Here's a couple of pages from Colorado Evergreens by Robert More.

There's also a book called Niwaki which discusses candling.

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Yes, you can just use your fingers... in fact, you probably get a better result that way as there's less likelihood of damaging needles needlessly.

As far as how much of the candle to break off, half or all... if you want a bushier, more contact look, then you want to cut half the candle off. If you just want a thinner tree, then you can break entire candles off...but realize that its not advisable to break off *every* candle from a branch tip. If you do, that branch may have difficulty continuing its growth.

i have done it only once or twice ...

and i have used my felcos ... too much resin goo to get all over my hands ... under the nails of the pinching fingers .. smells wonderful.. but a few days later.. you are still stained all black ...

just surgically get your pruners in there ... and snip away ...

on a pine ... if you remove the whole candle.. there is a chance you will kill that branch, back to the next branch ...

pines do not have dormant buds .. and you must leave some fresh growth so that buds will set at the appropriate time of year ... top pic on the right ... see the little buds ...

if you look at a given branch.. from last year.. starting at the trunk ... you can see how much it grew each year.. and come to some prediction of how much this springs growth will be ... personally.. i would not go more than half ... take a pic if my words dont make sense.. and perhaps we can edit it

copy/paste this link also:

http://www.conifersociety.org/cs2/index.php?module=htmlpages&func=display&pid=3

at xmas tree farms.. they do this with machetes .... in a few grand swipes around the tree ... all and all .. it shouldnt be all that mysterious .. IF you have the courage .. lol ..

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

ok, this all makes perfect sense! the pics help immensely!!!

ken, dont scare me with your IF..lol

Thank you for asking this question, ademink, and thanks to everyone else for the informative responses.

I have never tried to prune an evergreen but I have a spruce that I need to prune and wasn't sure how this was done.

Probably a "duh" question, but is there a certain age at which pruning should begin? I am assuming, perhaps incorrectly, that it should be avoided with freshly planted trees....?? (I need to get Colorado Evergreens - thank you, sluice, for referring to that book.)

Holly

I sure hope peeps don't get the idea from this thread that such pruning "has to" be done. This tech is only for those wanting an abnormally full, bushy plant.

+oM

i'm not sure what i'm trying to do. i can't see the trunk of this suckah...lol

it's like a giant "cousin it" which, in and of itself, isn't bad. i just didnt know if i could trim it a little and candle it and give it a bit more structure.

i thought about making my 'zebrina' bushier b/c the other specimens i saw on another thread really looked amazing like that. i like mine as-is but was just trying to explore options.

Yes indeed: thanks to all involved in this thread.

I have a bunch of Pinus mugo 'Pumilio' which I want to keep shorter than they would otherwise be, and it's about time to try candling some of them.

I have two questions: Since candling eliminates a fair percentage of that year's needles, does the pine suffer a loss of energy? (Presumably not, if people are doing it regularly.)

And am I right in assuming that the mugos the pine sawfly larvae munched on (in the second half of November!) should be given a pass on candling this spring, since they already lost 20-30% of last year's needles?

[And whoever it was on this forum who posted the isopropyl alcohol formula for killing sawfly larvae: many, many thanks!]

missing - clean the plant up (prune out branches if necessary) to get it back to a nice-looking form, and then when it's time (maybe now in zone 7 ??? or in the next few weeks at any rate) ......at a time when the candles have expanded and just after the needles begin to emerge, also "expanding" from the candles - go thru the plant and prune each candle (at the right length with relation to all the rest of your pine.

I hope this helps you.

Dax