Mugo Experiment #2

brewmeister83

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So today I decided to tortur.....ah-hem, work on another young Mugo... Pumilio like the first one, and the same age as well (in its 5th season). So here I go with another $7 Lowe's Special!

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After poking around the base and removing some extra dirt, it became apparent that all the roots were angling away from the trunk at the same angle... When I saw this, an idea instantly popped into my head as to what I should do with this tree, but I needed to do a little more investigating to make sure it was feasible. So an hour later, after careful soil and muck removal with minimal root pruning, I was left with this...

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Jackpot! They all terminated from the trunk in the same direction, and even grew in the same arc under the trunk. Why was I so excited? Let's see if you can see what I saw...

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Anything yet? Let's do a light wrapping with some twine. There! How 'bout now?

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Yup, I see me an exposed root pine in the making...
 
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brewmeister83

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With an exposed root tree as my plan, I set about making it's set-up where it will stay for the next several years until the roots thicken up and begin to fuse.... Luckily all I had to do was cut the bottom off the pot it came in, it was the perfect height so the root tips were just hanging below the bottom - even the drainage holes worked perfect as a rest for the trunk!

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So I whipped up some fast draining soil mix, threw it in a colander, got the pine and pot assembly on top, and carefully back-filled the pot and roots with 1/4 to 1/2" lava rock...

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With the bulk of the work done, all I had left was to add another section of cut off plastic pot to the top so I could cover the exposed "arc" of roots near the trunk. Finally, I stabilized the whole thing by wiring a couple scraps of bamboo to the colander to support the foliage until the roots fill in and stabilize in the soil beneath.

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In the end, waaay less invasive of a procedure than experiment#1, I don't think I lost more than 5% of the fine root mass. Not even going to trim this one, I'll just let it grow for the next year or two unhindered. Maybe by then it will have filled the colander with root and I can begin exposing the aerial root-mass and begin branch selection and training. Fingers crossed!
 

brewmeister83

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Why excactly do you do that? Why can't one just leave the exposed roots on the air?

If I left the roots exposed to the air now, the larger ones would harden off and start developing bark while the smaller, finer root hairs would just die off from lack of moisture. When making an exposed root bonsai (from what I've read and seen) you use a larger granule substrate that holds some moisture but not a lot of nutrients. This causes all the finer roots to grow downward in search of more nutrient rich soils and causes them to lengthen and thicken in the process until there are no fine roots left in the coarse substrate, just larger ones. They can then really start to put on wood, and even start to fuse together and form a sort of "trunk" which can support the weight of the foliage in the future when the pots and substrate are removed from them.


I got the idea of using this setup after reading Eric's post about his progress with JBP seedlings:
http://bonsainut.com/index.php?threads/a-few-pine-seeds-6-years-later.7033/#post-93704

More info for how he set up the pines for exposed root was here in his blog:
http://www.phutu.com/exposed-root-pine-2/

The only difference in out setups is substrate choice - he uses coarse pumice, I use coarse lava rock - it's just what I have to work with.
 

klosi

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Thanks for clarifying this ;)

start to put on wood

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brewmeister83

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Yeah, horticultural terms are dirty.... Just like brewing terms, I've got something I going to dry-hop tomorrow...
 

GrimLore

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Here's the pics as promised...

Thank you and nice you have some time to share! I picked up one small Mugo and if I can figure out if it is healthy or not pick up two more just to see how they grow for me here. If they do ok I will probably put them in the landscape and find larger for Bonsai after a year or two. Yours both look like neat projects ;)

Grimmy
 

brewmeister83

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So, time to come clean as to my absence I guess. 2018 marks a new start for bonsai for me, as I hardly did anything last year... It's a convoluted long story, but needless to say life got in the way big time, and all the stress from the year plunged me into a deep depression, and one of the side effects was a loss of love for anything I had enjoyed. One unfortunate thing to come from this was that I didn't take care of any of my plants for the entire year - that's right, I left them to the mercy of the elements. No repotting, no watering, no fertilizer, nothing. Surprisingly, the elements must have taken pity on me, for I only lost a few pieces of material (only two of which I am infinitely ashamed of, they were amazing collected pieces - don't worry, my monster privet wasn't one of them, although it did take a beating) But that's all in the past now, all I can do is look forward and work with what I have been dealt.

I start with this, because you might be interested to know this kind of neglect apparently had no effect on my mugo pines, and this past week I was able to finally move all my material to my new apartment, and this little mugo from this thread, a hearty and tough-as-nails survivor was the first plant to grace the newly set up benches.
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brewmeister83

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So an update on the little guy - still growing strong, I'm going to fertilize it heavily to really get it going again, but even with an entire year of no fertilizer, the weak branches are all showing 1-3 buds, and the strong branches 3-5. I also was curious to see how the roots were developing so I brushed away the top inch or so of lava rock - I posted a comparison picture below to when I first potted it in 2015 (has it really been three years already?). Needless to say I was complete surprised by the amount of root growth. It can clearly be seen coming out of the black "tower" and into the substrate in the colander, and it has also grown through the colander with root tips poking out of the bottom! I swear, this plant is a beast! Seeing all this growth, I'm now tempted to start exposing the upper root mass, but I'm wondering if I should hold off another year or two to thicken the roots even more. Hrmmm, decisions decisions... What do you guys think? Leave it or uncover it?

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sorce

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Damn!

I been wondering about this!

Doin a ROR in summer!

Thanks for the killer update!

Sorce
 

jeanluc83

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I'm glad to hear that things are on the up swing for you.

Thanks for the update.
 

Wires_Guy_wires

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Why not gradually remove a part of the lava rock every 6 months? I think that's a good intermediate decision.
 

brewmeister83

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Quick summer update - still going strong, but something interesting happened... Back when I set up my bonsai benches this spring, I placed this Mugo in such a way that the interior branches and base of the trunk received direct full-on sunlight about 6 hours a day. I knew from what Vance had written that Mugo buds back fairly easily on old branching if kept happy, and guess what? He was absolutely right.

Here is a section of trunk back on May 30th when I first noticed the buds:

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And here it is today:

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Gotta love Mugo - regular water, regular fertilizer, full sun and no special bonsai techniques = back budding on old (5-7 year) wood
 
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