Decandling with no needles

[Piedmont Bonsai]

This year I learned something interesting. You can prune buds on black pines that have zero old needles on the shoots and they will still reliably produce new buds as you would expect during the normal decandling process.

Why is this important?
Well, my black pine had a pretty bad case of needle cast last year that resulted in almost all needles falling off on some branches. I honestly thought the branches were going to die, but they budded out this spring. Some were very very weak and did not get decandled this year. Some grew very strongly and were too vigorous for the design. So i gambled and removed the buds and have 100% success with decandling shoots with no needles left on them.

Sorry for the blurry photos. It was hard getting my camera to focus on the tiny buds

 

[Piedmont Bonsai]

Here is the tree. Photo was taken at time of decandling after wiring

 

[99 Mile Creek]

That's great information. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Piedmont Bonsai]

That's great information. Thanks for sharing!

Glad you found it helpful.
It makes me wonder if you were to remove all old foliage from a black pine and then decandle with zero foliage on the tree what the result would be. I may try this on a young tree that i don’t mind losing next year and see the result

 

[99 Mile Creek]

Glad you found it helpful.
It makes me wonder if you were to remove all old foliage from a black pine and then decandle with zero foliage on the tree what the result would be. I may try this on a young tree that i don’t mind losing next year and see the result

It's certainly high risk, but going into it with knowing it's an experiment...in the name of science!

I did hear (somewhere) that the old needles still carry hormones and are essential for back budding in case of mass needle loss, so it's important to keep a few of those around. Not sure if that's correct. I'm quite new to pines, and I am seeing new buds 6 days post decandling my shohin JBP.

I'd be interested in seeing your findings, though.

 

[MaciekA]

Glad you found it helpful.
It makes me wonder if you were to remove all old foliage from a black pine and then decandle with zero foliage on the tree what the result would be. I may try this on a young tree that i don’t mind losing next year and see the result

Take a look at Peter Tea's blog. He has two posts where he did exactly this at Tanaka's garden while he was studying in Japan. The response was very strong. I think it's worth noting that this is probably not something one would do year in year out.

 

[Piedmont Bonsai]

Take a look at Peter Tea's blog. He has two posts where he did exactly this at Tanaka's garden while he was studying in Japan. The response was very strong. I think it's worth noting that this is probably not something one would do year in year out.

Do you have a link to the posts?

I think that it goes without saying that it’s not something you should do every year. Especially not on mature trees.

It’s just fascinating how strong these trees are and what is possible with them.

 

[NateMcFly3]

Still Remember Me?

Still Remember Me?Last April, I revisited this tree again, and you guessed it, pulled all the needles off. Except, this time, we took it one step further to really see how much this tree can take. Last year, we found that pulling all the needles off the tree didn’t kill the tree (Cool!) as...

www.ptbonsai.com

Do you have a link to the posts?

I think that it goes without saying that it’s not something you should do every year. Especially not on mature trees.

It’s just fascinating how strong these trees are and what is possible with them.

 

[Piedmont Bonsai]

Still Remember Me?

Still Remember Me?Last April, I revisited this tree again, and you guessed it, pulled all the needles off. Except, this time, we took it one step further to really see how much this tree can take. Last year, we found that pulling all the needles off the tree didn’t kill the tree (Cool!) as...

www.ptbonsai.com

It looks like he just pulls all old needles across the tree. There is no subsequent removal of candles to my knowledge. So a little bit different that what i am talking about.

 

[Wood]

Take a look at Peter Tea's blog. He has two posts where he did exactly this at Tanaka's garden while he was studying in Japan.

I was literally listening to you and Andrew talk about this five minutes ago. For anyone that hasn't seen/heard yet:

 

[MaciekA]

So a little bit different that what i am talking about.

Welp, only one way to find out!