A number of my 13 year-old pines are making the transition from trunk development to branch refinement. During this stage, I’ll often decandle branches that will be part of the final design while letting other branches continue to thicken.
Most of the branches on the tree below were decandled this year. The branches that I let grow will be used to thicken the apex and help close wounds.
Japanese black pine – before decandling
And here’s the tree after cutback, decandling and wiring.
After decandling and wiring
Once the sacrifice branches are removed, the tree will be much smaller.
Rough outline of the future silhouette
The lower sacrifice branch has been kept to help heal a wound on the back of the trunk. I’ll remove this branch in fall.
Sacrifice branch near the base of an old wound
The top sacrifice branch is helping to thicken the apex and close a wound higher up on the trunk.
Wound near the top of the tree
I expect to keep this sacrifice branch for another year or two. Once I’ve decided on the apex and it’s had some time to thicken up a bit, I’ll reduce the sacrifice branch and begin decandling the entire tree.
Subscribe to Bonsai Tonight
New Posts Delivered Every Tuesday and Friday
Ray Norris says
Great article Jonas, what month was this done in ?
Thank you for your knowledge
Ray
Zack Clayton says
Ray, unless you live in the same part of California as Jonas, the better question is, “What part of the season is it there?” We had a guy in our club try to work on pines at the same calendar date as Gustofsen. October in central Ohio is nothing like October in Portland Oregon. There was sad death.
Jonas Dupuich says
Hi Ray – I decandled this tree near the end of June, which, as Zach noted, is about right for small trees in my climate.
Justin E. says
its coming along good…question…why can’t I enlarge the pic’s anymore?
Jonas Dupuich says
Hi Justin – thanks for the note. I am making some infrastructure improvements to the site and for now am turning off the links to the images. I am planning to do more with images in the future – please let me know if you have any suggestions!
Alessandro says
Hi Jonas! I see so many (to much?) yellow needles, it is normal at this stage of development? Thanks, Alessandro.
Jonas Dupuich says
Hi Alessandro – good catch. Two and three year needles start to turn yellow this time of year – last year’s needles are mostly green.
Wabi 47 says
hi jonas….really helpful as usual
i notice on the last pic that your cut paste only covers the very center of the prior cut. Bonsai horticulture is often apocryphal, but I was told that the cut paste is to cover the outer rim (cambium) in order to keep it more healthy and allow better healing of larger scars. Others tell me that cut paste is not all that helpful. I have seen you do small trials of plants in various soils, but are there any studies on cut paste and how it is applied?
Zack Clayton says
Like
Jonas Dupuich says
Great question about the cut paste. Last year the paste covered the entire wound. As the wound healed, the cut paste around the edges fell off.
I would love to see a study comparing the different cut pastes – will look to do something like this in the future .
Daniel Dolan says
Jonas:
May I ask you who is the supplier for your high fired clay training pots?
There is a distributor in the Midwest, but without naming names, is somewhat difficult to communicate with online.
Please advise when convenient.
Best regards,
D/D
Chicago
Jonas Dupuich says
Hi Daniel – I import the high fired pots myself and sometimes sell them locally. Shipping is not available at this point.