Question about a flowering male JBP

[SiccarPoint]

Recently acquired a young (male, I assume) JBP that had flowered in between the time online pics were taken for sale and me receiving it. This means it has between 1-5 cm of missing needles on the lower parts of almost all its new shoots where the pollen-producing structures that develop in place of needles have fallen off. There are perfectly healthy needles above this. It is growing strongly.

My question is: how can I reduce the length of these new shoots? On a healthy pine, I would normally cut back to a few needle pairs at the end of the season... but there are no lower needles present here. And I have clearly missed the chance to pinch candles. On a JBP, am I safe to remove the whole shoot, and if so, when? What will happen if I cut back to part of the way up the needle-less part of the shoot as I normally would?

 

[misfit11]

Pines are monoecious, meaning they are both male and female.

You can do a hard cutback on pines, but I would wait until November. This way, there is less sap flow.

 

[SiccarPoint]

Pines are monoecious, meaning they are both male and female.

You can do a hard cutback on pines, but I would wait until November. This way, there is less sap flow.

Thank you! And that cut can be to anywhere up to and including the start of the season's growth and buds will be expected at the cut, yes?

 

[bwaynef]

JBP in most of the US is treated as a double-flush tree and is decandled to initiate the double-flush. Its my understanding that in the UK, JBP doesn't reliably flush a second set of growth after decandling. All that said, I'd suggest you get advice from someone locally, unless you're sure that decandling is effective in your climate. By the sounds of it, with your cutback in the fall, I'm thinking you've not been decandling.

All this about decandling, if its not obvious, is because that's what needs done in the scenario you're describing. The main benefit of decandling is to get rid of the "neck" on the spring candles. Sounds like yours is exaggerated more than normal.

 

[MaciekA]

On a strong enough JBP you can cut back to needles (not to be confused with decandling, it's getting kinda late for that for someone that far north IMO) and get budding. Your mileage might vary considerably in the UK when taking JBP advice from Oregonians and Californians as it pertains to vigor and cutting back far past the current-year shoot, though, and if you aren't consistent (i.e. leaving both many strong and weak parts on the tree after cutback), you may find that the tree chooses the obvious growers instead.

I agree with @bwaynef , finding local JBP people to confer with on specifics is a million times more reliable than bonsainut, even if some of us can reliably guarantee our methods on our own JBPs in our own climates, your own location adds an unknown.

 

[SiccarPoint]

Thanks everyone. I'll look into this.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I'm in the Netherlands, and I decandled my JBP two weeks ago. It's flushing out again right now.

Pinching candles is for balancing, decandling is for second flushes in double flush pines.
At least, that's the terminology I use.

 

[Shibui]

Really need to see the tree and the branches in question.

Bare 'neck' on strong JBP candles is common whether or not there was male cones so the 'flowers' may not be totally responsible.
JBP can be pruned back to any healthy needles so you can totally remove the new growth or cut even further back into previous years' needles if they are still there. If justthe new growth is removed leaving the base intact you will get clusters of new buds around the cut ends. If pruned back to healthy needles new buds will emerge from needle fasciles. New buds rarely, if ever, emerge from the bare 'necks' including where male cones were.. Pruning just above the bare section causes the bare section to slowly die back to the base where clusters of new buds will emerge as if it had been decandled.
Pruning can be done any time. Early spring pruning usually results in strong regrowth candles so rarely any point in cutting then. Late spring/early summer 'decandling' produces shorter more compact second flush so routinely used to keep JBP compact and get shorter needles. Later summer through to winter pruning may not produce immediate new shoots but will usually develop resting buds that will open and grow strong the following spring.

All those permutations mean that, provided you leave the base of new shoots or some healthy needles the JBP will grow again.