White Pine -- pinching off new growth?

11 years ago

We have just recently planted quite a few young White Pine and some seem a little scraggly. Would pinching off new growth help them to fill out more developing more branches? We want to give them the best start as they will be a substantial part our landscape.

As a side note, the home owners before us planted a variety of confers but they judged the distance between plants as though they imagined them staying small forever. Now that these plants are huge they are growing into each other but provide quite a haven for the various birds. The plants all look healthy and don't seem to resent the close proximity of it's neighbor.

Comments (3)

gardener365
11 years ago
No need to pinch, the trees are engineered genetically to become full on their own.

As to your side note, it doesn't make any sense to me the way it reads.

Dax
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
11 years ago
hi

we usually do NOT recommend pruning new transplants.. give them a couple years ... they have been stressed enough with planting.. and forcing them to rebud at this point is going to take energy they need to grow roots to start growing with vigor ... make sense???

at this point.. your only problem.. seems to be YOUR excpectations ... do remember that they are trees.. and it will take some years.. for them to start 'looking' like your dream ... they do NOT grow like annuals/perennials ... but unlike those.. they will be there for decades ... so relax.. and let them be themselves ...

as to your last paragraph.. i understand.. they are all jammed in there.. and as of now.. you like it ... what you should do.. is watch them in the next month.. and see how much they grow this spring.. and understand that that growth is the ANNUAL GROWTH RATE ... and they will continue at that annual rate forever... some selective removal.. WILL BE in your future .... and though you need not do anything now.. you need to wrap your head around the fact.. that they will not continue to perform... nicely.. all jammed together... or maybe they will.. lol.. who knows ... but do understand.. watching conifers grow.. really is.. slow motion gratification .... really slow.. lol ...

below is a link to an intro to conifers.. perhaps to get you thinking about how conifers grow.. in relation to other things..

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: intro
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chester_grant
11 years ago
With regard to conifers close together: I planted a row of Norway Spruce ten feet apart along one property line. I had immediate screening but they are too close together for future growth.
For that future my plan is to cut the leader down to the last visible bud (which will become next years leader) on every other spruce, ie alternating. I got this idea from nature as one tree's leader was destroyed by a spruce gall and that tree grew about three feet less than the others over a twelve month period. This way I have effective screening but the trees which will grow the most will be 20 feet apart and eventually the ones "in the middle" will be outgrown. The line of trees also looks better as its a staggered look as opposed to just a bank of similar heights.