My Japanese black pine is still in its nursery container. I was hoping to cut its candles to prevent overgrowth. I’m just not too sure how to do that. The tree is healthy and growing pretty well this summer. Do you have instructions as to how I should cut its candles? Would it remain healthy after doing so?
Depends: decandling can be stressful and one usually heavily fertilizes the tree throughout the growing season before doing it, to make sure the tree is in its best condition.
That said, I may be wrong but it seems to me at this stage what you’re lacking is not the knowledge about how to decandle, but rather on why you should do it.
“Overgrowth” for a tree in early development stage doesn’t mean too much: actually you want it in place in some of the branches in order to thicken the trunk as part of the initial styling. How and what to decandle in these early stages is therefore a strategic decision, and you should IMO pay way more attention to that than just on how to hold the scissors…