All aboard the Mugo train!

parhamr

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Any chance of an update on this tree's buds? Pictures possible?

It has been rainy for the past week or two and the buds are too difficult to distinguish when wet. I tried taking a few pics recently but the male cones are unintelligible blobs.
 

parhamr

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Today it was finally dry enough to get a clear photo. George Washington for scale. The photo is entirely unmodified, other than rotation.

My fingernails are dirty from weeding :cool:

IMG_8792.jpg
 

petegreg

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Nice thread. Yesterday I visited an arboretum and bought my ticket for the train. Mugo grown from seed. Reading all the thread and the mugo tutorial I know I've done it a little bit different. It was in pretty big plastic container that I couldn't place on my shelves. Checking roots I found out it wasn't root bound at all and the soil was very loose and sandy. So I did HBR and reduced the length of some roots in the spring. I'll continue with root works after 2-3 years...

I picked up this tree because of pretty nice trunk and the branches low down. This will suit for sth small I think. The main trunk will be kept as an escape branch for some time. I like lichens on the trunk.

I'm gonna re-read the tutorial. Not sure what else I can do this season.

What do you think, how far can I get for 4,50€?
 

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just.wing.it

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Nice thread. Yesterday I visited an arboretum and bought my ticket for the train. Mugo grown from seed. Reading all the thread and the mugo tutorial I know I've done it a little bit different. It was in pretty big plastic container that I couldn't place on my shelves. Checking roots I found out it wasn't root bound at all and the soil was very loose and sandy. So I did HBR and reduced the length of some roots in the spring. I'll continue with root works after 2-3 years...

I picked up this tree because of pretty nice trunk and the branches low down. This will suit for sth small I think. The main trunk will be kept as an escape branch for some time. I like lichens on the trunk.

I'm gonna re-read the tutorial. Not sure what else I can do this season.

What do you think, how far can I get for 4,50€?
I like it, do you know the age of the tree?
 

petegreg

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I like it, do you know the age of the tree?
Oh, I forgot to ask. Thank you. They usually sell grafted pines, some cultivars and witches brooms, so was pretty happy finding this.
I've got some more little mugos, but did bare root repot last year and they're still fighting for their place on the Earth. Never again.
 

Vance Wood

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Oh, I forgot to ask. Thank you. They usually sell grafted pines, some cultivars and witches brooms, so was pretty happy finding this.I've got some more little mugos, but did bare root repot last year and they're still fighting for their place on the Earth. Never again.

I am amazed at how many people when just getting into bonsai in general and Mugo Pines in-particular, seem to think that the tree must be bare rooted. I don't seem to run into this with other trees. Every body seems to think that you bare root a mugo Pine. Would you bare root anything else? The one general thing that should be on top of the list of things not to do is to bare root a Mugo Pine.

The only time to do this is at a point when the tree is at great risk and this is the last ditch effort to save the tree's life. I don't mean to single you out, your post just reminded me of an oft related event that seems to preceed dead trees. It sounds like your's are still trying to live. I had the one tree I call the Zombie Mugo that I thought was dead for two years that came back in the third.

DSC_2363.JPG Dwarf Mugho 1985.jpg
 

petegreg

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Yes sir, you're dead right. The clever people learn from the others mistakes. That's why I stated it.
Those pines grew in nursery soil for some longer period and their roots were wery weak. Transferring to bonsai soil I wanted to help them - MEMENTO...:) Some Scots pines enjoyed it, some hundred broadleaved ones too.
Have you seen my ticket to the train?
 
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Vance Wood

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Yes sir, you're dead right. The clever people learn from the others mistakes. That's why I stated it.
Those pines grew in nursery soil for some longer period and their roots were wery weak. Transferring to bonsai soil I wanted to help them - MEMENTO...:) Some Scots pines enjoyed it, some hundred broadleaved ones too.
Have you seen my ticket to the train?
Yes sir I have. It has possibilities if you cut it properly but don't do that now, wait till the middle of the summer.
 

Alain

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hi there
so following last Vance thread on the Mugo topic I checked my own tree to see if it has some new buds growing too, and there are a bunch of them :)

bud 1.JPG bud 2.JPG

Hence I am happy because that must prove that my tree recovered well from the potting and pruning I did last summer.
I guess it also means that it is now feeling happy in its new environment.
Everything is good then :)

However I have a concern: a lot of these buds are on the main trunk (some in the foliage on the branches also but I can't take a picture with my camera).
I suppose all these buds will develop as new branches now.
But I wasn't planing at all having branches growing all over the trunk like that so what will be the next move?
Let them grow for awhile and then remove them?
 

petegreg

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Vance will respond I think. I would say we can remove all buds we don't need, but wait for approval.

When I look at the first left branch...you cut it, did you want to remove it? And I'm surprised seeing buds comming from that branch with no needles.
 

Vance Wood

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If you don't want the buds you just remove them. The ones you wish to keep and encourage can be helped along by pruning heavily the growth above them this summer. Be careful of these little guys they tend to be fragile for the first couple of years. Also for your consideration: These new buds can give you the opporutnity to further reduce the height of your tree and even down to a Shohin size if that's your desire. Great about Mugos.
 

Vance Wood

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Vance will respond I think. I would say we can remove all buds we don't need, but wait for approval.

When I look at the first left branch...you cut it, did you want to remove it? And I'm surprised seeing buds comming from that branch with no needles.
Mugos are prone to do this more than any other pine. They will back bud on growth that is cut back and denuded of growth contrary to the accepted wisdom. Problem is; this is not a good thing to do because there is no guarantee in doing so. You could very well lose the entire branch.
 

Vance Wood

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Here are some buds forming at the ends of the branches of a large Mugo that has been reduced in stages over the last couple of seasons. These branches have been cut back into three year old growth therefore the color is not so good. DSC_0052.JPGDSC_0051.JPGDSC_0049.JPGDSC_0048.JPGDSC_0046.JPG
 

Alain

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Thanks you guys for the quick answer! :)

When I look at the first left branch...you cut it, did you want to remove it? And I'm surprised seeing buds comming from that branch with no needles.

Yes that surprised me too! Obviously - i.e. according to Vance answer - that's normal with Mugo and obviously - but this I knew - I still have a lot to learn about Mugo :D

If you don't want the buds you just remove them. The ones you wish to keep and encourage can be helped along by pruning heavily the growth above them this summer. Be careful of these little guys they tend to be fragile for the first couple of years. Also for your consideration: These new buds can give you the opporutnity to further reduce the height of your tree and even down to a Shohin size if that's your desire. Great about Mugos.

That sounds perfectly clear, thanks a lot! :)
I guess that for the moment I will let everybody grow and later on this spring/summer I'll have a better idea of the ones I want to remove.
 

Vance Wood

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DSC_0054.JPG DSC_0056.JPG DSC_0058.JPG DSC_0068.JPG A number of years ago, probably about ten, I hosted a Mugo workshop. I furnished the trees and I kept those that did not go to a student. This tree was one that a student did start on but after doing a bunch of bad things to the tree he rejected the tree and I go it back in exchange for another. Over the next few hears the tree ran lose because I had no idea what to do about the mess I was left.

Seven years ago, after the tree had reached about four-five foot tall, I decided that I was going to take it to our club show and work on it while I was vending at my booth if things became slow or got boring. I reduce the tree down to about three foot tall, through some more wire on the tree and let it go for another season. I do not have pictures of the year, needless to say I was not real proud of the results. In the summer of the next year I potted it up into the colander where it has been ever since. The next year the tree was seriously wired as new growth had developed that was beyond even my expectations and the top was reduced down to 18" where it is today. Tomorrow the tree is going to be worked again as a demo at our club meeting. Hopefully I will get it close to its final image.
 

Vance Wood

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Her are some close ups of the results of the kind growth from the kind of buds you see in the previous post featuring the three year old growth cutback.


DSC_0061.JPG DSC_0062.JPG DSC_0063.JPG DSC_0063.JPG DSC_0065.JPG DSC_0066.JPG after reduction from three year old growth.

You may notice that I have a little bit of Pine scale that I have to treat. We have a neighbor in the neighborhood that has a large Mugo with a large dose of scale. Every year my Mugos catch it from the neighbors tree. You may also notice some wire scars; these too will disappear in a year or two.
 

petegreg

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Thank you Vance for few more info and examples that fill the gap.
 

petegreg

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Yes that surprised me too! Obviously - i.e. according to Vance answer - that's normal with Mugo and obviously - but this I knew - I still have a lot to learn about Mugo :D

So than Alain, you still want to remove that branch? The issue is that according the plan the branch should be half way dry. How will you proceed?
I see Mugo is really a different kind of animal.
 
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