Easier way to get denser pine tree growth?
 

Hi. I'm familiar with the laborious technique of pruning the many
hundreds of candles on a pine tree in order to increase the outer
branching. I've done it on other trees in the past, but I'm no longer
interested in doing that on some trees where I currently live.

I've seen two forms of the same white pine species available for sale in
various nurseries. For equal height trees, one form has 2-3 times as
many branch nodes along its trunk than the other form. Typiclly the
price for the denser form is about 3x the price of the regular form.
I've asked some nursery employees how it's done, but nobody seems to
know anything bout it.

A picture is worth a thousand words. Please see the sketches I made at
http://home.earthlink.net/~zymatix/i...eTreeNodes.bmp

I would like to do it myself. How is it done? Can't be by topping, could
it? I've read that topping of a pine results in an unnatural looking
multiple-leader tree.

Perhaps it involves the application of hormones at points along the
trunk? If so, then what is the chemical name?

There is nothing published on the web that describes this trick.