Limber pine progression

[erich_raudebaugh]

Pines very similar to juniper except the timing. Similar scion preparation for cutting. Here in the PNW I prefer pine grafting in the beginning of march before they become too active! I prefer the bag method over the poly film grafting cigar approach. Lots of people in the Portland club can help you with that I bet! Not to mention all the professionals in the area like Michael, Matt, Bobby, Andrew, to mention only a couple

Thanks Frank. The people in clubs around here seem to use the cigar method more, but I'll take your advice. I might ask Michael too.

 

[Potawatomi13]

The back of the tree. I cleaned the bark off, so that I could stop it from rotting too much, and did minor carving and lime sulfur.

You can see a tie-down wire that I had to thread through the tree to stabilize it when I repotted it. The tree decided to lean anyway.

The Scotch moss (Irish moss?) is now gone, it did look kinda nice but it's also a weed.

Very soon expect to find the false moss is a plague that keeps on giving. Time and persistence generally the only cure. Have been pulling many dozens of tiny seedlings for several years.

The good part is excellently healthy looking tree. No complaint about available branches and nice trunk.

 

[erich_raudebaugh]

Very soon expect to find the false moss is a plague that keeps on giving. Time and persistence generally the only cure. Have been pulling many dozens of tiny seedlings for several years.

The good part is excellently healthy looking tree. No complaint about available branches and nice trunk.

They are a giant pain in my garden. It's gotten into every pot, I have to weed them out daily.

 

[Potawatomi13]

They are a giant pain in my garden. It's gotten into every pot, I have to weed them out daily.

There USED to be a kind of insecticidal soap which accidently I learned killed this stuff in my pots. I THINK it was from Scotts?(5 years ago)
HALLELUJAH! Then upon search for more of it found it had mysteriously vanished from face of Earth A thousand curses! Decided to try roundup as is SUPPOSED to deactivate upon contact with soil. And killed about a half dozen of my trees. Ten thousand curses!!

It boggles the mind they actually SELL this invasive weed as a ground cover plant which it unfortunately does with greatest enthusiasm. There ought to be a law!

 

[erich_raudebaugh]

There USED to be a kind of insecticidal soap which accidently I learned killed this stuff in my pots. I THINK it was from Scotts?(5 years ago)
HALLELUJAH! Then upon search for more of it found it had mysteriously vanished from face of Earth A thousand curses! Decided to try roundup as is SUPPOSED to deactivate upon contact with soil. And killed about a half dozen of my trees. Ten thousand curses!!

If you ever find it again, let me know.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Will be MOST happy to advertise if ever found..

 

[erich_raudebaugh]

Did some light candle reduction today to balance strength, and removed a few that were growing downwards.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Did some light candle reduction today to balance strength, and removed a few that were growing downwards.

Looking very healthy and much improved from collection time. Possibility to consider one of downward sprouts as dropping branch? Maybe on left side seems too much negative space?

 

[erich_raudebaugh]

Looking very healthy and much improved from collection time. Possibility to consider one of downward sprouts as dropping branch? Maybe on left side seems too much negative space?

The branch on the right is dropping quite a bit. Up until this year, candle growth has been about 1/2" max per year, even with lots of fertilizer. It's a really old tree!

Anyway I like the negative space on the left side, old pines in nature are very asymmetrical. That's what I'm going for.

 

[Potawatomi13]

I have several Randy trees and agree with old assymetry. There just seems too little there on the left. If a hanging branch with foliage disconnected from the main mass were there it would hang below the right side and be assymetrical. BUT it is your tree. Just my perspective.

 

[erich_raudebaugh]

I have several Randy trees and agree with old assymetry. There just seems too little there on the left. If a hanging branch with foliage disconnected from the main mass were there it would hang below the right side and be assymetrical. BUT it is your tree. Just my perspective.

Ah, ok I wasn't sure what you meant. Next year I think that I will try some grafts to add branches that come from the back to add a bit of dimension.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Hmm. Always evolving our trees. Not a grafter personally so develop what is given or grows later on.

 

[erich_raudebaugh]

Thanks for the input, it gives me something to think about.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Funny who is up and on here so late at nite. Sure your tree will turn out great one day.

 

[0soyoung]

My reaction to @Potawatomi13's suggestion is to infer that he just likes horizontal hemlines (not that there is anything wrong with that). Simply increasing the tilt has much the same visual effect, IMHO.

However, I find the spiraling trunk to be this tree's feature. But there is a puff of foliage obscuring it a bit too effectively.



Taking it away or simply moving it a bit aside would expose more of the interesting trunk line. On the other hand, it could make the canopy into the 'open trenchcoat/kimono' flasher style that I just don't care for. Alternatively, there are two tufts above this, one almost directly above and one to the left, above. Take away the left and it seems like the tree could be moved into a more literati-like image. Take away the one directly above or just move it up/right abit might be magical, if it doesn't make an eye-catching hole in the canopy --> fascinatingly see the trunk curves through needles. Which brings me to noticing that the canopy is visually dense overall --> maybe further needle reduction, like removing every other row/column of needles or the like so that the entire canopy is sparcer.



At any rate, you've got a really fun tree, @erich_raudebaugh !

 

[Potawatomi13]

My reaction to @Potawatomi13's suggestion is to infer that he just likes horizontal hemlines

Not at all! Asymmetry R us.

 

[erich_raudebaugh]

My reaction to @Potawatomi13's suggestion is to infer that he just likes horizontal hemlines (not that there is anything wrong with that). Simply increasing the tilt has much the same visual effect, IMHO.

However, I find the spiraling trunk to be this tree's feature. But there is a puff of foliage obscuring it a bit too effectively.

View attachment 309526

Taking it away or simply moving it a bit aside would expose more of the interesting trunk line. On the other hand, it could make the canopy into the 'open trenchcoat/kimono' flasher style that I just don't care for. Alternatively, there are two tufts above this, one almost directly above and one to the left, above. Take away the left and it seems like the tree could be moved into a more literati-like image. Take away the one directly above or just move it up/right abit might be magical, if it doesn't make an eye-catching hole in the canopy --> fascinatingly see the trunk curves through needles. Which brings me to noticing that the canopy is visually dense overall --> maybe further needle reduction, like removing every other row/column of needles or the like so that the entire canopy is sparcer.



At any rate, you've got a really fun tree, @erich_raudebaugh !

Thanks for the thoughtful analysis, 0soyoung.
I have two ideas for this tree, I'm not positive which one I'll pick yet. One is as you've mentioned, removing the small branch at your arrow. I want the shoots to graft on the back side next year. This is my current thinking.

I've thought about a literati style, from the very beginning actually, but as far as I know the best way to reduce needles on this species is to have lots of shoots, maybe with a reduced root system in a smaller pot also. So my plan has been to increase the number of shoots which has been working well over the last few years, this year there's a few back buds plus almost every new candle has doubled (when I got the tree this wasn't true, many candles just continued from the precious year). After the ramification has increased to a point I'm satisfied with, I would repot into a smaller pot and remove some branchlets. Reducing water at the right time to get smaller needles is almost impossible where I live because of rain, but maybe I could add a covered area for this purpose.

 

[erich_raudebaugh]

Tightened up the needles today and added a bit of wire. I may rearrange things after studying the photo a bit.

 

[Colorado]

Beautiful tree. I am looking to add a nice limber to my collection, this one is inspiring!

 

[erich_raudebaugh]

Beautiful tree. I am looking to add a nice limber to my collection, this one is inspiring!

Thanks! They are pretty easy to work with.