New Cork Bark Black Pine

[keri-wms]

I’ve wanted one for years, finally picked this up mail order from Corin Tomlinson / Greenwood.

I think it’s a bit weak (one dead lower branch, one probably past saving), I dropped it out the pot and it appears to be in mostly pure grit with some old Akadama or fertiliser near the trunk, the thin white roots are from weeds and most pine roots look old/black and there’s no visible mycorrhiza. There are a handful of new pine growing tips though!

So I scraped the top layer back, chopped up some donor mycorrhiza and mixed into some fresh mix and basically potted it up, 1-2cm bigger bottom and sides. Will keep it out of excessive UK rain, feed it and get to know it for at least a year!

before:


Biggest buds





Gritty stuff, bit sticky near trunk

Good size, bad colour! Before final fill...I will have to watch my watering til the tree’s strong enough for a proper repot

 

[keri-wms]

Here’s the humungous fungus donor! A straight JBP, from seed.

 

[mwar15]

Have the needles been cut? Why are all the tips all brown?

 

[keri-wms]

Have the needles been cut? Why are all the tips all brown?

Yup, not guilty though!

 

[mwar15]

Yup, not guilty though!

Can you share your thoughts on why you cut the tips and the the reasons?

 

[keri-wms]

Can you share your thoughts on why you cut the tips and the the reasons?

As I say, I didn’t, the tree arrived like that.

 

[mwar15]

As I say, I didn’t, the tree arrived like that.

Gotcha

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Enjoy. They’re delightful and frustrating oddities.

 

[keri-wms]

Enjoy. They’re delightful and frustrating oddities.

Thanks! I’m hoping to find out where they differ from normal JBP the easy (online) way rather than the hard way....! At least this one appears to have stock JBP roots due to the graft.

 

[Wilson]

Can you share your thoughts on why you cut the tips and the the reasons?

Growers will cut needles on jbp just to reduce the "solar panels" , clean up the silhouette and let more light pass through. Even Ryan and Bjorn can be seen cutting needles on pines in development.

 

[JeffS73]

Thats a funky looking beast! If, when you come to trim it, you have any material left over, would you consider sending me some? I would love to start some grafts, and then try to get them on their own roots. Been asking around and nothing doing

 

[keri-wms]

Thats a funky looking beast! If, when you come to trim it, you have any material left over, would you consider sending me some? I would love to start some grafts, and then try to get them on their own roots. Been asking around and nothing doing

I’m afraid that’s what I’ll be doing, (grafting later on) sorry about that! There’s some young grafts someone’s got up on fleebay I think?