Care and Maintenance

Pine maintenance is all about mastering the techniques for balancing growth energy within the tree. As with all pine bonsai, candle pinching, candle removing, needle plucking and pruning are very important to keep the tree healthy and well balanced.

So let's pretend we are starting on a more or less virgin specimen or neglected tree. First, you must look closely at your tree and learn to notice the difference between the strength zones. The outer regions of the branches on the tree will most likely be stronger than the inner parts. This is easy to see if you examine the longer needles and the healthier growth of the shoots, etc. So, now that you know how to differentiate the strong parts from the weak ones, what do you do?

Pinching can be accomplished with thumb and forefinger as shown

With candle pinching we take the first step in balancing the new growth! By pinching the candles in the strong zones in springtime by 2/3,and up to 3/4, of their length (depending on the strength of the candle). This pinching is easily done with the nails of your thumb and index finger (see drawing). By doing this we considerably slow down the growth of those stronger candles! So if all goes well this year, next year you already have to do much less spring pinching because the balance of tree will already be much improved! Remember: only candle pinch strong candles, and leave the weak ones alone, even in the strong zone!