Here’s one more rough Japanese Black Pine.

There hasn’t been much taper on these 3 pines. A large cut to a new leader is in order for this one as well.

After cutting back. The big shoot comes off a promising new leader.

After setting the branches. We left that strong shoot on to thicken the new leader. But we have to be careful with this technique. Black Pine is vigorous and if the strong runaway shoot is left on even two years we’ll lose whatever taper we gained by cutting back to a new leader.

So this strong shoot comes off later this year, which will literally nip caliper development in the bud. Following this, trunk taper will need to come from the branches, and the proportional amount of foliage they have. Low branches will have more foliage and the trunk below them will thicken.