the fertilizer through the end of the growing season at which time the summer shoots will be ready for thinning.

✕

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

Previous Post: « Decandling pines in early stages of development
Next Post: Decandling a shohin black pine »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. mirko says

    July 4, 2014 at 6:22 am

    Very nice

  2. Paul S. P. says

    July 4, 2014 at 7:42 am

    “I tend to decandle the tree a little later than I decandle black pines”
    When is a little later? Our weather on the east coast of MASS is about the same as yours. Hardiness zone switches between 5 and 7.

    • Jonas Dupuich says

      July 7, 2014 at 9:11 am

      Hi Paul – good question. Were all things equal between this pine and a similar black pine in terms of age, health and stage of development, I’d likely decandle the red pine about a week later than the black. I’d aim to do this in the first or second week of June (for the red pine), give or take a week either way. For more details on timing: http://bonsaitonight.com/2013/06/11/when-to-decandle/

  3. Jorge R. says

    July 7, 2014 at 1:01 pm

    Hi Jonas, do you have in your blog an entry that talks about the work that Black Pines required during the Fall?
    Thank you

    • Jonas Dupuich says

      July 7, 2014 at 10:31 pm

      Hi Jorge – great question! I don’t know that I have a post that hits the high points, but I can say that both cutback and needle thinning can happen in fall. Some related links:
      A great overview for pine work: http://www.bssf.org/project/november-2013-general-meeting-black-pine/
      Pulling needles: http://bonsaitonight.com/2013/06/25/pulling-pine-needles/
      Pine cutback basics: http://bonsaitonight.com/2013/04/02/pine-cutback-basics/

      Hope this helps,
      Jonas

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