All conifers growing in the garden require periodic pruning, but you can create real natural masterpieces on your own personal plot... If you are just trying yourself in the role of a gardener, it is advisable to start with simple forms, gradually introducing elements of creativity into such fascinating activity like pruning conifers in the garden.
Basic rules for pruning ephedra
Although conifers for the garden often develop quickly and symmetrically without any outside interference, it is possible that dry and twisted twigs will appear, which will spoil appearance wood. As a rule, major trimming is not performed in such cases. It is only necessary to carry out thinning and remove the dried branches of conifers. This should be done in accordance with a number of important rules:
- pruning should be carried out no earlier than the next year after planting conifers;
- more than 30% of the green mass of conifers should not be cut off in one go;
- during the execution of work, you do not need to leave bare branches - they will simply dry out later;
- carry out trimming with gloves and special clothing, which will then have to be thrown away. Resin from coniferous trees is not washed off;
- it is necessary to cut conifers for the garden with a well-sharpened tool, which is wiped after each tree.
In general, you should always focus on the structure of the ephedra crown. In some cases, her haircut will require only the most minimal work.
Timing of pruning conifers
By choosing the right time for pruning, you can activate plant growth and the establishment of additional buds. The optimal time for most conifers for the garden (thuja, juniper, dwarf pines, etc.) is March - April. At this time, new shoots are removed, which spoil the appearance of the ephedra. It is recommended to cut the shoots to about half. You can remove them entirely if the tree has already acquired the desired shape and size.
For varieties of conifers with spring flowering and other plants, it is recommended summer pruning- in August. For plants with early dates vegetation (larch, cypress), it is better to schedule work in November.
Conifer pruning technique
Normal development and beautiful forms of conifers in to a greater extent depends on how correct the pruning is. The most commonly used technique is called a "cut to the kidney", it is performed as follows:
- the inclination of the cut to the kidney should be 45 degrees, the lower edge slightly rise above the base by about 2 millimeters;
- cutting very low, the healing of the "wound" may take too long, as a result of which the kidney will dry out or give a weak shoot;
- too high a cut will lead to asymmetry, drying of bacon;
- lifting the branch, it is necessary to cut it on the outer bud. On the inner bud, a cut is made if the branch is tilted;
- side cut can be performed when it is necessary to rotate a branch in a tier;
- when shortening shoots, the length of the fat should not be less than two centimeters.
Pruning conifers is a creative process
Pruning conifers for crown formation is a very long and painstaking, individual and creative process.
The world knows great amount different types decorative conifers. But today we will consider the most simple ways trimming and pinching common wild trees and pines.
Many pine and spruce seedlings have grown on our site and near it, as well as on ditches and along the road. Someone leaves them to grow in their place, but many transplant them to a plot or an adjacent green area. We did so too. Moreover, the seedlings were transplanted both in the spring and in the fall. The result was equally positive.
The only thing that must be maintained is the previous orientation of the plant to the north and south. .
To this end, we tie a small rope before transplanting onto a branch directed to the north (or south). After that, it will be impossible to make a mistake. As a result, we got a survival rate of 100%.
One year gave our trees to take root in a new place. The entire season was abundantly watered over the needles. A year later, when new young shoots appeared, they made the first pinch.
What is the difference between pruning conifers and pinching?
Pruning conifers, regardless of the type of plant, means cutting or sawing off a branch or part of a tree trunk of different ages. They try to cut off young trees that have reached 3 years old. But you can do it later: even at the age of 10 or more.
The fact is that under the influence of unstable climatic conditions in the process of growth of the tree, some of the branches may be damaged. Or you may not like their direction, which can also change over time, for example, under the influence of neighboring plants.
Pinching conifers is the breaking out of all or part of a young shoot, which is often called a candle in pine.
What is pinching and pruning of conifers for?
The main task of pinching is to make the branches of plants (where there are needles) thicker and fluffier.
If you engage only in pinching, but not as usual, they break off one third of the growth, and removing most lateral growth and completely removing vertical shoots, you can greatly slow down the growth of the plant.
For small gardens with plots of 6-8 acres, this is quite justified.
Pruning conifers helps to give the desired shape to the tree to a greater extent. Those branches that cannot be cut with pruning shears are removed with a garden saw.
The cut is processed with a knife so that the saw cut and the hemp are not visible.
It is advisable to do this procedure in the spring, the wound heals faster. You can repeat pruning several times per season. Moreover, whoever is lazy, the place of the cut may not be processed with anything. The escaped resin will protect the plant.
In the above photos, our pines, which have been pinched for 4 years.
Until their lower branches are cut off. Now that the trees have reached a height of 2.5-3 meters, it will be possible to start forming them. To make a ball-shaped crown, it is necessary to cut off the lower branches and remove the central stem shoot. After that, we will begin to form a crown from symmetrically located radial shoots. A further task, pinching young shoots every year, to get branching in the horizontal plane, as in the example in the photo.
By controlling the length of the broken off part of the shoot, you can achieve uniform growth of branches, giving the tree the necessary shape.
Spruce shaping
Spruce can also be shaped into a ball (see photo).
But more often spruce is used to grow hedges. Over time, when, after repeated pinching, they become more or less dense, you can go on to a haircut. In this case, the top and sides of the fence can be formed at will.
Since in this case there is a large amount of work to be done, special electric scissors are used.
By the way, note that the worker in the photo is cutting, not pinching, young shoots on a pine tree. Many articles write: in order not to spoil the appearance, you need to pinch the candles. We did just that. But when there is a large front of work - apparently not before. Our pines will now also be cut.
Garden bonsai
Pines are softer and more flexible than spruces (especially in spring). Therefore, curly haircuts and work with branches to give them a bizarre and unusual shape are done on pines.
In order to direct the branch in the desired direction, wire and stretch marks are used. With stretch marks, everything is clear: the branch is pulled down and to the side with the help of a rope, pulling and driving a peg with the second end of the rope into the ground. How the wire is attached to the branch can be seen in the photo.
Bending the branch together with the wire, we achieve the required position. This should be done in the spring. The wire is removed in late July - early August, so that the bark has time to recover from the influence of the wire tormentor before winter.
Recommendations for the care of conifers
Every spring, remove dry needles from the branches, especially in the thickened part of the plants, where there is not enough ventilation.
After pinching, it is advisable to spray over the crown of the tree with a 7% urea solution. It will be both a top dressing and a remedy for fungus.
Do not forget to water the plants with water along the needles in the spring, since in the strong sun there is intense evaporation of moisture from the needles, and the roots of the tree cannot yet absorb moisture from the frozen soil. This leads to wilting and yellowing of the needles.
Conclusion
Pruning and pinching is a laborious and painstaking annual activity. But the results of the work bring joy to themselves and their loved ones.
Good luck to everyone in your work and see you soon on the pages. follows.
P.S. If you do not have the energy or time to carry out these works with coniferous trees, specialists will come to the rescue. Already formed plants can be bought in numerous nurseries such as the Imperial Garden near Moscow (see photo).
Buy pine seedlings
Buy pine seedlings
Conifers on the site - important element design, as they are evergreen and decorative all year round... Pines, as well as spruces, junipers, thuja, are favorites of landscape gardening compositions. They are very hardy, showy plants (trees and shrubs) with a beautiful crown, trunk and branches. A variety of shapes and sizes, a large species composition of pines allows them to be widely used in landscape compositions.
Luxury giants
When choosing a pine tree for your garden, you need to know exactly its size in adulthood. Tall forms are only suitable for large gardens and forest parks. Not all species are hardy enough. In our climatic zone the most popular are the following types.
Scots pine- a widespread species that grows in our forests, reaching a height of 25-30 m. young age has an ovoid volumetric crown, in an adult - a high trunk with a hemispherical crown at the top. Long dark green needles, beautiful shape crowns, yellow-brown color of the trunk, absolute stability favor the use of this species in compositions.
Weymouth pine(the original species reaches 40-50 m in height) has a wide-pyramidal crown with beautiful greenish-bluish needles. It is mainly used in parks and forest parks.
Siberian cedar pine has a height of up to 40 m, a dense cone-shaped crown, beautiful, collected in bunches of needles, is characterized by increased decorativeness, forms large cones with edible nuts (begins bearing fruit at 35-40 years of age), is often used as an accent or family tree in the garden.
Pines of European origin differ in less frost resistance and more exactingness to agricultural technology, the height of which ranges from 10 to 50 m: s. Korean, p. European cedar, s. black. These highly decorative species are used less frequently. A spectacular volumetric umbrella crown has a. Pinia, very popular in the Mediterranean, but in our climate it is absolutely not hardy.
Medium-sized forms became widespread known species pines: c. the ordinary "Waterreri" has a height of 7.5 m and a volumetric crown width of up to 4 m, long bluish needles; With. ordinary "Fastigiata" reaches a height of 15 m, forms a columnar crown with a greenish-bluish crown; With. black Austrian "Nana" up to 3 m high, the crown has an almost spherical shape with dark green needles and a diameter of about 3 m.
Medium-sized mountain pine
Cute midgets
For small and medium-sized gardens, undersized and dwarf species and forms of pine trees are perfect. They are planted on the lawn, in coniferous mixborders, in the rock gardens. As a rule, these pines have the appearance of a shrub, and the shape is hemispherical or ovoid, that is, multi-stem. Many types and forms of such pines are known.
S. mountain - natural view growing on elephants of mountains in Western Europe, having a height of 1.5 to 12 m, multi-peaked dense crown. Its forms are used: "Gnome" has an almost spherical shape 2 m high and wide, short dark green needles up to 4 cm long; "Columnaris" is a shrub up to 2.5 m high and up to 3 m wide, with dense long needles; "Pug", "Mugus" - up to 1.5-2 m in height with a spherical crown; "Mini Pug" - 40-60 cm high with a cushion-shaped crown with a diameter of up to 1 m.
Dwarf mountain pine
Very decorative dwarf forms With. Weymouth, with beautiful blue needles: "Pumila" has a rounded crown shape, height and width of about 1 m, the needles reach 10 cm and have a silvery-green color; "Radiata" is characterized by a squat crown shape with a diameter and height of up to 1.5 m with needles 7-9 cm of a greenish-bluish color.
An alternative to the cedar (cedar pine) on the site can be with. low, or dwarf cedar, which looks like a loose, creeping shrub 3-5 m high, forming cones with nuts: the "Glauka" form with a height of 1-1.5 m and a diameter of about 3 m with gray-blue needles is widespread.
With. the common one has dwarf forms: "Globoza viridis" has an ovoid or rounded crown with a height and width of 1-1.5 m, long, up to 10 cm green needles. With. black Austrian also has a super-dwarf form - "Pygmea" with a dense spherical crown 0.3-0.5 m high.
We form the crown
Pines are not very suitable for curly haircuts because of their long needles, but they are often used to form a curly crown or create a bonsai-style tree. Impossible to imagine Japanese garden without artificially formed pines. In Japan, for these purposes, they use c. small-flowered with dense needles collected in bunches 4-6 cm long.This species is used both for the formation of dwarf forms in the bonsai style, grown in containers, and for the creation of park bonsai forms, lowering the height of natural forms from 5-12 to 3-4 m Using special techniques, the branches are given a horizontal shape, sometimes the trunk is bent. Unfortunately, this type of pine is not winter-hardy in our climate. You can use with as a substitute. ordinary.
It is much easier to create an artificial shape using c. mountain. One of the techniques is a tree with "clouds" at the ends of the branches. To do this, pine trunks are freed from the needles, leaving spherical "clouds" or flattened "balls" on the tops, the shape of which is maintained by breaking off unnecessary shoots.
Another technique for maintaining the spherical shape of the bush and its compactness for tall forms of mountain pine is the annual breaking off of young shoots in June by half (when the needles are still adjacent to the shoot). In this case, the bush becomes spherical, neat and low.
Finally, there are a variety of artificial (ready-to-sell) forms of pine trees, such as a ball on a trunk. The height of the trunk can vary from 1 to 2 m, and the diameter of the crown - from 0.3 to 1 m. Such interesting forms are created by grafting on p. common pine mountain.
We plant and take care of
Pine trees are planted at a distance of 1.5 to 4 m, depending on the size of the mature plants. The depth of the planting pit ranges from 0.8 to 1.2 m. Pines prefer sandy and sandy loam soils with mandatory drainage on heavy soils. The approximate composition of the planting mixture: turf, sand or clay in a ratio of 2: 1. It is important to remember that planting material must be necessarily with a closed root system (with a lump of earth) for better survival. The best landing time is early spring, late summer - early autumn. Pines reproduce vegetatively (only by grafting) or by seeds (only species forms).
Almost all pines are unpretentious, fairly hardy and winter-hardy plants in the garden. Therefore, caring for them is not difficult. Although pines are drought-resistant and tolerate prolonged drought well, nevertheless, dwarf forms and all recently planted plants require regular (in dry and hot weather - twice a week) watering. To protect the roots from overheating and preserve moisture in the soil, additional nutrition, weed control, and maintain decorativeness, mulching is advisable trunk circle(diameter from 0.8 to 1.5 m) around the trunks with decorative chips.
Gallery:
Our native pine ( Pinus sylvestris)- a grateful and wonderful tree in all respects, quite suitable for shaping and shearing. Its main advantage is its rapid growth. For three to four years, the appearance of the formed pine changes significantly, which cannot be achieved from spruce or, say, fir in such a period. And after five years, from three-year-old seedlings, you can get a lush, stocky and almost mother hedge.
In order to restrain the growth of the pine and form a dense, compact crown, it is only necessary to break off young growths by 1/3 - 2/3 of the length every year.
Usually, the best time for this - May, the main thing is that the shoots do not have time to woody and are flexible enough.
Breaking is preferable to pruning, since in this case the young needles remaining below remain intact.
And when pruning, these needles are inevitably injured and, growing up, their tips will be brown, as if burnt. This is not critical and is only noticeable at close range. It does not harm the pine tree, but for the owner it is a psychologically uncomfortable look.
If you decide to break off - do not forget about gloves! After this procedure, it is very difficult to wash your hands from the tar juice.
If you are ready for a simple but annual procedure for breaking a pine tree, then in the same way you can for enough short term to form a fluffy compact Christmas tree for a small garden.
It must be remembered that you cannot skip the pinching. One year of admission, of course, will not make the difference, but in the future, by starting the molding, you can get a long unintelligible evergreen freak.
However, having cut off all the lower "formed" once branches, the freak can eventually turn into a slender fire-barreled ship pine, provided that he has a strong central conductor that has escaped from captivity.
It is just as simple and quick enough to form an ordinary bonsai tree from a pine tree. To give a wild natural look and characteristic "curvature" of the trunk, that is, to imitate a tree that adapts to natural adversity and cataclysms (winds, hurricanes, droughts, rockfalls, etc.), you can do this:
1. Initially plant the seedling at an angle. You can put a stone next to it, that is, give the appearance that the pine had to free itself from under the stone.
Then, gradually, as the branches grow (but when they are still quite flexible - without waiting for their final lignification), form the curvature of the trunk: either by tying the branches to the supports, or by hanging a load from the branch in order to bend it in the right place.
It is better to do this during the period of least sap flow - in winter or in March.
To restrain growth and give splendor to the needles, pinch or break off young shoots, as described above.
Extra branches that interfere with the desired image - remove, guided by common sense, intuition and your ideas about the beauty of a crooked pine tree.
Search and see how you can more pictures on the Internet, books, go to an exhibition of bonsai, - do not be lazy to work not only with your hands and pruning shears, but also with other organs - with your eyes, head, soul ...
All this will take from 6 to 8 years, but as a result it will be possible to get a real "wild" bonsai-like tree, which can be admired all year round and proudly shown to guests.
Example 1. Hedge
We have planted the same Scots pine seedlings along the road on both sides. On the one hand, the pines were allowed to grow freely, without touching them, and on the other, they annually broke off young growths by 2/3. After four years, the intact pines were twice the height and width of those that were formed by breaking off. Formed pines became dense, compact, low.
The initial growth of pines during planting was about 1 m. After 4 years, untouched pines grew up to 4 meters, freely spreading branches up to 2 - 2.5 meters wide.
Formed pines rose to 1.7 - 1.9 m, while forming a dense and dense crown, remaining within 1 - 1.5 m in diameter.
Example 2. Pine is a tapeworm.
On the site there were several pines - self-planters. One of them began to do the pinching every year.
The hostess Ekaterina Moskaleva (Kirov) reports:
We do the pinching at the beginning of June, when the growths are already beginning to stretch, but they are still quite soft. I pinch with my hands; if the husband is taken, then he cuts off with a pruner (but then it is very difficult to wash him). Throughout the crown, each candle grows by about 2/3 or even more - I leave no more than 3 cm. It turns out quickly, about an hour. This year (that is, already in the past, in the 14th) they put a ladder right on top of a pine tree to pinch the top. And before that, they got it. Here is our "plucked" pine tree (for the last three years), and next to it is the one that we did not touch. And this is how the branches of plucked and not plucked pines look like.
Example 3. Single pine, in which the molding was abandoned.
About 12 years ago, a 3-year-old Scots pine seedling was planted at the western wall of the house. For several years, it was regularly plucked in the above way, because of which the pine remained low - up to 2 m. A few years later, as a result of an unfortunate (for a pine) incident, its lower branches were broken off on one side. Then we decided to stop pinching. We cleaned the trunk from the bottom to the height of uniform branching and let it grow freely as it pleases. For three years, it has grown to 3.5 m, while maintaining a rather narrow crown. For comparison - pines as a loved one pet... And secondly, as in the case of a haircut / pinching, it is a kind of stress reliever and nerves calming! I'm telling you exactly!
Text: Natalia Melnikova, with the participation of Ekaterina Moskaleva and Alexander Sapelin (illustrations)
I always wanted to decorate the site with conifers, especially the site is not even, but located on a hillside, with a large difference in elevation, with platforms different heights... Not thinking that someday I will grow vegetables, I planted it in different years thuja, junipers, mountain pine, white fir, Siberian cedar pine. From the forest she brought common junipers - male and female specimens. All are pleasing to the eye. But my special passion is Scots pine, which does not need to be introduced to anyone, it does not need a description, because in our region is known to everyone from childhood.
With all the love for this majestic and useful tree I can’t let it grow like in a pine forest. How to find a way out? How to properly restrain the growth of branches, because in another year the growth of pines can reach a meter ...
Pine trees grow in a variety of soils, most often sandy, rocky or peaty. They are undemanding to air humidity and soil richness, adapted to various temperature conditions.
The blue sky peeps through the openwork crown, the needles warmed by the sun and resinous branches exude a tart aroma ... This aroma is especially felt in hot weather. Pine is a rather light-loving tree, so its trunks at the bottom are completely devoid of branches, just the branches die off as soon as less light begins to flow through the crown from above than they need.
Another important difference between pine is that it can only grow in clean air. After all, it is the gas and dust of the city that disrupt the vital processes of the pine - photosynthesis and gas exchange. That is why the pines planted several years ago along the busy streets of our patriarchal sleepy regional center at the imperial command of the then governor from Peter Slyunyaev are dying. At that time, not a single expert-expert was found in his entourage who would explain how, where and why it is necessary to plant pines in this way. The official's trail is gone, but the blackened skeletons of pines are a monument to the next bungling, ignorance and sycophancy ... But we will not talk about the bad. All the same, the Kostroma land cannot be imagined without a pine tree.
We planted only 11 pine trees on the site, three of them are miniature from the bottom. There is a special conversation about them at the end. And the rest were planted in spring and autumn in different time and came to the conclusion that the best time to board is early autumn, September. The tree manages to gain a foothold in a new place and survive stress, although the spring method takes place, but then you need to hurry up, plant as soon as the thawed earth allows. Well, the whole process of delivering the dug out pine should take 15-20 minutes.
The pines have taken root, started to grow, and the growth in the year of planting will always be less than usual. Stress, however !!!
When we were planting, we did not think that we would build a small winter house on this place. There is nothing terrible from such a neighborhood, tk. pillar foundation. One of the pines almost died, I had to cut off the central shoot, but then suddenly the side branch rose and took the place of the central branch. This can be seen in the photo:
The cut was made over the one-year increment. 2-3-year old pines take root most easily, they grow faster and outrun their older sisters. Sometimes the ugliest specimens align, become irresistible. Before you start shaping a pine tree, you need to determine how high the tree is needed, and also understand if you want a pine tree in japanese style or just fluffy conifer tree... I think it's better to show it with photo examples. In the photo, the buds of Siberian cedar pine, in the ordinary one, everything is the same. Sorry, I just didn't find a photo.
Pine buds are young shoots in their infancy. At the tops of the branches, they are located alone or in whorls of several pieces. They grow actively in May. By pinching young shoots in early summer, you can shape a pine tree depending on your tastes. If you break off the buds less than 1/3 of the length, then we will not restrain the growth of the tree much. But even in this case, the pine will branch more actively, more buds will form at the ends of the branches than it would have been without the pinching.
In the photo on the left, a pine tree in which all shoots were shortened by 1/2 the length in June 2014. As a result, by August 2014, new kidneys were formed, there are a lot of them. The picture shows dozens of shoots when zoomed in as early as June 2015. Last season, I did not deliberately break them off. From the 2016 season, the pinching will be annual and stronger as the height of the pine tree is already 3 meters. This pine tree is planted on swampy place, which had to be drained by digging drainage ditches, although they did not completely solve the problem of spring flooding. But we got rid of marsh plants, brought out horse sorrel, buttercup, mowing the lawn. They did not expect that the pine tree would like it here so much. And the thing is that when planted at a young age, pines adapt well to the conditions of the site, depending on the level groundwater developing root system, deep or superficial.
In the foreground and on the right are 2 one-year-old pines. Only the one in the center, I pinched in 2014 by 2 cm, and did not touch the right one. So she gave a huge increase, in the summer I will begin to form.
If you think you need a bonsai-style pine, then remove up to 2/3 of the length of the buds, or even more. The growth of the tree in this case is well controlled. Therefore, you need to decide on the desired height.
I tried it on several pine trees at the edge of the forest. Here are a couple of pine trees after being pinched for two seasons:
A month later, at this place, we met the hunters, while I was photographing the bear footprint on the clay, and my husband was talking with the huntsman, my pine tree attracted the attention of the “lover” of nature with the childish face of the Kostroma paratrooper:
Before I could blink an eye, he broke off the top of his head ... I ask: "Why ???" In response: "Duck, I will plant!" ... No comment ...
But all pine wood is permeated with the smallest resin passages. If you cut a wound on a tree, a fragrant amber resin will emerge from the resin passages and quickly flood it. The tree itself applies a plaster that possesses bactericidal action... The resin containing turpentine is secreted by the pine tree, ozonation of the air occurs, which is why staying in the pine forest is so beneficial for us.
Pine needles live for a full 2 years, the loss of old needles with such a pinching will not be noticeable. And then the state of the formed pine will show the degree of air purity on the site.
In the spring of 2015, three bizarre pine trees were planted, which had been trying for several years to grow on a railway embankment two kilometers from us. Trains rarely run there, but a locomotive-mower passes through to keep the tracks in order.
This was in April.
The pines were planted on an artificially created heap of sand and gravel mixture... Such a bedding on both sides of our house, its area is large, but we are already growing lilacs on it, and Japanese quince, and hosts, and oregano, and even strawberries. I didn’t pinch the new settlers, I regretted it, everyone got accustomed well over the past summer.
The buds of these pines are bad, so there is nothing to cut off at the top, and the “extra” branch looking to the right will show itself this season. She will rise and get stronger, then we'll see. With pines best principle- "DO NOT CUT".
It is necessary to pinch pine shoots with gloves, the resin is poorly washed. The pinching procedure should be carried out when the shoots stop growing, and the young needles begin to separate from the rod. Then by the end of summer the pine will have laid many new buds for the next year. I would be glad if my modest experience is useful to one of the seven-day students. After all, I was faced with the fact that it is difficult to understand how, when and how much to pinch off a pine tree. But the main thing is what will come of it ?! Here is everything with spruce and it is always easy. And from such a button that next to the tree in the April forest:
Here is such a beauty:
She will not be afraid of frost or hot sun / unlike the expensive overseas pines /, she will gratefully grow with any plants nearby / unlike a Christmas tree /. Will give you joy and health.
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