There are as many ways to grow black pine as there are persons who grow
them! Some involve partial candle removal, some involve staggered
candle removal, etc.

I do my candle pruning in the summer, with the important thing being
that the candles need time to mature during the growing season. So, I
haven't cut mine yet!

As far as your next step, it would probably involve selecting from
among the new candles to help equalize strength. You'd want to do this
when the candles were still buds, but if they have grown out you'll
need to get going! You probably have between two and six new small
buds/candles that have appeared. They probably vary in size and number
according to their position on the tree and the strength of the
branches to which they're attached.

This is what I would do if the tree is healthy:

At the end of each twig, remove using a bud shear all but two of the
new buds/candles according to this basic plan - in the areas of
strength (apex and outer branching) choose the weaker two buds/candles;
in the areas that are typically weak (interior and lower branches)
select the two strongest buds/candles. This will help equalize
strength.

After those candles have grown out a bit and you don't feel you are in
danger of knocking them off, you could start removing last year's
needles from the base of the new candles and along the branches.

That should get you going through fall, when you would typically be
doing some needle plucking.

Hope that helps, and remember you'll get many opinions, which differ
according to personal experience, training, climate and length of
growing season, etc.

Regards,

Matt


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