Field growing Japanese black pine

[Maiden69]

When should you cut the branches and chop the leader? I've been told in winter if that is correct when in winter beginning, middle, or end?

It depends, I think Jonas weaken the sacrifice around fall, then removes it late-winter early-spring.

@Maiden69 his family has been doing it for generations. He knows that a tree in the ground can be worked that way and babied later in a pot.

I know... it's just "shocking" when you compare what he does to what is commonly taught. He's comment is that he does it for speed, he's not worried about how pretty the tree looks now, that once in the pot, the treatment would be different.

 

[tkroeker]

My questions would be towards the root development and timing. If you have roots that have not been pruned back at all and they are feeding the tree extremely well, when is a good time to hard prune them to get ramification? A year or season before digging to put them in a pot or at the time of potting. And should you not have hard pruned the top the same season?