When to keep old needles on weak branches

Here’s another black pine that’s slowly regaining vigor. There’s plenty of new foliage on the strongest shoots, but many of the weaker branches have just a few new needles each.

Old black pine

Where there are many new needles, I can remove all of the old the needles.

Relatively strong branch

After removing the 3rd year needles

After removing last year’s needles

On the weakest branches, I removed a few of the downward facing needles and left the rest alone.

Weak branch

After removing the downward facing needles

Needle-pulling complete

I expect a number of the yellow needles to turn brown and fall off over the next month or two so the tree will likely look thinner by the end of the year. It will likely be a full year before I can start working on the branches, and possibly two before the lowest branch is strong enough for wiring or decandling.

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Rehabilitating a black pine – removing old needles