The internode and needle lengths are determined by the length of growing time until the year's 'first freeze'.
So, why not fertilize JBP throughout the entire growing season and simply delay the decandling date?
The internode and needle lengths are determined by the length of growing time until the year's 'first freeze'.
So, why not fertilize JBP throughout the entire growing season and simply delay the decandling date?
That’s not true for the internode and shoot length. The needles do get shortened by the shorter growing season. But the length of the shoot itself is determined by other factors. Exactly what those factors are, I’m not certain, but ONE of them is the amount of fertilizer available to the tree at the time the shoots are growing.
When the summer buds form and begin to grow after decandling, one of the benefits is these tend to naturally have shorter “necks”. That’s the bare area between the base of the shoot and where the first needles appear. Having little or no neck is good! It makes the tree look denser. Fertilizing heavily will tend to produce necks.
The length of the new shoots will determine the internode length for next season. Again, shorter is better. And again, withholding fertilizer for the 6 weeks or so it takes for the shoots (new candles) to extend doesn’t weaken the tree.
Once the candle has extended, THEN it creates the needles. Ifertlizing at this stage won’t stimulate more shoot growth, but it will help to promote healthy needles. You won’t get long needles because the growing season is short.
0so, I know you want to know all the science behind it, and all I can tell you is I’ve been growing and decandling JBP for 50 years, and this is what happens.
One more comment: when the new buds/shoots appear after decandling, there are USUALLY three new shoots. I let all three develop. Later in the fall, after the first frost and the new needles have hardened, I will pull old needles, AND reduce the places where three shoots grew down to keep only two new shoots. The reason I do this is to allow the tree to divide its strength up among more new shoots. This further shortens the length of the new shoots. I know some will go thru their JBP and eliminate the third bud much earlier, before they start to grow out. I don’t. I feel that method creates new shoots that are longer than letting all three grow and eliminating one later.
