07/31/2026
People ask me all the time how I get the trees to look so fine. The answer is at the trunk of the tree. Each year about mid-July the tree sets buds at the end of all branches. We call the branch at top and center, the leader. The leader usually sets 6 buds; one at center to continue the leader and 5 lateral buds, which we call a whorl. These buds sprout branches the following April. During the shearing process in June I cut the leader back to 10 inches from a length of 16 to 36 inches long. This gives the tree a whorl of branches every 10 inches up the trunk. Other growers might cut the leader back to 14 to 16 inches. At this rate it takes my trees an additional 3 or 4 years to grow to 8 ft. tall. The additional 3 or 4 whorls translates into over 2,000 additional branch tips with needles at the perimeter of the tree. This has been my secret for many years. Check it out for yourself. You can tell the age of a pine tree by counting the number of whorls going up the trunk.
