Carol writes:

Hello All,
This past spring I fed all of my 7 pines using a Superfeed fertilizer
ball formula by Michael Persiano. Most of the pines responded with a
great many needles to my delight. One plant, a two-needle young pine,
has three to five buds mostly at the terminals of each branch and the
center bud is now growing and is almost an inch in length. Do I treat
this new growth as I did this past spring? That is, do I discard the
buds not needed and prune back the buds that will soon be an inch long?
This is an abundance of riches, but I'm not sure how to deal with it,
and any advice is welcome and appreciated.

With thanks,
Carol Schroeder
Columbia, MD

Carol:

This is the first goal of Superfeeding: fill the palette with growth and SELECT what you want where you want it to be.

You will also need to balance the growth in the tree, and this is likely to take a few years. To begin, remove the strongest buds in the bud clusters, i.e., where you have 3-5 new buds for next spring.

Remember: bud removal is only one method to control the energy in the tree. Should you decide after bud break that something should have been removed, or that something needs to be reduced in length, simply cut back. However, attempt to cut into the new growth where new buds are most likely to regenerate.

I was working on one of my oldest White Pines yesterday and was surprised to find new buds breaking on old wood--a pleasant surprise.

Once your tree has achieved balanced growth, go the maintenance version of Superfeeding. I will soon be publishing a new article on the feeding methodology in Bonsai Today.

Cordially,

Michael Persiano
members.aol.com/iasnob

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