Pine pruning: rules for crown formation

Pine remains one of the most common plants used to decorate the site during landscaping. A properly formed crown will look neat, and small pines will turn into one of the main decorative elements, and at the same time will make the atmosphere on the site pleasant and healthy. For this, pine pruning must be carried out in a timely manner: this is not a very difficult job, but it will have to be done regularly.

Content:

• Why you need to prune pine
• Pine pruning rules
• Pine decorative pruning
• Pine rejuvenation with pruning

Why you need to prune pine

Pine as a whole is a fairly unpretentious plant, but you need to know a few basic rules for care and transplantation. If you decide to settle a young pine seedling, it is important to take care that the roots do not remain exposed even for a few minutes during transplantation: because of this, they may die. A year after planting, you can start forming the crown of a young tree.

The plant can be kept in its natural shape by only sanitary pruning.

This is the name of the removal of old and diseased branches, which is necessary for the tree to remain healthy. However, in this case, there is a danger to other plants due to the shade formed due to the dense crown. You can form a hedge from pine or use it to decorate the site, timely pruning allows you to keep the plant beautiful and healthy.

It is not recommended to allow the plant height to exceed 180 cm; it is better to prune when the pine tree has reached a height of no more than one and a half meters.

If the roof grows, it will be difficult to cut it, and on the site this will lead to additional problems. The territory cannot be turned into a forest, it has many other functions, and excessive growth of green spaces must not be allowed.

In addition, in advanced cases, pruning is dangerous: it is stress for the plant, and if a large amount of green mass is removed, the pine tree may die. Do not delay the implementation of sanitary procedures, even if at first glance they seem difficult.

Pine pruning rules

In order for pruning to bring the pine not harm, but benefit, it must be carried out in accordance with the following requirements:

• The procedure is carried out when young shoots began to appear on the pine - the so-called growths or candles. When they begin to grow, they contain the embryos of future needles, it is important to remove the growth when it has already grown to its maximum, but the needles have not yet begun to fluff. Coniferous trees wake up after winter quite late, the active growth of new shoots will begin only in May. Because of this, pruning is only recommended in June.
• For pruning, simple garden shears with a long blade are used. Processing begins from the top of the tree, the skeletal branches are cut off separately, while leaving small hemp in height (no more than 5 cm). Subsequently, they will grow, but the total annual growth will not exceed three centimeters.
• If, after the spring pruning, the candles still gave stronger growths, you cannot cut the pine branch on the needles. In this case, the green needles will quickly turn yellow, which will make the tree look sloppy.Each needle lives for more than one year, but several years, so initially incorrect pruning can cause serious harm, and it will not be possible to fix it quickly.
• The pruning site is processed with copper sulfate, if it was necessary to inflict serious wounds on the plant, then they are covered with pitch. This will avoid the ingress of pathogenic bacteria and the onset of putrefactive processes.

The first pruning is carried out in the spring, and at the end of summer, additional crown adjustments can be made.

It is important that the trimming tool is clean and very sharp for a neat cut. Otherwise, it can become a source of infection for the entire plant. In just one cut, no more than one third of the green mass can be removed, otherwise the damage to the plant will be irreparable.

Pine decorative pruning

Pine pruning is carried out not only for sanitary purposes to limit the height of the crown.

Many are attracted by the neat crowns that can be achieved with correct decorative trim... Pine trees with a decorative crown can be used to create hedges, walkways, etc.

How to choose a tree for these purposes:

• For this procedure, it is better to choose cloudy days so that brown spots do not begin to appear on the needles, which occur when moisture evaporates.
• One of the benefits of pine is that you don't need to buy a seedling specially.
• Sometimes you can just dig a suitable sprout in the forest and plant it on the site.
• In the shade of large trees, such seedlings grow slowly, and if properly transplanted to a new place, they will quickly begin to develop, actively giving new shoots.
• In this case, it will be much easier to form the crown, since you do not have to remove a large number of branches.
• Usually, small pines are chosen for transplanting, the age of which does not exceed 3-4 years.

In nurseries, they cost about 300 to 1000 rubles, in the forest you can simply pick up a young plant, which will still be difficult to grow because of the shade of large trees. Large seedlings for transplant it is better not to choose, as they do not tolerate a change of place and can get sick for a whole year. Decorative pruning is usually carried out in such a way that the crown retains an even pyramidal shape, however, thanks to it, the pine will look more fluffy and spreading, turning into a real decoration of the site.

Pine rejuvenation with pruning

One of the goals of pruning is to rejuvenate the old tree, since over time, the growth zone will still tend to the ends of the shoots. If you do not interfere with this process, you can get almost naked long branches devoid of needles. This is done as follows:

• In autumn or winter, the ends of already bare old branches are cut to awaken dormant buds.
• Too large old branches are deleted, on which there are no more points of growth.
• In the spring, new shoots will appear on the remaining part of the branch, which will then turn into full-fledged shoots.

It is important to cut the branches so that at least part of the needles still remains on them, otherwise the branch will simply completely dry out.

Thus, you can turn an old pine into a practically new tree with young bright green needles. Rejuvenating pruning is carried out approximately once every three years, thanks to which the tree will look good and will take its rightful place in the landscape composition of the site.

Pine is an unpretentious plant habitual in the Russian climate, which is very easy to care for.

She is able to become one from yard decorationsit can also be dressed up for the new year if you don't want to cut down a living tree to install in your home. Taking care of the tree and its timely pruning will make the pine beautiful and well-groomed, which will allow you to harmoniously and neatly arrange your summer cottage.

More information can be found in the video.