newly collected lodgepole pine

[dkraft81]

Hi all,

So I recently collected a lodgepole pine up in the mountains where I live. Unfortunately in the process of collecting it, the tree was esentially barerooted. The soil it was in was a silty sand. When I got back from the mountains I potted it up, but unfortunately ran out of my bonsai soil, talk about a bad day. I did not have all the material to make more so for the time being I used the soil it was originally growing in. I had also collected some decomposed granite while I was up there so I amended the soil with that.

My question would be now that I have gathered the necessary materials to make a good soil, should I repot or wait until this winter?

I live along the front range in colorado, and this week was the first week of sustained 90 + degree days. Fortunately the first week I had it we had nice cool temps in the 60's. This is my first pine I have collected and it has a lot of potential, but I dont want to kill it with bad soil, and on the other hand I dont want to kill it with potting at the wrong time of the year.

 

[Martin Sweeney]

dkraft81,

It will be impossible for us to determine if the soil used in the original potting needs to be replaced. If it is mostly grit with little organic matter in it, drains well and covers the roots, then I would err on the side of waiting until the tree is growing strongly and has recovered from the digging before repotting it again. To my mind, the only reason to repot at this time of year would be because the soil is not draining properly and the plant is not healthy. Is there a club with a member with experience with Lodgepole Pine you can reach out to locally for an experienced eyeballing of your tree?

Regards,
Martin

 

[Dan W.]

I would also wait, probably for a year or two. If the soil you used isn't draining well then you may not have a choice, but you said that you used some bonsai soil... - that should help with drainage. - In general you should move very slowly with old collected pines.

I haven't had a whole lot of luck with lodgepole (p. latifolia) yet; I have two that are growing well after collection last (late summer/fall), but I've lost three... one spring collection and two more fall. Good luck with yours, I hope it does great for you! I think these will make very nice bonsai.

We'd love to see pictures.

 

[Dan W.]

Also, make sure you give it plenty of shade. Two to three hours of sun in the morning is plenty, but shade for the rest of the day is best.

 

[tom tynan]

You have not said anything about the condition of the tree when you collected it ? Did you get a good root mass ? Was it collected in a rock pocket with a dense mat of fiborous roots or did you only get a few roots ? From my viewpoint - you can always try slip potting the tree - meaning you carefully remove it from the soil it is in now and then move it to a new mix. If you try this though - make sure you have everything to finish the job. Any roots that are active - should be white or white tips - you do not want to break these. In the end it is your gamble - whether you gamble with the tree in the mix now, as is, or risk moving to a coaser mix - that is the risk. If you try to move it do not do any root work now - meaning cutting or removing any roots - just coil these and put the roots back into the pot if you go that route. Good luck....Tom

 

[dkraft81]

I would also wait, probably for a year or two. If the soil you used isn't draining well then you may not have a choice, but you said that you used some bonsai soil... - that should help with drainage. - In general you should move very slowly with old collected pines.

I haven't had a whole lot of luck with lodgepole (p. latifolia) yet; I have two that are growing well after collection last (late summer/fall), but I've lost three... one spring collection and two more fall. Good luck with yours, I hope it does great for you! I think these will make very nice bonsai.

We'd love to see pictures.

Thanks everyone. It does drain fairly well, not the best but good enough to last this summer I believe. The root mass left a lot to be desired. It was deffinately not fiberous. It also had a very long tap root that had to be cut during collection. The roots are deffinately going to be my biggest concern dor the tree for a while.

Once I figure out how to add pictures ill add them.

 

[dkraft81]

Any suggestions on how to upload photos. I have tried numerous times, and all I get is a revolving circle.

 

[0soyoung]

Any suggestions on how to upload photos. I have tried numerous times, and all I get is a revolving circle.

It is right there in the forum FAQ: posting Attachements and Pictures

 

[BrianBay9]

I've collected alot of lodgepole in Colorado. The best survival rate comes with trees collected from pockets in granite that have a compact root system. Your description suggests this might not have been an ideal candidate for collection. In any event, my aftercare consisted of potting in pond baskets or other very well draining container, and sinking the pot half way up into a bed of pea gravel in a protected location of my property (north side of the house, with a fence breaking the wind from the north). I would leave collected trees there unworked until new roots were growing out the bottom of the pots - however long it took. And sometimes it took two or three years.

Good luck with your tree. I hope it surprises you and grows like mad this year.

Brian

 

[Vance Wood]

Any suggestions on how to upload photos. I have tried numerous times, and all I get is a revolving circle.

How are you trying to download photos?

 

[dkraft81]

Thanks for the link to the forum on it. That is what I have been attempting to do. Ill try it again, and try to be a little more patient, i have been letting it go for about thirty minutes. The file size is only 150kb so not that large of a photo. I also noticed that I cant do it from my tablet either. I guess I am a little more technologically impaired than I thought.

 

[Vance Wood]

Thanks for the link to the forum on it. That is what I have been attempting to do. Ill try it again, and try to be a little more patient, i have been letting it go for about thirty minutes. The file size is only 150kb so not that large of a photo. I also noticed that I cant do it from my tablet either. I guess I am a little more technologically impaired than I thought.

You may have to put the photo into a third party program make sure it is saved in a JPEG format and save it to a file on your device. Then go to the post reply window on this forum, go down and select manage attachments and a upload manager window will appear.
On the right side of that drop down window select add files then click on choose file. Select the file and choose and select upload. Give it time to upload from you computer or whatever it will place the picture on the window below select Insert Inline and select done.

 

[Dan W.]

You can also use Photobucket. Upload your photos there and then just copy the IMG link and paste it in your post. http://www.photobucket.com/

 

[dkraft81]

How are you trying to download photos?

Thanks everyone for the ideas. I tried to download them for over thirty minutes with no luck, so here they are using the photobucket idea.

http://m1314.photobucket.com/albumview/albums/dkraft81/20130611_131135_zps914f817e.jpg.html?o=0

Since this was my first collected pine I thought I would go for an informal upright as opposed to a pine that had a ton of age. This way I wont feel quite as bad if it dies.

 

[0soyoung]

testing direct photo upload

I copied your first picture to my desktop and started this reply.
Click the 'Insert Image' icon on the menu bar.
It opens a dialog with two tabs.
I selected the tab 'from computer' and/or deselected the 'from URL' option.
Then I click the 'browse' (or 'choose') button and find my file.
Then (after clicking some buttons, the file name appears in the space beside/above the browse/choose button) click 'upload file'.
Voila!


It is a cake walk in IE32, IE64, Chrome, Opera, and Safari browsers on my winVista PC.

 

[dkraft81]

Thanks for getting the photo uploaded.