Removing Candles Scotts Pine in Development.

[The Warm Canuck]

I'm developing many Scotts Pines, I'm trying to encourage trunk growth. This year My sacrifice leaders are growing a crazy amount of candles. This one has about 20!

Is it alright to remove them all right now, and keep the first and second strongest. I feel like I don't want the tree to invest that much energy into the leader?

 

[JeffS73]

I'd recommend keeping a few more till the needles come out a bit more, sometimes a candle can just keel over, or get insect damage and ruin carefully made plans. You can also remove nedes to slow down sacrifice vigour.

 

[n8]

If you're trying to encourage trunk growth, you want all those needles to power that growth. I'd leave them and trim later if they are causing the plant to be too top heavy.

 

[TrevorLarsen]

I would remove all but 2 or 3 of the candles in mid to late July when they are basically branches. That will leave enough time for the tree to start feeding the buds at the bottom before winter.

 

[Mike Westervelt]

What they said, additionally remove all of the needles on the sacrifice up to an inch or 2 from the new candles.

Trunks build bulk by adding height, anything that takes energy away from terminal growth slows that down, and you certainly don't want/need any buds in that area.

 

[The Warm Canuck]

What they said, additionally remove all of the needles on the sacrifice up to an inch or 2 from the new candles.

Trunks build bulk by adding height, anything that takes energy away from terminal growth slows that down, and you certainly don't want/need any buds in that area.

Should needles be removed in the same way on the lower branches as well?

 

[Paradox]

Should needles be removed in the same way on the lower branches as well?

No, you want those there. New buds have a better chance to form where there are needles.

The reason they are removed on the sacrifice trunk is so they don't shade those lower branches

 

[TrevorLarsen]

The needles are where the buds might emerge in the future so only remove needles where you never want buds to grow.

 

[The Warm Canuck]

How about these junction areas on my sacrifice leaders? Should I strip the needles and the buds off?

 

[Lorax7]

How about these junction areas on my sacrifice leaders? Should I strip the needles and the buds off?View attachment 546088

Anything on the sacrifice leader that isn’t shading out stuff you want to keep below is worth keeping. Foiliar mass is what drives trunk growth. One trick to maximize growth on the sacrifice while avoiding shading things out is to wire the sacrifice branch and move it off to the side out of the way (keep the tip pointing up, though).