Sebastian1 "This is Not a Contest" - Mugo

[Bolter]

I just recently discovered Bonsai Nut, fortunately just in time for this contest. Think it's a great idea to track the progress of so many trees with such a wide variety of both species and development styles. Hope to see some interesting work along the way.

I picked up this Mugo Pine about a year ago and it has sat in its nursery pot since.

Goals for this year:
1. Decide on a general plan for the trunk line.
1. Start branch reduction.
2. Re-pot and remove the bottom third of the roots.
3. Leave it be and keep it alive until next year.

 

[Vance Wood]

It looks like it might do better with a little bit more light. The trunk looks reasonably good, better than most nursery Pines of this size. Remove stuff growing on the inside of the bend near the base. I look forward to see this trees development.

 

[sorce]

Welcome to Crazy in the Most Learned fashion!

Enter your location!

Don't repot yet!

Do as Vance says and remove just enough from the inside of that curve to reveal some....just the orange....

But you see that one circling root?

Before you....

remove the bottom third of the roots

You may want to consider ONLY cutting that one circling root, and leave it in this pot to recover for a while. 1-2 years even..

This MAY NOT be the BEST option....
But removing the bottom third may remove this option.

Clean some of the "duff" off the top of ths soil and investigate your proper path.

Always go top down to find your root flare before mindlessly whacking the bottom!

This is one of the best trunks I've seen in a while!

Nice grab!

Sorce

 

[Bolter]

It looks like it might do better with a little bit more light. The trunk looks reasonably good, better than most nursery Pines of this size. Remove stuff growing on the inside of the bend near the base. I look forward to see this trees development.

Moved it to a spot with more sun and cleaned it up a bit.

Can the circling root not go at the same time that I repot / remove some of the bottom roots? It doesn't seem that large in terms of root mass.

I thought that getting rid of some of the old nursery soil and replacing it with quicker draining bonsai soil (by removing the bottom portion of the root ball) was key to improving the health of the tree. Shouldn't this be one of the first steps I take (at the right time of the growing season)?

 

[Bolter]

I re-potted this Mugo June 8th 2018 -- I guess I forgot to post pics.

I did end up cutting off the bottom ~3rd of the roots, removing that circling root, and got it into well draining soil.

I also gave it a little trim. I'll post some more recent photos soon.

 

[Bolter]

A year later...

I am still not sure which direction to take on development.

 

[Iowa newbie]

I like it, I just repotted mine, I have nowhere near that good of a root flare, I also have 4 good branches low, but all from the same spot, it a couple of months I'll reevaluate and ask the community for some advice on branch selection.

 

[Vance Wood]

Sometimes you cannot see an obvious direction. The only thing you can do is realize that a mess of branches will always be a mess of branches except more messy as time goes by. I just eliminate the obvious junk and let the tree develop and see what doors open.

 

[Bolter]

Trimmed it up a bit to chase growth closer to the trunk. Wasn't sure if I could remove much more, without damaging the tree. Will probably wait another year before really going after the remaining excess branches.

 

[Bolter]

Here's a couple picture of the buds before I trimmed it. A couple of them had needles starting to poke through.
Also, there was some pine needle scale on some of the needles...