Bristlecone Pine

Bonsai Nut

Nuttier than your average Nut
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I would love to try another if anyone knows a source. I don't need a pre-bonsai, just a small landscape (1 gallon or similar). I just want to see if I can keep it alive down here.
 

Potawatomi13

Imperial Masterpiece
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@Vance Wood

Found this looking for something else.


From here...
http://www.statesymbolsusa.org/symbol-official-item/nevada/state-tree/bristlecone-pine

Some more cool pics there.

Sorce

Great Basin Natl Park one of 2 most wonderful places I've seen. Completely another world which I got to see in 2014. This is the real thing so many of us try to emulate and much better than any Bonsai show. A truly rare and wonderful experience:eek:!
 

Leo in N E Illinois

The Professor
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So after watching the videos, I noticed in the list of videos that Youtube wants you to watch, up came this one:

A full 44 minutes, not as much "pretty scenery'' but in it are clues to cultivation for Bristlecone.
Key, they grow where they do because "nothing else can live there'', in other words, their adaptations to drought and cold make them slow growing. Slow growing means they can not compete with other species, so they are relegated to specific harsh environments.They will grow in milder areas, more favorable areas, but are not successful when other trees compete with them. Even sagebrush can shade the seedlings out.

- full sun is required.
-only found in dolomitic soils, hence alkaline reaction, not acidic. They can grow in neutral to slightly acidic soils, but are adapted to alkaline soils. Means turface and other calcined clay products would work okay. Kanuma & peat moss probably not a good choice. If you include pine bark in your mix, a handful of crushed oyster shell, crushed limestone, or horticultural lime would be a good idea. If your azalea is happy your bristlecone probably won't be. Soil in native range is really just gravel, little or no humus, disease may be a problem in an organic rich soil.

-Lush rapid growth is more susceptible to disease. Considering the white pine blister rust & other diseases, low elevation growing may be more disease prone. The bristlecones survive where they are because most diseases, or the disease vectors (bark beetles, etc.) can not reach them. They probably do not have as robust a disease resistance as say an Eastern white pine (P. strobus), because metabolically, they don't need it.

-even with ample water, growth is relatively slow (hence, can not compete with pinion or limber pines when seedlings sprout together in same area).

-they are a single flush pine, with a very short growing season. Drought sends them into dormancy, won't likely grow again until the following year. Good in that if you miss a day watering the bristlecone has a better chance of surviving than some trees, Bad in that growth is arrested, and may not resume again that year.

General thoughts gleaned from elsewhere:
Really slow growing trees are difficult to use for bonsai. I ran into this playing with super dwarf cultivars of some conifers, for example some of the tiny mugo cultivars & 'Nana' cultivar of Hinoki.
Reason: You need growth to do your styling with. Little or no growth means waiting more years for recovery from anything you do. Bristlecone will grow quicker with water and moderate temperatures, but they still will grow slower than limber pines and pinion pines in the same setting. "growing a branch to fill out here, or regrowing an apex there" will be long term projects, instead of just a season or two. Best styled by using what you have, rather than planning on growth to give you what you need.

I've been experimenting with summer repotting for more of my pines, and I do believe bristlecone will do better with summer repotting - at least in my Midwest zone 5 area. In the Pacific Northwest or other mild climates, this may not apply.

I've killed 3 or 4 bristlecones over the last 20 years, both seedlings and killed a 30 year old nursery tree back in 1990. I do not have any currently, so no ''victims'' to try my thoughts out on. So consider my musings "internet knowledge'' - not actual real world experience.
 

Vance Wood

Lord Mugo
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Thanks Leo for taking the time to post this. It was very interesting and I will have to take a bit of time to digest it before I can make a comment other than wow.
 

Vance Wood

Lord Mugo
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Good luck with them. I am of the thinking that the only ones we are likely to see are the Colorado Bristlecones, I have never seen the other two in cultivation, the Longevea or the Balfouriana. Please keep me posted I am very interested in this tree.
 

miker

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Was not aware of P. balfouriana whatsoever. As for P. longaeva, seeds reputed to be this specific species/subspecies show up on eBay periodically. I ordered some from a Turkish vendor last year (actually posted about it on here somewhere) and they sprouted beautifully, only to damp off one by one over the next month after sprouting, despite being in pure sand.

If I get one(again), it is for the amazing longlived qualities of the taxon, so I will want P. longaeva and will want a live one, rather than seeds. Don't know if I will ever find one for sale.

One might do okay in SE PA with excellent siting/potting media, etc.
 

parhamr

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@miker have you tried improving air flow around seedlings? I've had great success in using a fan to increase evaporation and to reduce damping frequency. (But this was with species that are generally more disease resistant)
 

wireme

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My mom started a few bristlecones from seed here in 92. Planted in the garden, sold the property and the garden has since been abandoned. They are still alive, the only bristlecones within who knows how far. I think the largest are around 10' now. There's all sorts of trees left behind in that old garden patch. I plan to wander through this spring to see what might be bonsaiable.

One of those bristlecones contracted western gall rust, something that's all over the lodgepole pines in these parts so they can get that, looks like this.image.jpg
 
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M. Frary

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Good luck with them. I am of the thinking that the only ones we are likely to see are the Colorado Bristlecones, I have never seen the other two in cultivation, the Longevea or the Balfouriana. Please keep me posted I am very interested in this tree.
The nursery where I got mine from may have some more this year. If you want I'll look and see if they do and let you know. It was Aristata. I really liked the tree but it didn't like the winters here.
 

Vance Wood

Lord Mugo
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I think that often we kill stuff like this through kindness, we water too much, we fertilize too much, we fuss around with them too much, in the wild they grow in pure dolomite a very alkaline medium. A the Aristata seems to grow reasonably well in nursery cultivation but we seem to get our hands on them it's hast la vista baby. Temperature in the winter shold note be a problem. In their natural environment they endure temperatures 20- 30 below zero form many months a year.
 
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