Pinus Pinea for a beginner

[Wulfskaar]

Good progress. The top sacrifice will always be the strongest. It’s the nature of the tree.

Wait until the weather has cooled off, then chop.

Do you plan for a new sacrifice to thicken the trunk while creating critical mass and pushing back below?

Cheers
DSD sends

Thanks DSD!

I think the trunk is as thick as I need for my umbrella design.

I have no plans for a new sacrifice, except to strengthen and thicken the lower branches. I have been thinking of this main trunk sacrifice with all the removed branches as a way to strengthen the lower branches.

My main question is if I chop it this fall or wait for the lower branches to gain strength. I'm just worried I might kill it, although it's already survived losing most of it's branches, a bare-root repot where I removed most of the roots, and a massive scale attack last year that went unchecked until it was too late.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

You are welcome.

Here’s what I do. If the new buds are old plainly evident throughout the majority of the undergrowth it’s ok to chop. This can be done anytime. Better from Oct-Jan, but still fine afterwards.

Thinking it might be best for the design/taper to choose a new leader to develop upper trunk growth.

DSD sends

 

[Wulfskaar]

You are welcome.

Here’s what I do. If the new buds are old plainly evident throughout the majority of the undergrowth it’s ok to chop. This can be done anytime. Better from Oct-Jan, but still fine afterwards.

Thinking it might be best for the design/taper to choose a new leader to develop upper trunk growth.

DSD sends

Thanks again! I take your advice seriously and I appreciate it.

 

[Wulfskaar]

I have not yet cut off the sacrificial trunk.

Currently, the sacrificial trunk has 4 strong, short branches.

If I keep it, is it best to prune down to 1, or is it best to just let that part grow wild?

Photo from September.

 

[souvik1811]

Question from a pine newbie: how do you keep the needles down low so short, while the needles on the sacrifice branch are more likely the natural longer size? Do you just cut them short?

 

[Wulfskaar]

Question from a pine newbie: how do you keep the needles down low so short, while the needles on the sacrifice branch are more likely the natural longer size? Do you just cut them short?

This species has juvenile and adult needles. I'm not sure how it all functions, but adult needles seem to come out of the stronger branches. I have read there are ways to keep the juvenile needles, but I'm not advanced enough to worry about that yet.

 

[souvik1811]

I see, thanks. And its the adult ones that are longer, right?

 

[Wulfskaar]

I see, thanks. And its the adult ones that are longer, right?

Yes. If you were to let the tree mature, it would have all long foliage.

I'm not sure if this is ISP, but it's what I imagine mine will look a bit like at some point.

 

[souvik1811]

I see. Thank you so much.

 

[Goodroot]

Nice to see your progress, I have a couple hundred Stone Pines I grew from seed, my first 3 year olds are starting to get mature needles, will have to experiment to see how it goes. The mother tree doesn't have really long needles so maybe they will say JBP length.
I sold most of my older ones but the young ones are fattening up fast.
I finally mastered the art of ISP cuttings last month, all my cuttings in the past looked like the lower left one, just 1 root. Now maybe I will get some nebari that matches my JBP cuttings.
Good luck and I will be watching your tree.
View attachment 390797

I have 3 ISP’s. I would love to learn how and when to take cuttings.

 

[Wulfskaar]

I am still undecided if it's time to remove the sacrifice. I could use some guidance on properly using a sacrifice trunk.

1. Would anyone recommend removing it now or would you keep it for another spring/summer?
2. If keeping, should I remove any of the four vigorous branches on top and keep one or two? Keep the strongest or weakest?

NOTE:
The lower branches did grow a bit last year before the major scale attack. What's left seems fairly healthy.

Here is the tree as of this morning.

 

[Wulfskaar]

A few weeks ago, I cut back 3 of the 4 upper branches in different ways just to observe what happens:
1 left alone.
1 cut back to a previously back-budded part.
1 cut the middle candle.
1 cut all the way off.



Now, I'm seeing some growth in the lower region. The back-budding from the last 2 years is starting to grow and the existing tips are putting out new growth as well. This is a very good sign.

 

[Wulfskaar]

Here's a pic of the whole tree. I'm finally confident enough to chop the main trunk this fall.

1. In fall, chop at the red line.
2. Then prune and wire the branches upwards to begin forming an umbrella shape.
3. Experiment with candle pruning and other ways to gain and strengthen lower growth.
4. In spring 2026, repot with root reduction.



Very rough 30 second virt here. I do plan to wire the branches more vertically than this crappy virt shows.


Reference pic:

 

[AnacortesSteve]

I see, thanks. And its the adult ones that are longer, right?

The adult needles start when the tree is 3 years old, you can keep pulling them and try to keep the tree in juvenile, I have one ISP witches broom, it started with short adult looking branches, it's about 3 years old not and not getting many adult long needles, I hope to take some grafts to ISP root stock, the needles look really cool when they are small.

 

[MrsRock]

Glad I found this. As a beginner I’ve gone in at the deep end and acquired a beautiful stone pine that I want to train into bonsai. I’ll be popping back for advice

 

[Wulfskaar]

This year has seen a lot of growth of the juvenile foliage. I am 100% confident that I can chop the sacrifice this fall and the tree will be fine. It will be chopped at the red line in the 3rd pic.

What I have learned:
1. I pinched the growing tips on the left side with the longer branches this spring, to treat them like a spruce, where you pinch the tips to encourage back-budding and to strengthen existing juvenile growth further down.
2. Cutting candles will cause several shoots to emerge from the cut location.
3. The trunk has thickened while in the grow box.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Looks great!

Seeing some really nice backbudding too!

Only quibble is the growth from last spring’s candles is really getting long is some spots. Can you please explain how you worked the new candles last spring?

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[Wulfskaar]

Looks great!

Seeing some really nice backbudding too!

Only quibble is the growth from last spring’s candles is really getting long is some spots. Can you please explain how you worked the new candles last spring?

Cheers
DSD sends

I didn't really do any candle work other than cutting a couple in different ways to see how they would react. They reacted by sending a couple new shoots from the cut points.

Other than that, I pinched some of the juvenile growing tips from the left side of the tree, where I think it will need to be reduced anyways. I wanted to see if that would help those branches to back bud or strengthen inner growth.

Besides the top of the sacrifice, there are only like 2 branches beginning to put out adult needles, and therefor candles. I let the candles on the sacrifice grow.

Last year, all the lower branches were heavily weakened due to a bad scale infestation, so I thought they should just grow this year to gain strength to support the tree once I chop the sacrifice off. Most of those branches are way too long to keep in my design, so just trying to push growth back inward as much as possible so I can reduce those branches, especially on the left side.