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White pine clean-up

September 30, 2014 by Jonas Dupuich

Fall is a good time to work on white pine. The spring growth has hardened off, and the old needles are beginning to turn brown.

White pine

White pine in need of clean up

As the specimen pictured above was in need of a clean-up, I removed the old needles and lightly thinned branches in the strongest areas. I also took the opportunity to work on some of the deadwood. A couple of branches had died long ago but the bark had stayed put. To heighten the contrast between live and dead branches, I removed the bark from the dead branches, revealing yellowish brown wood beneath. I’ll let the newly exposed wood dry for the time being and will lime sulfur these areas in winter.

Deadwood

Before removing bark

Deadwood

After

Deadwood

Before cleaning jin

Deadwood

After

Deadwood

Before removing bark

Deadwood

After

White pine

White pine – after deadwood clean-up

If time permits, I’ll also wire the tree this winter. For a peek at what the tree looked like last year, see Daisaku Nomoto workshop.

✕

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Filed Under: Bonsai Development Tagged With: White Pine

Previous Post: « Dwarf Sawara cypress cutback
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Maria says

    September 30, 2014 at 7:44 am

    Is there anything else to do with the white pine at this time of year besides removing old brown needles? Any pulling of needles at this time of year?

  2. Jonas Dupuich says

    September 30, 2014 at 7:47 am

    Hi Maria – yes. I also removed needles that grew last year, leaving only this year’s needles.

  3. backcountrydan says

    September 30, 2014 at 9:13 am

    It’s coming along nicely!

  4. Chris says

    September 30, 2014 at 10:40 am

    Question on the deadwood. Would a person typically see this much deadwood on a white pine? I know with junipers you do but was wondering about pines. Looks great either way.

  5. Jonas Dupuich says

    September 30, 2014 at 1:01 pm

    Hi Chris – good question. While deadwood on white pine is more common than deadwood on black pine, it is not as common as it is on juniper.

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