Selecting Shoots After De-Candling
There are often discussions around de-candling red and black pines in summer but seldom are there discussions about shoot selection later in the autumn season to set your pine up for success next de-candling season. So lets take a quick look at why its important and what you should be looking out for.
When you de-candle ( cut off the spring growth ) your goal is too produce a second flush of growth which will be weaker than the initial first flush, if you do it early summer it will be slightly stronger which is good for larger pines and if you do it later it will be slightly weaker which is good for smaller pines. Either stronger or weaker growth will help balance needle size and internode length to your tree ( larger needles on larger pines, smaller needles on smaller pines ). But once you de-candle that isn’t the end of the work or the discussion, the shoot selection is just as important.
First though we need to talk about some wording that needs to be seperated and understood as a few different types of growth are all just lumped under the banner of " buds "
- Buds - Lets get these out of the way first, buds are buds, they will form in the crotches of old needles or on bare wood if your branches are beaming with energy. Once a bud grows it will eventually form into a shoot.
- Shoots - This is the first stage of growth after the bud stage, you will now have some elongation and some needles that are open.
- Candles - This is the growth that forms on the end of shoots during spring.
Now that is out of the way lets look at Why shoot selection is important.
A few weeks after de-candling you will notice new buds forming around the base of the cut site, on a healthy vigorous pine this might be in the neighborhood of 5- 6buds, These buds will form into shoots over the duration of the summer and into autumn, once they have formed into shoots we need to reduce them back down to 2 shoots, but which 2 shoots do we keep?
( Buds Forming at the cut site after de-candling )
( Buds grown into shoots )
( Shoots selected back down to 2 )
1. The 2 shoots that are most similar in size, and are the correct size in terms of strength.
You will want to allow the buds to grow into shoots before selecting, this will show you their true size, you can then select the 2 that are the most similar in size so your ramification is somewhat even. This is also a good chance to select if you need slightly larger shoots in weaker areas or smaller shoots in overly vigorous areas to help balance growth.
2. The 2 most acute shoots
When creating ramification you want the crouch to be as acute as possible, if you have big obtuse angles your branching will become too spread out over time, the more acute the tighter and finer your ramification will be.
3. The 2 most lateral shoots
This point isn’t as crucial but if you can get all 3 points you have the holy grail. Lateral shoots work better for ramification then shoots that are up and down, if they are naturally occurring use them, if not you can always adjust the branch with wire by twisting it.
And that's it, as simple as that you have done your shoot selection.
