Picked up a Mugo pine

[maroun.c]

Found this one and couldn't not get it. Might not be perfect but in pine starved country this will have to do at least to train on.
This has been in.nursery since 2 months. They moved it to a "bonsai" pot around 6 weeks back with minimal disturbance to solid it was in and roots. Been doing well and new needles popping from buds which I believe is a good sign potting didnt affect it. I'm hoping itll have a nicer base under soil.
Main question is should I leave it in the broom shape it's in or clean up some branches and go for another style. It's got many branches but all with no needles inside except on the edges of the branches. Should I pinched the new buds or let them.open up?



And new needles

Thanks for any info or suggestions

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

A Pine starved country? Dude, I see three of them in the background! ;-)
Mugos are slow, give it time to show the damage (if there is any) from the repotting. I have one mugo that is still restoring 3 years after a hard repot. I see some juvenile needles (flat and broad instead of the regular needle shape) which means it was stressed at some point not long ago.

I think this tree has a lot of potential judging from the trunk. But I would wait until it shows signs of recovery, and then get it into good soil. For your climate, the repotting season might actually be right after winter. I know Vance doesn't preach that, but I repot my mugos in spring, and they seem to like it. Just don't do a full bare root repot, half bare root at most. I learned that the hard way (see the 3 years recovery part).

 

[maroun.c]

A Pine starved country? Dude, I see three of them in the background! ;-)
Mugos are slow, give it time to show the damage (if there is any) from the repotting. I have one mugo that is still restoring 3 years after a hard repot. I see some juvenile needles (flat and broad instead of the regular needle shape) which means it was stressed at some point not long ago.

I think this tree has a lot of potential judging from the trunk. But I would wait until it shows signs of recovery, and then get it into good soil. For your climate, the repotting season might actually be right after winter. I know Vance doesn't preach that, but I repot my mugos in spring, and they seem to like it. Just don't do a full bare root repot, half bare root at most. I learned that the hard way (see the 3 years recovery part).

HAHAHA Well theres thousands of them around as I'm on the border of a pine forest, yet no pines in nurseries that are suitable for bonsai and can't find JBP or mugo or other here...
OK so wait till next year for repot to make sure it's doing well.
What style would you suggest for this tree? anything I can start preparing at this stage?

 

[GGB]

It looks like someone poured river clay into that pot and then baked it into a brick. Good on that Mugo for even being alive. I don't work with this species so I will not give advice but I know my (newbie) gut reaction would be to get it out of that clay.

 

[M. Frary]

It looks like someone poured river clay into that pot and then baked it into a brick. Good on that Mugo for even being alive. I don't work with this species so I will not give advice but I know my (newbie) gut reaction would be to get it out of that clay.

That would be that wonderous stuff,cacadama.
Miracle dirt.

 

[maroun.c]

As said nursery had repoted it into this soil and pot around 7 weeks back. They said they did it without any roots being disturbed and they showed me pics of a great root mass they took during repot.
Soil is a mix of regular soil and peat. I'm keeping it on the dry side and watering minimally once a day. It seems to drain and is dry next morning. I'm not arguing that this is not good bonsai soil but wondering if its risky to repot now after it's been disturbed few weeks ago and while were in mid summer here (peak temp around 32 degrees celsius at day and around 25 degrees celsius at night)
When is the best time to repot mugos and is it risky to do it now ? If I were to repot should I bare root to get rid of soil? I have pumice, clay balls and pine bark and will be getting Seramis in couple weeks. What would be best to repot in from above ?

 

[M. Frary]

As said nursery had repoted it into this soil and pot around 7 weeks back. They said they did it without any roots being disturbed and they showed me pics of a great root mass they took during repot.
Soil is a mix of regular soil and peat. I'm keeping it on the dry side and watering minimally once a day. It seems to drain and is dry next morning. I'm not arguing that this is not good bonsai soil but wondering if its risky to repot now after it's been disturbed few weeks ago and while were in mid summer here (peak temp around 32 degrees celsius at day and around 25 degrees celsius at night)
When is the best time to repot mugos and is it risky to do it now ? If I were to repot should I bare root to get rid of soil? I have pumice, clay balls and pine bark and will be getting Seramis in couple weeks. What would be best to repot in from above ?

I would leave it right where it is until next year just to be safe.
It's been a while and you run the risk of jacking up the fine feeder roots its grown since it was up potted at the nursery.
You can prune and wire if you wish though.

 

[maroun.c]

Great will repot early spring as advised above bare rooting half of the roots and again year after bare rooting the other half.
any advice on when to fertilize Mugo?

 

[maroun.c]

Trying to set a plan for this tree and appreciate ur input.
Considering following main trunk line as it offers nice movement.

The other two large branches are too thin to be a continuation of the main trunk and a bit too thick to bend or use as first branch. They also shoot up and only have a set of branches emerging all at same location


One last concern is the lack.of.foliage in around half of the tree which will.show long nude branches.

Very few branches are getting a bit of back budding. But I wonder if cleaning up the tree from dead branches and cleaning up a bit of the needles to allow light in will help back bud. It's also got many buds just opening up. As the tree was stressed a bit before I'm wondering if I should reduce to get more back budding



One other consideration is to avoid large branch chops ( taking out those two large branches will take out around 50 percent of the tree ) at least at this stage, cleaning up multiple branches emerging at same spot to 2 and cleaning all dad and bad branches and just pruning g.to a nice cone shape and having a nice broom out of it.
I tend think first option will give a nicer tree with the motion in the trunk.
Appreciate ur opinions on the plan for this tree.

 

[Potawatomi13]

It's got many branches but all with no needles inside except on the edges of the branches. Should I pinched the new buds or let them.open up?

Therein lies biggest problem. Puzzling how "could not" pass up such unprepossessing stock ? Red line may(repeat MAY) be course to redemption.

 

[maroun.c]

Puzzling how "could not" pass up such unprepossessing stock ?

Long story, short answer is quality material is rare at best. 99% of trees I find here have severe reverse taper at best. Finding a trunk which was half decent made me go for it. I'm hoping I can fix the branches issue.
Not much experience with pine (except bad experience) but seeing how much it's back budding on shaded branches I think cleaning up the upper branches will allow those to make it till next year and maybe decandling next year will allow for more buds hopefully down the branches to cut back to.
Not sure what you start with now as I cant repot till next year .

Trunk line i'm considering


Buds in the higher branches


Wondering if or when I should fertilize and if that will lead to even longer branches.

 

[sorce]

I think your best bet to get branches low will be to start training them back ones down to graft onto that trunkline in the future.

It is nice, and after follying with MY calling you out for bad material in your good material desert, I gotta commend you on this find, and your great attitude to keep looking!

Wonder if bud grafts wouldn't take.

What I know...the "healing" growth I'm getting on my mugo around the "Shari" I created would make a graft take right quick.

Go for it.

Sorce

 

[maroun.c]

Thanks for ur kind words Sorce, its indeed frustrating at times.
I'm sure I'll get lucky with few trees down the line and the non perfect ones I have now will make for a good training I guess.

 

[Bonsai_Bentley]

I'm in the same boat Maroun. Not much selection out here. I'm pretty much relegated to combing nurseries for stock and it's rare to find anything even remotely "bonsaiable" in its nursery form. I've had to make some, err, compromises when buying stock and just deal with the flaws. I took a trip to another state recently and about did a back flip when I saw some dwarf mugo pines at a Home Depot. Bought all of them even though they're probably horrible material as far as bonsai goes. Who cares? At least I get to practice. Don't make the same mistake I recently made though. I got all excited when I found some bonsai and made an impulse buy. Stay informed and when you do finally get around decent material try to remember that you don't have to make the same compromises you make when wading through limited resources.