Bonsai Tonight

An educational website about bonsai development

Slowing down sacrifice branches on black pine

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When the trunk of a tree has reached the desired thickness, I evaluate the sacrifice branches to see if it makes more sense to remove them all at once or to remove them in stages.

In many cases, removing large branches can cause vigorous new shoots to develop. This is especially true for species like black pine that can produce new growth in response to summer pruning.

By pruning and decandling sacrifice branches instead of removing them, I can prevent the tree from producing growth that’s too strong on the lower branches.

Here’s a sixteen-year-old pine that’s ready for cutback and decandling. The trunk has reached the desired size so it’s time to focus on branch development.

Black pine

Container-grown black pine

I shortened the sacrifice branches, decandled the remaining new shoots, and removed most of the old needles. I left more foliage on the lower branches that will be used in the final design.

After decandling

After reducing the sacrifice branches and decandling – 29″ tall

I plan to do general cutback and needle thinning in fall and will consider removing the largest sacrifice branch next spring. At that point I’ll have a better idea about what the next step will be and how to move towards it.

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Comments

  1. Interesting post! Can you please say more about what you’ll be looking for next spring as you make your decision about removing that largest sacrifice branch and next steps?

    • Thanks, Joseph! Mostly I want to see how the tree responds to this work in terms of back buds and overall vigor on the low branches.

      The main reason I’m keeping the large sacrifice branch is to help heal the wound from the previous sacrifice branch. I plan to use the two small sacrifice branches in front to help heal the wound left from the current large sacrifice branch when I remove it next year. I don’t know when I’ll remove the last two sacrifice branches, maybe in the next 1-2 years.

  2. Jonas,
    Talk about putting on the brakes,! Wow! This reduction was much more severe than I would have expected. Have you done less foliage reduction on sacrifice branches and found it didn’t encourage the lower growth as much as you wanted?
    BTY, your trunks are looking better and better.
    Thanks Michael

    • Thanks Michael! Yes, I have had trouble. If I leave too much on the sacrifice branch and not enough on the lower branches, the lower branches won’t produce summer growth. I didn’t need to prune as much as I did to get a good response on this tree, but I went with a more aggressive approach as I want to focus more resources into the lower branches as I’m preparing to remove the sacrifice branches.