Candles - New shoots on pine trees that emerge from the branch tips.
Canopy - The foliage that makes up the outer and upper parts of a tree, or group of trees.
Collected tree - A tree collected from the wild and transplanted into a bonsai pot.
CANDLES
What Are "Candles"? - A candle or candles (plural) is the descriptive term used for the soft new needle growth on your pine; ...
Pruning candles back to the node will always produce mature, typical wood. That is what I like about this technique.
Always pinch candles off flat, never on an angle.
3. Needle Plucking
Needle plucking is a great fine tuning tool for pine maintenance.
Image 1: Two candles that have been allowed to fully extend into shoots.
Image 2: After trimming back in Summer
Image 3: Resulting buds.
- By removing the candles you maintain ultimate control over branch weight and balance.
TIP!
Do not prune a tree if it is sick…. Sick trees need all the strength they can get! ...
Bonsai Glossary: candles - The annual new shoots found on pine trees.
Bonsai Glossary: canopy - Upper and outermost portion of the trees branches.
Bonsai Glossary: chichi - Nodules found on the trunks of old Ginkgo specimens.
If you are satisfied that your tree is growing well and that a number of the candles have pushed more than one inch, break back the tips of all the longest candles to a length of 1".
During the spring the buds that you have kept will elongate into candles, their size will be determined by the vigor of the buds you retained. Your main objective: redistribute vigor.
Candles are either cut with scissors or candles may be twisted off at the desired length. This serves to shorten the candle, the internodes, and the needle length.
When Candles reach a lenght of 3-5 cm remove the strongest growing candles leaving only 1 or 2 in the cluster. When shoots get to between 5-8 cm cut back leaving only 3-4 pair of needle on the shoot. Do any structural and major pruning in early fall.
Dwarf banksia ‘Birthday Candles’
This semi-cascade style bonsai was purchased as a starter plant in 2004 from the Wariapendi native nursery (near Yerrinbool). The tree was potted into a bonsai container in 2006.
The new spring shoots are sometimes called "candles"; they are covered in brown or whitish bud scales and point upward at first, then later turn green and spread outward.
If you are maintaining a mature tree you should not allow to much extension of the candles. This is achieved by breaking off most of the emerging candle, do not cut it as this will damage the tips of the new needles and spoil the look of the tree.
With healthy trees, it is possible to remove all the new candles every other year, before they harden. The following fall, buds will appear where the candles were removed. This serves to shorten the internodes and encourage more dense foliage.
In addition to bud removal, you must also pinch of the candles, which have grown from the buds left on the tree and pluck needles. The amount of each is going to vary according to how you want your bonsai tree to look.
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Start cutting candles (buds) from the top of the tree by half to two thirds and each week work your way down until you reach the bottom layer of branches. The strongest bud at the top of the tree will grow.
In this DVD training video, Boon “decandles' two trees to help bonsai artists understand the process—and advanced collectors refine their technique. To learn more about this DVD, click here.
 See also: Tree, Bonsai, Needle, Pruning, Trunk
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