We have all heard of De-Candling Black Pines and we have all heard that this takes place in summer, But does it matter what time in summer we do it? Well actually it does. Lets Explore..
De-Candling Japanese Black Pine Bonsai is 1 of the 2 times we do important work on our black pines through out the year in the refinement stage. When in development we don't worry about de-candling as it some what sends us backwards in our development. But once we enter the stage of being happy with our trees structure and we enter the Bonsai Pot we now need to focus on ramifying our branch structure and reducing the needle size.
When it comes to De-Candling Black Pines the usual answer is just " We do that in summer".. That is a fairly broad statement as there is different timing through out the summer period for different black pines to be De-Candled. So lets have a look at how we determine what time to do different pines.
When trying to figure out when to De-Candle Black Pine it is really fairly simple but unless you know it you would probably have never timed it correct.
We start with our larger trees first ( Roughly First Month Of Summer ). This give the tree lots of time through summer to grow its second flush resulting in larger needles which will be more in scale to the tree. Can you imagine a monster Black Pine with tiny little needles like a white pine.. it would look really awkward.
Next we do our medium size trees ( Roughly Middle Of Summer ) as this gives the tree less time to extend the needles thus giving us a medium size needle which will be more in line with your medium size pine.
And lastly we do our Small or Shohin Black Pines ( Roughly End Of Second Month Start Of 3rd Month Of Summer) as this gives the shortest amount of time for needles to extend though out summer so we get nice small needles for a nice small tree.
Now this timing needs to be paired with good fertilising practise for Black Pine Refinement. Remember to remove your fertiliser 4 weeks before summer begins so all Nitrogen can leave the soil system otherwise you will end up with longer needles then you want.
I know this article was short and punchy but it is important to understand that timing for your black pines, Not everything in Bonsai is super technical but everything in Bonsai does need to be timed correctly and this is 1 example of clock work timing for proper results.
Until Next time, Enjoy Your Bonsai Journey
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