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Decandling and thinning a red pine forest

July 29, 2022 by Jonas Dupuich

Late spring is a great time to decandle healthy black and red pines (see “Decandling” for details). It’s also a good time to thin dense areas or remove extra needles that didn’t come off in fall.

Over the years I’ve found it relatively easy to decandle pines at the right time, but hard to do the catch-up work that would normally have been done the previous fall.

That’s been the case with most of my pines this year. I decandled them on schedule – late May through early July – but I’m still working my way through the delayed work of thinning and needle plucking.

It feels great to complete the work, even when I’m behind schedule, as it sets me up for the coming fall.

Here’s a group planting of five red pines grown from seed over the past 28 years.

Red pine forest

Before decandling

And here’s the tree after decandling, pruning, and thinning old needles.

After decandling

After decandling and thinning – 22″H 39″W

Based on past experience, I’ve found that the trees respond well to the thinning work even when it’s done a month or two late. The challenge is that new shoots start to develop in as little as 1-2 weeks after decandling.

New shoot

Vigorous new shoots

Once the summer buds begin to form, care must be taken to avoid breaking the tender new growth.

Fortunately not all of the shoots on this pine are so far along.

Pine branch

Branch with small new shoots

Being behind on my pine work suggests that I either have too many trees in my collection, or too many other commitments (like planning an exciting bonsai exhibit for this fall!). Fortunately, getting caught up with the pine work increases the odds that I’ll be able wire the tree this coming winter – a long overdue task!

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

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Paulo says

    July 29, 2022 at 10:44 pm

    Hi, would you pinch long candles after decandling? Did something happened to one of the rhs back tree? Perhaps my favourite of your collection. Thx U.

    • Jonas Dupuich says

      July 31, 2022 at 1:02 pm

      Thanks! I don’t pinch long shoots after decandling, but I am likely to remove these shoots entirely in fall.

      And nothing happened to the back of the tree. I removed one of the trunks a number of years back but haven’t wired since which makes everything look unbalanced.

  2. Jeff says

    July 31, 2022 at 12:56 am

    Wow Jonas, what a fantastic composition! The multi trunk and rambling nature has a wonderful natural feel. How old were the trees when you planted them as a forest? Wondering how to manage sacrifices and keep low growth, there must be more shading? I’d like to try this with Scots, because I have a lot!

  3. Kenneth Lottsfeldt says

    July 31, 2022 at 4:45 am

    I do realy love Bonsai and I would like to learn more about how to enjoy The cutting to make a real Nice Bonsai tree

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