Misting System for my Scot Pine

[Nishant]

Hello Friends,

This year the summer has been really harsh here in London here and my scot pine has lost lots of needles due to drying up, despite keeping it away from direct sun. Quite obvious the temprature of air around is high. To mitigate this, I am planing to put two misting nozzles that I have, on the top, say 1 meter up, of my small collection of Bonsai's.

Just wanted to learn from others about Do'd and Don'ts of misting pine ( a scot, a mugo, a dwarf scot ). Naturally I want to keep water usage to a minimum but that is not my first concern. I have checked a few other posts on this topic of misting and still posting just in case there are new ideas.

Thanks for sharing your experience and knowledge on this matter.

Regards.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

We're dealing with 27-32°C here across the sea from you. All my pines are thriving in the sun. Today we're going to hit 35.

Before you start misting, make sure it's not some other issue. And if you start misting, be prepared for fungal issues and loads of bugs wanting to taste that soft, moistened wood.

I haven't seen anyone actually mist their pines. Junipers, ok, that I've seen. But pines? I think that's usually not needed. If they can grow on rocks blazed by the sun in France, why wouldn't they be able to do fine in the UK? I'm thinking, maybe you did some wrong diagnosis. Otherwise I'd say, go for it!

Spray light, and often. Let is dry out in the evening so that there aren't any wet nights.

 

[MichaelS]

No way English weather would affect scots pines adversely. It must be something else. I do mist everything every day in summer but our weather requires it. I doubt yours would. I only protect the pines if it's over about 35-37 degrees C (95F) and the humidity is below about 30%

 

[leatherback]

I only protect the pines if it's over about 35-37 degrees C (95F) and the humidity is below about 30%

This is interestingly, the weather we have been dealt this week too. Normally, we have rain pretty much every week throughouyt summer. I have counted 3 rainfall events here since April. That includes the rain that was enough to almost reach the full surface of the soil, only leaving dry patches in places where plants were growing. So 1mm or less.

I could imagine that a pine used to moist cool weather responds quite strong to the increase in heat, dry air and wind of the last weeks? Or did something else change? Has the tree been moved recently? Repotted in spring?

41c = 106F. 22-28C is normal UK summer temps

 

[discusmike]

Beware of misting on pines?

 

[Paulpash]

I'm in the UK (Yorkshire) and my pines are all doing good. They are planted in 50% moler & & 50% pumice. I've watered thoroughly once a day all summer.

 

[Cypress187]

My (scots) pines do best in the burning sun.

 

[Nishant]

This year the summer has been very harsh something happened in last twenty years, as people living here living here are saying. All the grass has become brown everywhere. If you saw golf finally in Scotland , the grass was all brown. My Scot pine is okay and healthy and doing well but I am always scared to see some needles at the bottom just drying up.

 

[MichaelS]

This year the summer has been very harsh something happened in last twenty years, as people living here living here are saying. All the grass has become brown everywhere. If you saw golf finally in Scotland , the grass was all brown. My Scot pine is okay and healthy and doing well but I am always scared to see some needles at the bottom just drying up.

I have never had needles drying up on the scots. However I do always remove the past year's needles in winter. Maybe it's that.

 

[Nishant]

Do the old needles keep drying through out summer or early summer only.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

In my back yard the needles dry continuously. Some needles from 2 years back are still there and slowly drying out. Maybe 2 pairs of needles per week or so.
In early summer the rate was a bit faster, maybe 5 pairs per week.
I do think that usually, it's a spring/start of summer thing.

 

[Nishant]

Hey wire_guy, Thanks for the update. If my tree, it has happened all summer and is continuing, although slower rate now.

I will be doing thread grafting next year. Any advise on how to prepare my tree towards this?

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I don't know if thread grafting works on pines. I mean, they have buds so in theory you could manage to pull a branch through a hole. But you'd need to remove all the needles, if that happens to a branch, it is not 'demanding' energy from the roots anymore.
Ryan Neil has a youtube video about regular grafting of branches in black pines. I think it would work the same way for scots pines.

Other than that, keep it healthy, keep dosing the correct amount of nutrients for strong growth, and don't use weak material for grafting. Genetically similar material will hold better, so if you can use its own branches, that's the best. Other scots pines would work well, pretty good, but not best.
I'm in the process of preparing my own scots pine for grafting. But it seems that I'll have to wait another year before it's strong enough to handle it. If you're worried about your pines health right now, it wouldn't harm the plant to wait another year.

 

[Nishant]

I know a guy who has a few Scot bonsai and he suggested thread graft over approach graft. I am attaching picture of the whole plant and a close up. Just see if you think this is unusual.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

To me that seems like a pretty healthy pine.

 

[Nishant]

Thanks Wire_Guy.

The tree has certain bare branches, as will always be the case with Pine. In the picture, as you can see, the foliage has hidden them for now. However I am afraid this may not be so for a long time, unless I let the tree grow out and abound. But my garden is small and hence I need to keep the tree to this size. Therefore In need to graft foliage on those bare parts. Until now, I have pinned down on using thread grafting, as advised by another person who has tried both approach grafting and thread grafting on scot pines.

I will keep posted on how my thread grafting goes. There are quite a few leggy branches which are healthy and will be used as Scion.

Thanks.

 

[Vance Wood]

Beware of misting on pines?

What is the source of your information?

 

[Nishant]

Hello Friends,

I would like to re-pot this Scot pine. Would 10-Sept be good time to do this. I am going to order Kaisen Bonsai compost #2 compost today?

Thanks.

 

[sorce]

Hello Friends,

I would like to re-pot this Scot pine. Would 10-Sept be good time to do this. I am going to order Kaisen Bonsai compost #2 compost today?

Thanks.

IMO you're better off waiting till the 24th for the full moon.

If that is too late for your first frost it seems good to wait till next year, the first full moon after the solstice 2019.

S

 

[Vance Wood]

What is the source of your information?

I have mostly Pines a lot of Pines even JWP's and I mist all of them. What's the point? I know there are some people that claim it causes a fungal attack? If we provide an environment like in nature what happens in nature when the foliage gets wet?