Mugo Experiment #1

[brewmeister83]

Back in April of '14, I PM'd Vance and asked him if, to his knowledge, he knew of anyone who had tried an exposed root Mugo. He replied that he didn't know of anyone in the U.S. who took Mugo serious enough to try such a thing - so no. We bantered back and forth for a couple messages, and when I mentioned I had purchased several small (3-5 yr old) pumilio that spring, he said it might be possible to bare root and manipulate the plants if they’re that young and strong. Challenge accepted in my book...

For the past year I've been feeding and caring for these little pines to make them as healthy and strong as I can, so I figured this year I'd start with one today to see how it reacts to a little abusive manipulation... Here's the results for the first one:

$7 - 1/2 gallon pot from Lowe's last spring - if it dies, all I wasted was a little of my time and $5 worth of fertilizer...



Recently I've become fascinated with root-over-rock pines, and as it so happens I went and collected some rocks last week that might fit the bill. Well, not really rocks - You see, where I live is an area where 200 years ago people smelted pig iron for export and refinement elsewhere - and one can find the "junk" from the smelting process (known as slag) in many, many rivers and river banks around here. I had one rock that was big enough to accommodate this pine, but it was in two pieces... Nothing a little waterproof epoxy glue can't fix!



While I was waiting for the glue to finish curing, I figured I'd start by cleaning out the pine that I was going to pair up with this rock.



Classic example of how fertilizing frequency affects needle length on pines... Tiny brown needles stuck to my fingers are third year's growth (from before I bought it), then you can see the difference between last years growth (where I used a liquid fertilizer 3 time during the growing season) and this year's growth at the tip (fertilized every week since taken out of the cold-frame in spring). Judging by the differences in length, I'm guessing the nursery that raised these only did spring/fall applications of fertilizer...

More to follow...

 

[brewmeister83]

Once the glue had set hard enough to work (about 4 hours after applied) I was left with a couple spots where it had foamed out of the cracks. Clean-up was simple, just took my tweezers and pulled the excess off before it completely hardened...



With the rock clean, I set about the possibly fatal task of bare-rooting the pine. I went as carefully as I could, and to my delight I found that the organic nursery soil it was in produced a lot of long thin circling roots, but not a whole lot in the center of the pot. This made cleaning out the old soil very easy. Unfortunately, there were a couple large roots facing downward that wouldn't be able to be bent out of the way, so I ended up having to remove about 30-40% of the root mass

 

[Vin]

Sitting here eating popcorn and waiting for the show. Should be pretty cool if it works. Good luck!

 

[brewmeister83]

With the roots freed of the organic muck they were in, I set the pine in a bucket of water to soak while I prepped the rock and colander it would be planted on. 12" dollar store colander lined with plastic 1/16" screen, filled with about an inch or so of large grain (1/4 - 1/2") perlite for drainage. Rock wired and anchored into place.



I started by placing the pine on the rock and tying into place with some jute twine, then wrapped the roots with layers of twine spaced 1-2 inches around the rock to hold them in place. Why not wire? I used jute since it is an organic material, and will rot after a couple years - this way, as the roots expand they will not be cut into as if I had used wire, rather the twine will just disintegrate and the plant can be left alone for a longer period of time to grow onto the rock. Finally, I arranged the roots under the layers of twine to space out the roots and create a more natural feel. I then fill the colander with a free draining soil mix since several of the roots were long enough to reach.



Finally, I used little bamboo "chocks" I had made from some cut down pieces of trellis material to slip under the twine to tighten it and press the roots closer to the rock. To complete the whole kit & kaboodle, I used copious amounts of soaked sphagnum held in place with several wrappings of more twine to really press the roots against the rock. The whole thing was thoroughly watered and set in my shade-clothed greenhouse to be in dappled light while it recovers from this ordeal.



Poor little thing, I really did a number to it today... Well, if it survives this and the coming winter, I might have a very interesting one-of-a-kind mugo in the future!

 

[Eric Group]

Yikes! You went wild on that guy!

Hope it makes it...

Cool rock!

I might have recommended removing a little more of the top after such hard work on the roots this time of year.

 

[JoeR]

That will be a stunner one day if it survives.

I hope it survives but chances are it wont.

Maybe some of the old soil would have been helpful because pines need that bacteria, no?

 

[brewmeister83]

Yikes! You went wild on that guy!

Hope it makes it...

Cool rock!

I might have recommended removing a little more of the top after such hard work on the roots this time of year.

I was thinking of that, maybe a little trim is in order this weekend...

 

[brewmeister83]

That will be a stunner one day if it survives.

I hope it survives but chances are it wont.

Maybe some of the old soil would have been helpful because pines need that bacteria, no?

way ahead of you, forgot to say in the post that I mixed a bit into the new soil and smeared some on the roots before I wrapped it in sphagnum

 

[Alain]

Nice job and cool experiment, hope it will survive!

A question: Vance keep repeating that mugo love water but hate having their roots wet, how will you avoid wet roots with the sphagnum moss?

 

[klosi]

Nice project. Cool rock. Fingers crossed.

 

[brewmeister83]

Nice job and cool experiment, hope it will survive!

A question: Vance keep repeating that mugo love water but hate having their roots wet, how will you avoid wet roots with the sphagnum moss?

I was worried about that as well, but I realized Vance usually describes working older material - younger plants tend to be able to bounce back from a little more abuse, if this pine was 10+ years I wouldn't even consider doing this.

Like the title says, this is an experiment - this is unknown territory to the best of my knowledge. But this same technique is used with all sorts of species, other pines included. I've actually modified it a bit by just using sphagnum. My rationel for doing it was this - the other techniques I've seen involve either wrapping substrate/moss with some sort of plastic or encasing the root structure with "muck" - both of which hold just as much or more moisture and are waaaay less permeable than an open wrapping of sphagnum. My way allows for more airflow and evaporation, so hopefully (with careful watering) I can keep these roots damp, but not wet like the other two methods I mentioned. Seems to make sense in theory anyways... But we'll see, even if this is a failure this time around we all get to learn something from it.

 

[Alain]

I was worried about that as well, but I realized Vance usually describes working older material - younger plants tend to be able to bounce back from a little more abuse, if this pine was 10+ years I wouldn't even consider doing this.

Like the title says, this is an experiment - this is unknown territory to the best of my knowledge. But this same technique is used with all sorts of species, other pines included. I've actually modified it a bit by just using sphagnum. My rationel for doing it was this - the other techniques I've seen involve either wrapping substrate/moss with some sort of plastic or encasing the root structure with "muck" - both of which hold just as much or more moisture and are waaaay less permeable than an open wrapping of sphagnum. My way allows for more airflow and evaporation, so hopefully (with careful watering) I can keep these roots damp, but not wet like the other two methods I mentioned. Seems to make sense in theory anyways... But we'll see, even if this is a failure this time around we all get to learn something from it.

Sounds like a legitimate thinking.
Hope your little guy will make it.

 

[brewmeister83]

Was thinking last night and came up with a question regarding work on pines. Hopefully an experienced pine person will be able to answer. If you do a massive amount of work on a tree and what you've done ends up killing it - how much time is there, generally speaking, between when you did the deed until you start to see signs of it's demise? Days? Weeks? Months?

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Couple weeks to a couple months.

 

[Eric Group]

Was thinking last night and came up with a question regarding work on pines. Hopefully an experienced pine person will be able to answer. If you do a massive amount of work on a tree and what you've done ends up killing it - how much time is there, generally speaking, between when you did the deed until you start to see signs of it's demise? Days? Weeks? Months?

Having second thoughts on the massive overhaul? I hope it pulls through for you!

 

[brewmeister83]

Having second thoughts on the massive overhaul? I hope it pulls through for you!

Nope, just didn't know when I should expect this tree to "kick the bucket" if it was going to. It's now day 11, if it's going to turn yellow and start dying it should be soon, but as of this morning, it's still bright green and going strong.

 

[Vance Wood]

Was thinking last night and came up with a question regarding work on pines. Hopefully an experienced pine person will be able to answer. If you do a massive amount of work on a tree and what you've done ends up killing it - how much time is there, generally speaking, between when you did the deed until you start to see signs of it's demise? Days? Weeks? Months?

With Mugos you may observe a slow decline within a month, total demise could take an over winter. I recomend sheltering the tree in a place where other trees protect it for winds and extremely cold temperatures.

 

[Vance Wood]

Nope, just didn't know when I should expect this tree to "kick the bucket" if it was going to. It's now day 11, if it's going to turn yellow and start dying it should be soon, but as of this morning, it's still bright green and going strong.

Mugos are tuff little boogers. I am betting the tree will survive as long as you don't really try to kill it, in which case you might try running it through a wood chipper; just kidding. I might try something like this and I think it will make it.

 

[brewmeister83]

Since we're over a month in, thought I'd give an update. Still bright green and alive - some branches are showing signs of minor stress, but I'm guessing they're the branches tied to the roots I had to prune heavily so it would fit on the rock. Otherwise, the majority of the tree looks healthy.



One thing to note: we had a wicked storm with lots of wind about a week ago - the shed door this was in front of blew open and knocked it over, breaking some of the twine wrapping and slightly separating it from the rock. I re-seated the tree and put it back together, hopefully to no effect. While it was separated I noticed new white root tips and the formation of mycelium in the sphagnum and substrate. Did not get a pic however, I was more focused on getting the tree back where it's supposed to be on the rock. It has since been moved away from said shed door.

 

[Vance Wood]

You have got to try and find a place to put the tree where the weather wont blow it over and over enthusiastic people feel the necessity to fool around with it. TRY TO LEAVE IT ALONE for the next couple of years or you are going to lose it.