Here’s another black pine that’s slowly regaining vigor. There’s plenty of new foliage on the strongest shoots, but many of the weaker branches have just a few new needles each.
Old black pine
Where there are many new needles, I can remove all of the old the needles.
Relatively strong branch
After removing the 3rd year needles
After removing last year’s needles
On the weakest branches, I removed a few of the downward facing needles and left the rest alone.
Weak branch
After removing the downward facing needles
Needle-pulling complete
I expect a number of the yellow needles to turn brown and fall off over the next month or two so the tree will likely look thinner by the end of the year. It will likely be a full year before I can start working on the branches, and possibly two before the lowest branch is strong enough for wiring or decandling.
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