The basics of decandling Japanese black pine are straightforward. The application of the basics is more of a long-term pursuit. At its most rudimentary, decandling is the practice of replacing vigorous spring growth with moderately-vigorous summer growth – a technique for removing one shoot and replacing it with two. It’s a powerful tool for balancing […]
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Decandling black pine – case study
It’s common to divide a tree’s shoots into three zones based on strength during decandling season. A long-term project of mine had me dividing a tree into three zones for very different reasons. Japanese black pine – after decandling The lowest third of this sixteen year-old Japanese black pine is beginning to develop branches that […]
Decandling a red pine forest
Sixteen years ago I planted a group of red pine seeds. I made seedling cuttings, watered, and fertilized the trees, but never created a plan for their future. As a result, fate determined their present form. The trees were healthy but ungainly – perfect candidates for a forest planting. Red pines are a very vigorous […]
Decandling black pine – case study
There’s a lot to say about decandling Japanese black pine. I’ll start with some basics. Here’s a pine going into decandling season. Japanese black pine – front Japanese black pine – back And here’s the same tree after decandling: Japanese black pine – front It won’t take much effort to see that I didn’t decandle […]
Planting pine seeds
[8/16/16 – See the updated and expanded version: How to grow Japanese black pine from seed] In my quest to grow Japanese black pine bonsai from seed, I planted some pine seeds earlier this spring. The process is simple. The first step is preparing a shallow pot with bonsai soil. While a number of soils […]