Let 'em be for now.

agree ....

look at last years whorl .. thats how it grows .. to a great extent ...

same with the whorl from 2 years back ..

ken

The bottom is small and bushy and then there is this orthodox (for the typical species) looking open and vigorous growth coming out of the top. So if this is supposed to be a small and bushy cultivar you should be pruning back the vertical explosion lest you end up with a tall and open specimen later.

A reason for this kind of behavior is grafting of dwarf and slow growing conifer selections onto non dwarf seedling rootstocks that invigorate the scions, cause them to grow out of character.

I've heard about people who take about 1/2 the candle length off every year. Keeps the tree from opening up and causes multiple shoots at the terminal ends for the next year.

Embo , Aoi is narrow

if you do prune , I would leave one middle shoot & half the rest

ron

Gimber , who did you buy it from,,,,perhaps they would know what yearly growth LOOKS like

ron

I have one but it's not pushing yet

Thanks everyone for all of the input. One of the main themes of my landscaping is tall and thin, so I won't mind if this one ends up looking stretched or a little weird. I want it to be symmetrical, so I will encourage the middle shoot to remain the leader by trimming a few of the others. I will post a photo after I make a few cuts, but I am waiting until after the freeze coming this weekend, even though that might not make any difference.

This tree was pruned last year as you are planning to do. Although the leader may look leggy now it will fill in as the trimmed shoots branch.

There are too many candles too close together IMO. I’d remove 3-4 of them in an alternating fashion. They will develop buds in the spot you removed them but just remove those in late fall.

The reason to do this is so you don’t have major issues with included bark as the tree ages.

In addition your tree will not always create that many candles at the lead. If you keep what you have and cut them back you’ll have a very bushy section out of sync with with the rest of the plant.

whaas, typically one of those candles will stay upright (the dominate one), and the others will fall away, becoming side branches.

Typicaly that is what happens when the whorl has 3-4 shoots surrounding the dominant. However we have 3-4 dominant.

One week later...
...after record setting (low) temperatures, 2 freezes, a few rounds of rain, all of the candles grew significantly - doubling from about 2 inches to 4. I now believe that the middle candle is going to dominate, so I am content with not cutting anything right now. I don't think it would have been a huge mistake if I had done so, but I am glad I asked. I am bold and skilled with the pruners, but this was entirely new for me. I have over one hundred evergreens but this is the only pinus in the whole pinetum. I appreciate everyone's input.

Yes, you can trim them down 1/3. I have the same Aoi and I trim it down every year to keep it nice and neat. It will do just fine. I like the way my tree looks. Will show it off tomorrow.

Here's an AOI at Dawes. I think it may have been deer pruned.

thanks, bamboo, for the before and after pics...very healthy looking plants there

bamboo has a super nice collection

we hate him very much

ron,ha

which calls for a photo update

Photo Update? Will do this week. That's the tradition anyway. Been trying so hard to sneak some new plants in. Let's see if I can...:-) . J.N

WOW , new plants ....COOL !