"decandling" spruce and fir

[*tree*]

I don't know if this is new but still a good experiment considering that my climate is very cold, and decandling jbp doesn't work very well.
The spruce is variety Will's zwerg, which reliably grows second flush without any prunning, but the fir is korean fir which is slow growing and I pinched it normally last year, so it's not vigorous at all.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Hmm…. Wondering what it is being proposed.

Both trees look reasonably healthy from the images posted

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[*tree*]

I like the fact that you don't have any visible cuts on the shoots, the tips of the second flush are untouched of course, so the tree will look very natural eventually.
The back budding I got is much better than with normal pinching.
And the length of the new shoots is often as little as 1 cm, so shohin spruce could look very nice and dense.

 

[Shibui]

New or modified approaches are always worth trying. That's how we find improved techniques.
What season, time of year and stage of growth are you decandling?
I'd also like some more detail about just what decandling is for these spruces. How far back you cut, etc.

 

[*tree*]

New or modified approaches are always worth trying. That's how we find improved techniques.
What season, time of year and stage of growth are you decandling?
I'd also like some more detail about just what decandling is for these spruces. How far back you cut, etc.

I decandled both trees once the new growth reached its final length, except the strongest shoots which were still elongating a bit at that point, which was 19th may for the spruce and 28th may for the fir here in central europe.
On both trees I left a small, like 1-2 mm long stub, on the spruce this stub was completely covered by the scales of the spring bud. The spruce took like 10 days to create visible buds, fir took like 20 days. I also noticed, that the shoots completely stopped developing when the temperatures reached 30C for like 10 days in july, so this may not work in hot summer climates, it should work the best in long season mild summer climates, so pnw western europe, ...

 

[*tree*]

I have also seen spruces that have been decandled by animals at pretty high elevations. If the animal actually eats the entire shoot, the tree usually produces a small second flush.

 

[penumbra]

I have several spruces and they all have second growth with or without pruning.

 

[*tree*]

I have several spruces and they all have second growth with or without pruning.

Which species do you have?

 

[Cruiser]

I have several spruces and they all have second growth with or without pruning.

Mine too. Same with the true firs. Albeit the other flushes are not as strong as the first.
DAS and Sitka spruces were not pinched and have just kept growing. Lots of water, sun, and fertilizer.
Nobles and silver fir…same story. Not the case with the alpine fir.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Hey @Cruiser

Are you doing anything with Sub Alpine fir, other then cutting back to inner buds?

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[penumbra]

Which species do you have?

Red spruce, White, Blue, Ezo, Serbian, and probably another as well.

 

[Cruiser]

Hey @Cruiser

Are you doing anything with Sub Alpine fir, other then cutting back to inner buds?

Cheers
DSD sends

Yeah. In early July I stripped entire branches of their foliage and buds to see what the response would be. (Only branches that would have been removed anyway.)

The idea is to mimic drought damage by killing a branch but keeping it whole. The predicted response is epicormic growth where the dead branch attaches.
I also figure that killing a branch this way rather than removing it results in less sap lost.

 

[*tree*]

I noticed that the second shoots, even though they are very short, still have side buds so the tree will be very dense next year. I will make this a progression thread for these trees.