Mugo Yellow Tips

[GreatLakesBrad]

Nursery stock Mugo acquired this year. 60-70% foliage prune and small bit of wiring in July. Fed after noticed new growth and buds setting. No root work.

Seeing yellow tips since September...

Seems to be agreement here and from Vance that Mugo will occasionally show these yellow tips, or in response to not needing as much water for foliage (kept same steady watering after prune)... or over feeding.
Either way sounds like I’m okay. Anyone disagree?

 

[woodkraftbonsai]

I believe that it is just a color variation on that type of Mugo. I have a Mugo that has shown the same coloring since I bought it, and I have pruned and re-potted it with no change to the color of the tips. I actually really like the look of it once it is filled out.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

looks okay. I don't see anything I would actually do anything about. But it is hard to tell from a photo.

I like the start you have, I hope it does well next year.

 

[woodkraftbonsai]

Here's an old pic when I found some pine cones on mine. Note the yellow tips. Perfectly normal

 

[AJL]

I agree with Leo -it looks OK to me - my Mugo pine does this too in winter for the past 15 years then greens up again in spring!

 

[0soyoung]

Yellow needle tips is normal for alpine species. Some do it in response to temperature and some because of day length. It is due to increased xanthophylls protecting the photocenters (chlorphyll) when it is cold outside. Xanthophylls divert the energy adsorbed from sunlight away from the photocenters so that the fluid in the thylakoids doesn't become too acidic during winter. Most all the reactions of photosynthesis are controlled by enzymes. Enzymatic reaction rates decrease with decreasing temperature. The rate of photon adsorption, however, would be independent of temperature were it not for xanthophylls. Some species, such as junipers and cryptomeria use anthocyanins to reflect red light to accomplish the same end - leaves of these species look red to brownish during winter.

btw, this may make more sense after having dug into photosynthesis. Khan Academy has an excellent, easy to understand, lessons about it. The details are also presented in Wikipedia, but are much more challenging to understand.

 

[just.wing.it]

I remember my mugos doing that.......

I need another mugo!

 

[GreatLakesBrad]

Feeling comfortable after the shared experiences. Thank you all!

going down a photosynthesis rabbit hole soon, looks like I need to set aside an hour or two. Thanks for the detail, 0so.

now the question will be roots vs (and?) further styling next summer. Winter is proving a good time to struggle (emphasis on struggle, I think I’ve made 4-5 on this one already) through virts and debate next steps.

Loving my Mugo and planning on adding one or two more next year. Back budding was plentiful which was surprising for me. Cool species. And yes I have and will continue to review Vance’s expertise... have the “summary” resource bookmarked.

 

[Vance Wood]

I hope to have more information to add. I have done some pretty extreme and for me experimental projects on several of them I plan to share om 2020. I am finding Mugos more difficult to obtain. It seems you guys out there have decimated the market.