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| Pruning Pine Trees - Tuesday, October 17, 2006 at 11:56 |
| Candle pruning time on Pine Trees... our pruning guide covers candle pruning--please be sure and suggest to you customers that the best way to control the growth of pine trees is be reducing the amount of growth the put on, and where these trees put that growth on. What candle pruning does is to shorted up the space between the whorls of branches, creating a more uniform, dense pine. Don't forget to candle prune the Mugo Pines too. These little guys can get out of control fast unless you break the new growth (resembling a candle in the end of the branch) to shorten up the growth. Notice i said "break" the new growth...and that is important. If you break the new growth back, you will not harm the newly forming needles within this candle of new growth. If you cut (ouch) that new growth, the newly forming needles will also be cut, so when the candle does expand and the needles grow out, those needles will have cut ends on them -- but breaking removes the part of the candle you want off, without harming the part you leave. Leave the leader on the pine the longest, and shorten up the candles around this leader smaller than the center candle. That way, they continue to produce nice uniform whorls as they add new growth each year. It depends upon how much you need to prune by how much new grow a plant is putting on. Some years, you will need to remove as much as 2/3 of the new candle growth, and in some years less. Always try to keep the tops more narrow than the bottoms of the plants. By continuing to maintain this shape (of any evergreen or deciduous plant) where the bottom is the widest point, the plants will not shade out the lower branches, and remain branched to the ground if you are using these plants for screening. Why have an evergreen if you cut off all the bottom branches? I have a neighbor who just cut the bottom 2 feet off of his 5 spruce trees so he could mow around them better. In my opinion, you might as well get a chain saw and cut the whole thing down to the ground. He is the same guy who rolls his lawn twice a year and wonders why his grass is not doing well. (Hello.....compacted soil?). He is actually a nice neighbor, but he just does not understand how to take care of a landscape properly. So remember....candle prune to shorten up the amount of new growth a pine puts on this year (and do it now in our area) -- creating a denser, well balanced plant as a younger plant, so as it gets older and you cannot candle prune them anymore, they will already have a excellent form. Thanks. Tim Tim Flood McKay Nursery Company |