Bonsai tree: Decandling before and after – red pine forest

Source: Bonsai Tonight
Decandling before and after – red pine forest

Decandling is a great technique for improving ramification or for maintaining it. What little ramification my red pine forest has can be attributed to a few years of decandling. I don’t currently have any plans to further develop the trunks in this forest, so the branches are getting all of my attention. Here is the group planting before decandling.

Red pine forest – June, 2011

Top 1/3 decandled

2/3 decandled

Completely decandled

In addition to removing the spring shoots, I removed some extra vigorous branches to better balance the tree. The shoot below is quite vigorous – more than I want for this bonsai.

Vigorous branch

The branches below are better suited for development into branch pads.

Desirable growth

Where extra-vigorous shoots were crowding out more refined growth, I removed the vigorous shoots.

One of these shoots is not like the others

Extra-vigorous shoot removed

As I worked, I found a few anomalous shoots like those below. They weren’t spring shoots, but they weren’t exactly summer shoots either. Where did they come from?

Mystery shoots

About two months ago, I thinned these trees and shortened some of the candles – see “Thinning a red pine forest” for details. On one or two occasions, I accidentally broke the candles before they had time to develop. It was as if I “de-candled” these branches on the early side. The result of these mistakes are the strong shoots you see pictured above. As these shoots would continue to develop ahead of the properly decandled branches, I removed them to maintain balance.

Mystery shoots removed

After removing all extra-vigorous shoots and plucking needles from some of the more dense areas, I wrapped up my work for this season.

Decandling complete

This forest is another good candidate for wiring this fall. Once the branches are in place, I plan to repot the group in a slightly smaller pot. Read more!

Bonsai tree: Thinning a red pine forest

Source: Bonsai Tonight
Thinning a red pine forest

The best time to thin pine bonsai is between late fall and early spring. I didn’t get to the red pine forest below until early April this year. Because I was working on the tree late in the season, I kept the work simple. I cut back each branch to two shoots, removed old needles, and shortened some of the longer candles. I decided against wiring the tree to avoid damaging the new candles.

Red pine forest – April 2011

Shortening candles is a simple technique to weaken vigorous shoots. Letting long candles like the one pictured below puts a lot of energy into the branch, usually at the expense of weaker branches. I shortened the longest shoots to make them roughly even in size with the weaker candles. To avoid damaging the emerging needles, I broke the candles with my fingers.

Vigorous candle

Candle shortened

I also cut back last year’s growth to two shoots per branch. As the pines in this forest are fairly vigorous, I found a lot of branches with three or more shoots per branch. Thinning to two shoots per branch helps me balance growth while creating good branch structure.

Cutting back to two shoots

Extra bud removed

I removed all two-year old needles and some of last year’s needles.

First and second-year needles

Second year needles removed

As sap built up on my tweezers, I cleaned them with a steel bristle brush.

Removing sap

Thinning and removing extra needles gets me in good shape for next month’s decandling.

Thinned branches

Thinning complete

After reducing the vigorous candles and removing old needles and extraneous shoots, I noticed that the foliage is still a bit dense. I’ll likely remove more needles at decandling time in mid- to late June. And if I can find the time, I may also wire the tree as I have yet to completely wire the forest since its creation a couple of years ago. Read more!

Bonsai tree: Decandling a red pine forest – part 2

Source: Bonsai Tonight
Decandling a red pine forest – part 2

I decandled the red pine forest below about 3 months ago (see Decandling a red pine forest). The summer growth has come out and the trees look much fuller than they did in June. But because the summer was cool, this grove isn’t as far along as I’d expect for this time of year. No matter, in the mild San Francisco Bay area climate, pines continue to grow throughout the fall.
Just two days into fall, however, it’s too soon for needle pulling and cutback as the new needles are still soft. Some enthusiasts thin summer growth at this time, but I usually wait until late fall or winter. Typically I continue to water and feed the trees this time of year, trying to encourage out what growth I can before the weather turns cold.
I also check the pines I’ve decandled to gauge their response to the decandling. The trees in this forest have a long way to go to achieve any sort of balance which makes them great for practicing decandling techniques. Here’s the forest as it looks today.

Red pine forest, 16 years old

Read more!