Conifer Division: Yamabudoudanshi's Coniferous Shohin Projects: Itoigawa Shinpaku and Mugo Pines

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I'm following up my broadleaf thread with this one.

Here are my two entries for the conifer division. I'll decide somewhere down the road once one of them shows some promise.

1) A Itoigawa Shinpaku from air layer: The air layer was separated June 2020 from my practice tree. I've done nothing with it, but clean out weak/dead/crotch growth since then. I think it's healthy enough to get an initial wiring and maybe a repot this winter. I'm thinking of potentially doing a delicate windswept clump sort of style. I've seen a few great ones recently and being that the air layer was horizontal originally, the tree is more of a raft, so I think it could work well. I'll post a picture of what I'd like to do. Alternatively, I might just twist it up like a pretzel for a few years and reassess later.

2) One of these 3 Mugo Pines: These were grown from seed in late winter 2020. In May 2020, I did the seedling cutting technique on them, which has made them grow much more vigorously that their uncut counterparts. Other than that, I've done nothing. I have no idea what to expect for these, but I hope to learn something about developing single flush pines from seed. It seems as though there is ample information on developing JBP in this way, but is very much lacking elsewhere.
 

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clintonio12

Seedling
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Very cool! I was wondering whether junipers would air layer, and it looks like they do. What is the 'seedling cutting technique' you mentioned for your mugo seedlings?
 
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Very cool! I was wondering whether junipers would air layer, and it looks like they do. What is the 'seedling cutting technique' you mentioned for your mugo seedlings?
I've had great success with shinpaku airlayers.
With the pines, if you search "seedling cutting technique" in the search bar, you'll find some threads where people do it to very young pines. Very commonly done with Japanese Black Pines.
The result is that instead of 1 big thick tap root, you get radial roots in all directions, which in my limited experience results in far more vigorous growth.
 
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Quick update on the shinpaku. Repotted into a slit pot in spring 2022, and did a little prune and wire in the fall.

Lost 1/3 mugos this summer, and another is looking not so good. A combination of bad drainage and Tokyo summers I think.
I'm hoping to strap the strongest mugo to a rock this spring and get it in some better draining media.
 

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Nothing special, but I removed the initial wiring, cleaned it up a bit, and wired some of the primaries that had grown. It's actually pretty interesting in person but very 2D in photos.
 

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