unless you provide a pic.. or describe your goal.. your question can not be answered ...

on pines.. in general ....if you cut off all the buds on a given branch.. that branch dies ... back to a sister branch with buds ...

the alternative is candle pruning of pines .. google that term .. and see if that is what you want to do ... before we type up long dissertations about such ...

how about a pic.. and a description of your goal

ken

Short answer probably not the best time. Sap flow is stronger among other issues.
That being said, you can do whatever you like. I have just recently pruned a swiss mountain pine (P. mugo pumilio).

This was for a bonsai project. Its a small tree in a pot. $5 on the discount rack at Lowes. I don't know if you can see the pruning scars in the pic below, but I pruned back pretty hard to clean it up and make it into a bonsai type tree. It was a dense ball when i bought it.

To answer your question. No i didn't see insects attracted to the wounds.

Now as Ken said---we don't know your intentions. We don't know the size of your tree. Mine was small in a pot. $5** Yours could be a giant and priceless.

Also note that this is what I did. Posters on the bonsai board and on this conifer forum would probably not advise to prune in summer. I was getting a head start on a long term project

I am the master of my plants as are you of yours. They usually survive despite my help. My intentions where to have some fun, relieve some stress, doing what I love to do. What are your intentions with your tree?

qwade

Generally it's advised to candle prune pines, after the candles have elongated, but before they have hardened. This is to control growth but still allow new growth buds to form for next year on the new candles. If you prune at other times of the year, you cut off the growth points on that branch. So it depends on the look you want to achieve.

Herman,you might want to search the web using Niwaki as a key word. http://www.niwaki.com/ has a good book on the subject,also he has some videos on FB. hope this helps!
Rob

This post was edited by hungrymind on Fri, Sep 12, 14 at 12:00

guys thanks for your thoughts. this is a tree i planted in 1998. it is 20-25 feet tall. it was pruned carelessly by a landscaper. besides the hack job i was concerned that heavy pruning in summer could spell trouble.

ill look for a pic.

i have the niwaki book and have chatted with jake hobson!

much appreciated replies. thanks.

Thanks again folks. I could not find a pic of this specific tree but it is the snow covered plant in this pic on far right.

The P. Thunbergii in the center is a plant that I've been torturing with the help of Jake Hobson. It's grown in quite a bit since this pic was taken last March.

In this garden I'm growing P. Palustris, densiflora, strobus, thunbergii, bungeana and you can see a pair of Juniperus rigida that were recently topped by my landscape professional

why not post the pic.. you posted in your other post ... on the gallery side ... not that its the best ... snow covered and long range ...

ken

same pic Ken

I have a few nice thunbergii cults. I'll take a few pics and post.

I have a sweet lil 'Kotobuki' been in a pot 5-6 years still small but super charming.

I bought 5 specie thunbergii when i first started the garden (1998). 2 got shaded out and removed, i gave one away but the other two are semi impressive. They were about 3 foot tall when I grabbed them for $8 each.

This post was edited by herman_neutics on Sun, Sep 14, 14 at 20:14