Sacrifice branches – getting the balance right

A month or two after decandling season is a good time to check and see how the summer growth is filling in. If everything looks good, there’s no need to make a change. If the new growth is weaker than expected, there’s still time to strengthen it before the end of the growing season.

This is particularly true for trees with sacrifice branches. Here’s an example.

Five year-old pine with sacrifice branch

As expected, the new growth is strong on top but relatively weak below.

Relatively weak new growth

By weakening the strongest part of the tree (the sacrifice branch), the weaker shoots have a chance to gain strength. And with fewer needles above, the lower branches can receive more light. Adding fertilizer will help both the upper and lower branches gain strength, so I’ll step up the fertilizer regimen too.

After removing needles from the sacrifice branch

The process looks the same for young trees with a second sacrifice branch. Whenever possible, I like to start developing replacement sacrifice branches before removing existing sacrifice branches as this can speed up development.

Young pines with sacrifice branches

To encourage more growth below, I removed about half of the needles on the sacrifice branches.

After removing needles on the sacrifice branches

Close-up of the foliage below the sacrifice branch

You can do this kind of work throughout the growing season. Because the lower branches on the trees below were looking even weaker in spring, I decandled the sacrifice branches. This slows development above and accelerates it below.

Two months after decandling the sacrifice branches

Summer growth along with the new sacrifice branch

Because I was already planning to remove these sacrifice branches in fall (they were getting pretty tall), decandling them doesn’t slow down the tree too much and it creates better branches to work with below.

On some of the pines, the sacrifice branches were way too tall in spring and the lower branches were too weak so I removed them. Now I’m seeing a lot new growth. And because the lowest branches have good vigor, there’s no need to remove any needles until fall.

Sacrifice branches pruned in early spring

The exact same approach works for more mature trees. Here’s a pine that Eric Schrader started from seed about twenty years ago.

Root over rock black pine

Because I want the branches that will form the final silhouette to get stronger, I increased the fertilizer and removed needles from the sacrifice branches.

After removing needles from the sacrifice branches

It’ll be a while before the sacrifice branches come off (I’m aiming to thicken the upper trunk), but in the meantime, I’m happy with the young branches below.