Hi,
I am no expert but
I have been training my Pinus Parviflora or Japanese White Pine for over 25 years and I finger prune all the candles that are not required to help to shape it further.the link below is this years photo of it before the candles started to grow ,they are growing well now so I shall be finger prunning all of them out in the next few days.
George.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pinus Parviflora

Hi George,

Thanks for the reply, I looked at your site- that is a very nice looking tree! So I think I might be confusing candles and buds. If I finger prune ALL the candles on my tree now, I won't actually be preventing the tree from replacing its needles will I? At some point in time will buds appear that I should be leaving on to thicken the pads?

I do want to keep the tree the same size overall, but I wouldn't mind making some of the pads a little larger and thicker..

Hi,
The candles if left untouched will become branches so if you require a branch don't pinch all the candles , also the new buds grow on the candles that is where expertise comes into it by pinching some candles BUT leaving the ones you want untouched ,you can also just pinch a half or a third or a quarter of any candle.by doing this it helps to thicken up the pad or cloud shape.
hope this helps you.
George.

Here is a link that might be useful: George's Japanese Garden

Hi George,

Thanks for the reply. Everything is finally clear now :)

Great garden by the way, I was looking over your site some more. But you don't need me to tell you that :). I had a problem with Heron's too around my koi pond last. I bought a motion-sensing sprayer from my pond supply store. If you haven't tried that, its something to consider. Better than putting the unsightly netting over the pond..

Anyway thanks again for replying.