Scots pine needles pull REALLY easy.

[Mike Corazzi]

Sorry, but I have quite a bit of experience in that.
At one time....WAY...too much. Age 18-32 I probably put away a few tank cars of it.

 

[Adair M]

Any specifics you can share?
I've heard that before but am not sure how MUCH backbudding has occurred.
I do know that I have some very skinny long branches that I ....WISH.... would backbud, but doubt their sturdiness.
I'm reluctant to chop them off as the foliage on the end of them enhances the whole tree when viewing.

I can start another thread if it would be handier for you, Dirk.

and...Thanks for suggestion.

Mike, treat these like JWP. There's a lot of information about JWP, much more than for Scots, but the care is pretty much the same.

For trees in the early stages of development, like yours, it's not unusual to them to put out long needles. It just means the tree is happy, and is putting out lots of roots. Obviously, a good thing.

Unfortunately, often young trees in training aren't very attractive. They might have huge sacrifice branches, raffia and rebar, big wooden boxes for pots... sometimes they're plucked chickens, and sometimes they left to grow really full. As long as they're making progress, they're beautiful!

Here's a link to Jonas's interview in his garden, and he shows trees in all stages of development.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1539102869447917

 

[dirk hoorelbeke]

Yes but Jonas showed JBP. So be careful not to use that technique (removing the entire candle).
I have written it somewhere before. I folow the directions of my master, and Ryan Neil has a few pine lectures online explaining it good. The main thing for scots pines is that for trees in development, you feed them well. When the candles elongate you wait to cut back until they have unfolded the needles and have a big end-bud. The more backbudding you want, the longer you wait to cut back. Here i wait until begin august. ALWAYS leave some current year needles. (6 pairs or more). Remove the older needles at this point. The strong tree will react in giving you backbudding that will open next year. The stronger the tree is, the more they will give, so sometimes it is better to let it grow for 2 years without cutback.

 

[dirk hoorelbeke]

https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/stimulating-backbudding-on-scots-pine.25421/
found

 

[Adair M]

Yes but Jonas showed JBP. So be careful not to use that technique (removing the entire candle).
I have written it somewhere before. I folow the directions of my master, and Ryan Neil has a few pine lectures online explaining it good. The main thing for scots pines is that for trees in development, you feed them well. When the candles elongate you wait to cut back until they have unfolded the needles and have a big end-bud. The more backbudding you want, the longer you wait to cut back. Here i wait until begin august. ALWAYS leave some current year needles. (6 pairs or more). Remove the older needles at this point. The strong tree will react in giving you backbudding that will open next year. The stronger the tree is, the more they will give, so sometimes it is better to let it grow for 2 years without cutback.

Dirk, I didn't link the video to show decandling. I linked it to show trees in various stages of training.

Jonas shows everything from one year old seedlings, two year, three year, 5 year, etc. and some have big sacrifices, some have unruly foliage.

The point is, trees in training don't always "look good". You do what is needed to get good results in the long term.

 

[dirk hoorelbeke]

Adair, I think we are thinking the same. Most of us do start cutting to fast without thinking how big the trunk or branches need to be. When talking about scots pines, and seeing the reference to a video where JBP techniques are performed, a word of caution is at is place. There might be less experienced people reading this now or in the future.