All aboard the Mugo train!

Japonicus

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Your "first mugho" cuts glass. Awesome. 👌. How have I never seen that before? Don't hold out on us.
Tanx for the kind words @A. Gorilla ! It was a Lowes 1g nursery find years ago.

I lied. I said These were the only 3 I had, but I forgot one that's being a PIA to manage thus its' cultivar name-'congesta'.
DSC_4204.JPG
It's grafted to a Scotts pine. Besides the colour variance, it is a seamless graft.
Being in the midst of my other 2 needle pines, it now also sports needle cast.
DSC_4205.JPG

DSC_4206.JPG
I potted it into this 2 gallon can when it came in. I think it was wrapped in cellophane (root ball) and had to pot it up out of season.
These are all in this thread, I just never started their own thread, which is one way I log some of my trees digitally.
It stays too damp in this sized pot with the soil around the root ball, so will get repotted this Summer.
I really need to spend some time with this one.
 

sorce

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@Microscopic here is the mugo I chopped to 2 in 2018.
20200428_094106.jpg

That year, it grew short fat curlies at the bases, thne continued with extra long wiry needles. Shocked.

2019 it was left alone and grew normal size needles. No longer shocked.

This year, I hit it pretty hard again, but it has a number of buds, at a density which, I feel it won't go shock.


An easy 3 year investigation.
20200428_095724_HDR~2.jpg

The yellow dots were long wiry 18 that got cut back in fall 18, browned.
The purple were the 18 short curlies at the base. All brown.
The blue were 18 long wiry left uncut, still on and green now if left.

The green is 19 needles.

The trees put out these short wide curlies quick, in an effort to produce as much new surface area as possible, to compensate for the loss. The tree knows these are temporary. Hence they're all brown soon after.
When it is convinced it is well enough, it continues to quickly send out long needles, so fast, that like a long balloon stretches to one side when a clown inflates it, they warp and twist.

These are important mechanisms To be aware of.
Signs to watch and heed.

It's not necessarily a bad thing, it's a sign the tree wants to live, and is actively fixing itself, a sign it will live, but like an eating dog, you leave it alone!

We can use these investigative techniques to answer many of our own questions.

We can know much of a trees recent few years just by study.

The correct answers will always come from the trees. We just need to know how to read them. We can't expect anyone to be more accurate with answers.

That's why merely having fun here is way more educational than actually trying to learn! Is happy is instantly more beneficial to our collections, regardless of knowledge shared.

Ok. I'm done!

Sorce
 

Wires_Guy_wires

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I have on mugo, the one in the pond basket, that has never produced any buds.
It just flushes, with no dormancy, no intermediate steps. No candle elongation, just continuous growth, even in winter.
It's been doing so for three years now, even though I stopped working it after year one. It's not producing juvenile foliage like a stressed one would.

Has anyone ever seen that before? How does one handle such a case?
 

Vance Wood

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I don't know what you are doing but in your climate it should be flourishing. First of all it is highly uncommon for a Mugo to produce juvinile growth except in areas where some sort of back budding has started to take place and that growth is really not juvenile growth as in the way it produce growth in it's first year. Are you placing the tree in full sun? How often do you water? What kind of soil are you using? Are you aware that you really need to cut the new growth back in the middle of summer in-order to encourage back budding? I know this is not the same method that Bjorn demonstrated on a Scotts Pine but this is the method I use and have been using it for nearly 40 years. Answering the previous questions could be important so please answer them.
 

Wires_Guy_wires

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I don't know what you are doing but in your climate it should be flourishing. First of all it is highly uncommon for a Mugo to produce juvinile growth except in areas where some sort of back budding has started to take place and that growth is really not juvenile growth as in the way it produce growth in it's first year. Are you placing the tree in full sun? How often do you water? What kind of soil are you using? Are you aware that you really need to cut the new growth back in the middle of summer in-order to encourage back budding? I know this is not the same method that Bjorn demonstrated on a Scotts Pine but this is the method I use and have been using it for nearly 40 years. Answering the previous questions could be important so please answer them.

All of my other mugos are doing exactly what I expect them to do based on your guide Vance. So this is an odd exception.

It's in pure inorganic soil, like all of my pines. All of them do well, just like this mugo.
It is in full sun all year around, no winter protection whatsoever. I water when the soil is dry, and it's in a pond basket, so daily watering or something close to that. Depending on the weather and if the soil is dry or not.
The roots are happy, a dense mat with no rotting parts. Seems to develop nicely.

I did not cut back anything after the first year, since I wanted it to stabilize first. It's hard to distinguish shoots if there are no actual shoots, but instead just continuously elongating branches. It doesn't made buds, it doesn't produce candles either. So I'm not practicing any techniques on it for the time being and haven't done so in two years.

It's being fed organic nutrients and heaps of them.

It's not that it's looking off, it's not unhealthy, no needlecast, no yellow needles, no drooping or grey stuff, no aphids.. It's just that it skips a dormant phase ever since it was first repotted two years ago. In winter, it just keeps growing. Just like in spring, summer and fall.
 

sorce

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How long has this tree been in your control in this pot.

I thought I had a thread on it... But a search of the train proved it was placed here, once with a note, "losing track of these", because I bought 2 many! Lol. That was 2019.


There, it was potted in August of 2018, I bought it that spring.

Coming up to 2 years basketed.

I believe this summer I will Ruthlessly Repot the last 4-5 I still have in black pots, cuz I'll be moving next spring and if the load lessens, so be it!

Sorce
 

Wires_Guy_wires

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IMG_20200502_154941.jpg
Three years of this kind of growth.
There is a bud in the center of that shoot, but I'm expecting it to behave like last year and just keep flushing.
 

sorce

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it just keeps growing. Just like in spring, summer and fall

If I didn't know you to be a reasonable person, I'd think you were crazy or bsing!

It kinda makes sense if it's super healthy, or was before the repot, and it is skipping other "safety mechanisms" like the ones I was talking to Micro about, and just putting on what it needs to survive, regularly.
No time for side budding....

It makes sense.

Whole pic?
More info?

Pinch it!

Sorce
 

Wires_Guy_wires

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It's the bottom one on post number 3422 @sorce .
It's not side budding, but also no apical budding.
No stress whatsoever, it's been in the same spot for three years.

It's the fattest mugo I have and also the curviest one.

All the rest of them are sticking to the protocol, this one isn't and I can't figure out why. I'm fine with it being an oddball, but it makes it hard to choose what to do.

The safety mechanisms I've seen in mugos is juvenile growth or prolonged dormancy, but this is something I can't really explain.
 

Lazylightningny

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It's the bottom one on post number 3422 @sorce .
It's not side budding, but also no apical budding.
No stress whatsoever, it's been in the same spot for three years.

It's the fattest mugo I have and also the curviest one.

All the rest of them are sticking to the protocol, this one isn't and I can't figure out why. I'm fine with it being an oddball, but it makes it hard to choose what to do.

The safety mechanisms I've seen in mugos is juvenile growth or prolonged dormancy, but this is something I can't really explain.
When was the last time you had a look at the roots? There may be a lot of root death in there.
 

Vance Wood

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All of my other mugos are doing exactly what I expect them to do based on your guide Vance. So this is an odd exception.

It's in pure inorganic soil, like all of my pines. All of them do well, just like this mugo.
It is in full sun all year around, no winter protection whatsoever. I water when the soil is dry, and it's in a pond basket, so daily watering or something close to that. Depending on the weather and if the soil is dry or not.
The roots are happy, a dense mat with no rotting parts. Seems to develop nicely.

I did not cut back anything after the first year, since I wanted it to stabilize first. It's hard to distinguish shoots if there are no actual shoots, but instead just continuously elongating branches. It doesn't made buds, it doesn't produce candles either. So I'm not practicing any techniques on it for the time being and haven't done so in two years.

It's being fed organic nutrients and heaps of them.

It's not that it's looking off, it's not unhealthy, no needlecast, no yellow needles, no drooping or grey stuff, no aphids.. It's just that it skips a dormant phase ever since it was first repotted two years ago. In winter, it just keeps growing. Just like in spring, summer and fall.
A picture of the tree would be helpful if you can or will.
 

sorce

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Making a set of these cups with Mugo candles, a series using candles rolled in porcelain for texture. With progressing stage of needle development.

20200515_130601.jpg

Used a couple of said mugo candles and an old floppy Spruce tuft to make this hakeme brush. Simon Leach and Phil Rogers inspired. Do check out their work.

20200515_154635.jpg

Love the first real green.20200516_082744.jpg

Sorce
 

Vance Wood

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It's up there.



There is also a close up in post 3432. Both on page 172.

Sorce

Itr's not so hard to post an image, I don't know why some of you guys make such a big deal out of it?
The reason you don't have an apical shoot growing uprighjt is because you have removed it at some point. Most of the back buds were probably knocked off accidentally when you put the wire on the tree.

What is happening here is something Mugos do on occasion. It is growing but it is not pushing candles it is pushing needles from very small buds not able to throw candles. It will do well in a year or two, don't panic and do something untoward.


IMG_20200427_151913.jpg
 

Wires_Guy_wires

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Itr's not so hard to post an image, I don't know why some of you guys make such a big deal out of it?
The reason you don't have an apical shoot growing uprighjt is because you have removed it at some point. Most of the back buds were probably knocked off accidentally when you put the wire on the tree.

What is happening here is something Mugos do on occasion. It is growing but it is not pushing candles it is pushing needles from very small buds not able to throw candles. It will do well in a year or two, don't panic and do something untoward.


View attachment 303105
There were no buds to knock off. ;-) it never got the chance to make them.
But this week I did find buds on the ends of the branches. We'll see if those continue to bud or if it just keeps flushing.

IMG_20200514_193454.jpg
I see now that the sun reflection on my screen caused me to just miss it, but there's a tiny part of the bud showing.

I too think it'll be fine in a couple of years.

Thanks!
 
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