? how to prune Dr. Seuss pines

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ORclimber

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Does anyone know how to maintain the puff ball pines that look like Dr. Seuss trees. The ones around here come straight from the nursery about 4' tall with about 6 dinner plate size disks of dense green. It looks like it would be difficult to get the straight lines with hand nips. Hedge shears?
 
Ok, that sounds tedious. How much green needs to be left for them to survive? If you prune the buds won't the existing needles die off eventually.
 
you dont need to remove all the buds, usualy the treminal and then cut the candles down short so they wont fully extend then the tree will put out more buds later.

also in bud pruning you can remove the domininant buds and leave 2 subordiantes to grow. it is rather fast and can be done by hand, they pop right off.


Here's a gif I found

pine1.gif
 
Japanese pruning like this is done with fingers.
But you can cheat by using a sharp hedging tool. Main prob is burnt end needles for a time.
 
I think pinch pruning or Felco's is much faster because you can throw the debris right into a sack. No picking tips out of the tree, or raking up.
 

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