To pinch means to reduce new growth from the tree. The pinching is carried out on small branches, the buds, or the leaves.
Method 1
This consists of maintaining the tree in its current state, that is, it preserves the existing profile. Here you pinch to balance the strength of the small branches, the buds, and the candles . . .
The objective of pinching to balance the strength of the branches is to maintain the shape of the tree and its health. It stops weak branches from becoming weaker and die, and strong branches from growing without reserve. When the tree is styled it is necessary to balance the power of all the branches to be able to increase its density.
Method 2
The second method makes it possible to restyle branches or the tree. In this case you pinch to encourage the tree to produce new growth to rebuild it.
Pinching to encourage bud back is a very important concept since the aim is to produce buds facing towards the interior of the tree, not simply towards the periphery. The goal is to make the branch setting denser.
You don’t always have to pinch in the same way. The techniques can be combined!
Balancing the strength of the branches
Deciduous trees
So long as you don’t want to increase the thickness or length of a branch you can leave it to grow. Just prune the growths that exceed the profile of the crown. This is just a small maintenance cut carried out on trees that you want to maintain as they are. This also makes it possible to balance the strength of the tree by slowing down growth that is too vigorous. This is the same technique that is used on the trees that carry their leaves all year and, with additional modifications, for pines and other conifers.
In fact the techniques are almost the same; the differences we apply are rather artificial. It’s very important to plan what you want to do with a tree at each stage of its life, decide whether or not you can do it and how to achieve a successful outcome.
Note
An error that many beginners make is that they immediately want to have trees that look like a bonsai in exhibition. With this goal in mind, they prune or trim without stopping. The result is that their trees don’t grow, remaining eternally small and weak. Let them grow, thereby enlarging your trees! Prune and trim them later!
Junipers
If you want to balance the strength of the branches and increase their density, with the tip of the fingers pinch off the ends of the growing buds that exceed the profile of the tree.
In this manner you will cause the multiplication of the growths at the ends of the branches. If you do the same thing with scissors you will cause the drying of these ends and that will give a shabby and old aspect to the tree.
Pines
It is necessary to seek to balance in the strength of the branches, that is, give them all the same appearance. The technique consists of pinching the candles before the needles start to spread, at the time of the first growth of spring. If you do not apply this technique the interior parts — especially those of the lower branches — will weaken, then disappear.
It is therefore important to watch the growth of the candles with vigilance. Pinch them just as they have lengthened to their maximum, and before the needles shoot.
This takes place at the end of April to the end of May depending on the local climate. But it is necessary to check your pines every day. Candles don’t develop at exactly the same moment. Initially they start at of the top of the tree and at the ends of strong branches.
The candles of average strength will follow and finally the weaker candles will develop.
On pines you will always pinch the strong candles before the weak; if you don’t do this the tree will decay. This is how the candles develop on pines:
STRONG CANDLES
MEDIUM CANDLES
WEAK CANDLES
Pinch the candles with your fingers immediately before the needles emerge.
You can distinguish the strength of the candles according to their diameter, and size. The strength of the branches is recognised by their ramification and the number and strength of their needles. Thus the pinching is not carried out all at once, but will depend on the stage of development of the candles.
To balance the strength of the tree, pinch more of the strong candles, by removing approximately two thirds. Pinch the medium candles by half, and the weak ones by just a third or not at all when they are really weak. Always start with the strongest and finish with the weakest.
The diagram is valid for all our pines including the 5 needle pines. The work is different on the black pine of Japan and the Aleppo pine, since you have to do the opposite by pinching the average candles first. But this is work for specialists.
Conifers in general
On a mature tree for which we want to preserve the general aspect (before an exhibition, for example), it will be necessary to prune the ends of the small branches that exceed its profile. In this manner the growth will be temporarily slowed down, without increasing the density of the tree too much.
Do this so that the strongest branches of the tree won’t grow too much and don’t monopolise all the strength of the tree. Similarly, slow down the strong growths at the ends of the branches to balance the strength between the growth of each branch. You will always eliminate the small badly positioned branches, which grow upwards, downwards and towards the interior of the tree.
