Mugo Pine Bonsai - seasonal guide

[Daluke]

Hi,

I have read about Vance's and others Mugo pines with much interest, but am finding it difficult to find a seasonal guide to these trees.

It seems that everything is detailed by "month" rather than season, mostly by forum users in the states. It's hard being in Australia to make sense of what to do by season.

Has anyone got a link to a document?

Thanks in advance.

 

[0soyoung]

Hard to believe.

1. Universally with all pines, you may withhold nitrogen in spring to shorten internodes and needle length.
   1. Late fall is a good time for wiring as there is relatively little risk of tearing the bark and getting yourself all gooey. Likewise, this is also the better time to remove wire, but you should remove it as soon as it is starting to 'bite in' if you are concerned about wire 'scars'.
2. Shortly after the summer solstice (aka 'Fathers Day', on or about 21 June in the northern hemisphere, 21 Dec in the southern - where you are), the season's growth on mugos will have fully extended and hardened
   1. the best time to repot mugos
   2. resume supplying nitrogen if you've been withholding
   3. you may cut back new shoots partially or completely (if completely, do this no more often than 4 successive years as mugo needles only last for 5) to induce back budding
   4. remove downward needles

What else do you need to know?

 

[Lazylightningny]

http://www.bonsainut.com/resources/compiled-vance-wood-on-mugo-pines.23/

 

[Daluke]

Hard to believe.

1. Universally with all pines, you may withhold nitrogen in spring to shorten internodes and needle length.
   1. Late fall is a good time for wiring as there is relatively little risk of tearing the bark and getting yourself all gooey. Likewise, this is also the better time to remove wire, but you should remove it as soon as it is starting to 'bite in' if you are concerned about wire 'scars'.
2. Shortly after the summer solstice (aka 'Fathers Day', on or about 21 June in the northern hemisphere, 21 Dec in the southern - where you are), the season's growth on mugos will have fully extended and hardened
   1. the best time to repot mugos
   2. resume supplying nitrogen if you've been withholding
   3. you may cut back new shoots partially or completely (if completely, do this no more often than 4 successive years as mugo needles only last for 5) to induce back budding
   4. remove downward needles

What else do you need to know?

When to;

- hard prune branches from nursery stock
- root prune

Thanks

 

[0soyoung]

When to;

- hard prune branches from nursery stock
- root prune

Thanks

Hard pruning branches is something that can be done anytime. But, also just like any other pine, pruning around the time of the fall equinox will not produce a lot of resin bleed.
Root pruning is the same timing as repotting.

Of course, you need to think when you do these things. For example, the foliage provides the material and stimulation for root growth. If you are repotting/root pruning, your tree will recover faster if you do NOT prune the new growth of that season.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Also, with mugo stick to one insult per 12 month period. I say 12 months, because if you do something drastic like hard pruning in November, and then wait until ''next year'', to repot in January, you have not given the tree 12 months to recover.

One insult per year.

The solstice and the equinox dates are the best season markers.

 

[Vance Wood]

I really don't know what to tell you for sure what to do with every thing turned upside down North to South. I remember a time when no one was growing Mugos but me. When I started posting on the INTERNET many years ago most people said I was wasting my time and all of the things I was discovering about this tree were items from fairy tales. Over time my methods have been proven to be correct. However in saying that, still, some of the standard two-needle Pine information still creeps in there at times. I have not had enough feed back from the Southern Hemisphere cycle back to me which I am confident have been applied accurately enough to guarantee the method does work North and South. From time to time I keep hearing the old Mantra, and I am not being critical of those who claim it so; only one insult a season, or you may kill the tree. This may be true in some cases but I believe the truth should be known. My records are full of trees where the process of drastic pruning, wiring and repotting the tree have been done at the same time same day the same year. All of these trees have survived. Here is the kicker; all of these examples shown here have been accomplished during the middle of the growing season when the temperature could be called nothing less than Hellish.

So you can see there are reasons why some people call me crazy. However here are some of my trees that have been grown using these methods, with some more than 45 years.

 

[Daluke]

What works for one doesn't work for all. But you don't know if you don't try. For what it's worth you have lovely unique trees. Mugo pine isn't very popular down here in comparison to other species like Japanese black pine. It's probably because everyone with Mugo subscribe to old fashioned thinking.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

@Daluke and @Vance Wood

Vance, you are right, I tend to repeat the "one insult per year" because I personally have a huge number of dead pines behind me, in my decades of bonsai. Majority because I did too much, too soon too often. Vance, you are right, you can do several things all in one day, and it works. But I think you and I agree, after drastic work, the tree needs time to recover. I realize now, that for the first 10 years of seriously trying to grow pines, I was constantly mistaking weak growth for vigorous growth. It wasn't until I had a truly robust, healthy JBP in my hands that I realized I was trying to work weak, near death JBP. It was no surprise that I was loosing so many. So I tend to repeat the mantra ''One insult per year'' loud and often as much to keep myself from over doing it. Too much, too many ''treatments'' is a common new to bonsai mistake, and it took me a long time to recognize it. But you are right. Once someone is able to accurately assess the health of a tree, you can get away with doing more, and combining different tasks at the same work session.