Fall work basics – black and red pine

If you haven’t finished your fall pine work, there’s still time! Fall and winter, right up until buds start elongating in spring, is a good time to prune and wire dormant conifers including Japanese black and red pines.

The first step is to prune branches in crowded areas, the second step is to remove extra needles, and the third step is to wire the branches into place.

If you’re new to this work, here’s a simple example featuring a single branch.

Japanese black pine – side view

The first thing I notice about this branch is that I can’t see the backdrop through the foliage. This is a sign that the tree needs thinning.

Before removing unnecessary needles

After plucking

You’ll notice that I removed most, but not all of last year’s needles (the long ones that developed in 2023) and a few of the new needles. I removed all of the long needles except for several growing in a location where I’d like a new branch to develop in the future. By leaving these needles, I increase the odds that a bud will form in this area.

I removed some of the new needles (the short needles that developed this past year) to reduce the overall density of the foliage and to make the number of needles per branch relatively equal.

Here’s what the rest of the branch looked like after thinning the needles.

After removing the extra needles

Once the extra needles are out of the way, the branch is ready for wiring.

Branches wired and set

Here’s a view of the branch (before and after wiring) from above.

Before wiring – top

After wiring

This example shows just one of a number of ways this branch can be wired into a pad shape. The branches could be spread wider if the goal is for the branch to take up more space, or it could be reduced if the branch has grown too large.

After removing two small branchlets to create a more compact shape

After reducing the pad – side view

To get a better idea about the scope of the work on this branch, here are all of the side-view shots together.

Before thinning, after thinning
after wiring, after making the pad smaller

As the photos make clear, it can be hard to tell how much work was done when looking at a branch from a single perspective. What is clear, however, is that it’s now possible to see the backdrop through the needles – the key sign that the tree has been thinned enough so that light can reach the interior branches.