Mugo pine - Looking for advice....of course.

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Mame
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Hello again,

Alright last one for a while, promise...maybe. As you see I have this is the mugo pine in question here. Wanted to throw out a couple styling questions.

I have and idea of what I might be wanting to do here but wanted to get some feedback from the community. Red lines on the pictures are one way I could go ( cutting off at the red) then also have the blue lines for a different route. I had another idea but it would require lopping off a huge portion of the left side and I just didn't think that it would ever heal up. I would be wiring up the new leader and have it start to build taper and what not but the trunk is so fat compared to the branches that obviously it would take a long time which is fine. The trunk is about 3 1/2 inches wide. My jin making skills on photoshop are lacking.

Thanks,

Aaron
 

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Brian Van Fleet

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It's good to identify a trunk line, but if you cut at all the red lines now, it may not be left with enough foliage to live. So, the goal is to identify a trunk line, then start to push the growth back toward that trunk line.

This is accomplished by selectively pinching final branches (to encourage ramification), and leaving sacrifice branches to keep the tree strong until back budding grows enough to begin training into branches originating on/near the trunk.

I mark sacrifice branches with twistie ties, and strip all the needles off them, leaving 20 pairs or so at the distal end of the branch, surrounding next year's bud. This keeps the tree strong, and allows light into the interior, so back budding can occur.

The tree will look goofy for a couple years, but keep a steady vision, and each winter's work will advance the tree by quantum leaps.
 

Defect

Mame
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Thanks Brian that is exactly what I did minus the tagging of branches but that is a good idea. I just trimmed it up a bit to allow more light to penetrate the inner part of the tree and to try and get some back budding going.

Thanks for the reply,

Aaron

Oh and BTW, I read the information on your site and it is amazingly detailed. Kudos to you sir.
 
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Defect

Mame
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Brian or anyone that has some experience with these guys. I have read that this time of the year is about perfect to repot mugo's. Do you think that it would be alright to do a repot on this guy now or since I took off about 30% of the foliage this year just leave it? Taking only about 60% of the original soil out and leaving the rest. This tree is not in an ideal soil mix.

Thanks
 

Brian Van Fleet

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Search for mugo (some spell it mugho) and you'll find a recent discussion with advice from Vance Wood. He has good luck transplanting them in summer, and years of experience.
 

fore

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Humm....I thought I read that you need needles on the branches to get back budding on Mugos? No needles, no back buds. Am I wrong?
 

Defect

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I am pretty sure that is wrong because I have some new shoots coming off the main trunk from earlier this year. You can see them in picture 2 on the right side and in picture one even if those 2 branches on the main trunk are say 2 years old there is no way that there were needles there 2 years ago.
 
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Ang3lfir3

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Humm....I thought I read that you need needles on the branches to get back budding on Mugos? No needles, no back buds. Am I wrong?

I am pretty sure that is wrong because I have some new shoots coming off the main trunk from earlier this year. You can see them in picture 2 on the right side and in picture one even if those 2 branches on the main trunk are say 2 years old there is no way that there were needles there 2 years ago.

The "you need needles" comments regarding pines in general is that without needles on a branch it simply dies as they are the food factories/energy producers ... @fore I think most of what you are thinking of is the warnings given to people about cutting back too far.... with pines you "chase back" foliage unlike with D trees where you often can just chop it to a stump.....

as for mughos back budding on sections with no needles... absolutely they will and they will do it readily ... many other pines will do this as well but mughos are the most famous for it... it is also what makes them a great bonsai subject (among other attributes) ....
 

Dav4

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Don't forget that Vance lives in Michigan...summer re-potting in the parts of CA routinely seeing temps north of 100 right now may not be a good idea. I honestly don't know, but If you do live in the hotter climates in CA, there may be a better time, perhaps early fall.
 

Vance Wood

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Brian or anyone that has some experience with these guys. I have read that this time of the year is about perfect to repot mugo's. Do you think that it would be alright to do a repot on this guy now or since I took off about 30% of the foliage this year just leave it? Taking only about 60% of the original soil out and leaving the rest. This tree is not in an ideal soil mix.

Thanks

Yes, I do it all of the time especially with trees like this one.
 

Vance Wood

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Humm....I thought I read that you need needles on the branches to get back budding on Mugos? No needles, no back buds. Am I wrong?

You are not wrong and you are wrong. In my experience Mugos back bud more predictably if there are needles left in locations where you want new buds. Otherwise your back budding is going to be more random and unpredictable. Having said that let me add newly emerged buds are very fragile and easily broken off, so treat them carefully.
 
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