Decandling of Pines in San Francisco can happen anytime between now and the end of June depending on where you live, the size of the tree and the length of needles that you want on the tree. But before you go cutting off all the new growth on the tree take a moment and do yourself and the tree a favor: sharpen your scissors. Dull scissors will not only make the job of decandling a lot harder for you, it will make it more difficult for the tree to recover. Just like in grafting and in many bonsai activities, the sharper the blade the better the cut. Dull scissors will smash the tender tissue at the base of the candle rather than cutting cleanly through it. The clean cut will offer a much better place for the fomation of the new buds which will eventually be your branch.

To decandle you must start first with a tree that is growing strongly and has been well fertilized since the beginning of the growing season in February. Take a look at the candles on the tree and assess whether or not the growth is even. In some cases all the candles can be cut at the same time because the growth over the entire tree is even. However, if some candles are stronger than others the weak candles should be removed first followed by medium strength candles and last strong candles. A week between each set will go a long way toward making the growth even over the entire tree.

You should leave very weak buds uncut to allow them to gain more relative strength. When there are two or more buds growing from the same location all of them must be cut. Many times a strong candle will have a weak bud at the base, if this bud is not removed when the strong candle is removed the tree will just use that bud instead of producing new buds. Remove fertilizer from the top of the soil after decandling and leave it off for 4-6 weeks, until new buds have formed and are growing. Do not thin the new buds until November when you clean out the old needles and wire the tree. Thinning the buds in July or August will cause the buds that remain to grow more strongly and to become too lengthy in many cases.

Do not be tempted to wire or otherwise work on your pine at this time of year, you will damage the small buds that are emerging on the branches behind the larger outer buds; those are the buds that will eventually fill out a branch and make the tree look good.

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