Shohin Mugo Pine

[Josh88]

It’s time to give this little tree it’s own thread to watch it move along. I bought this Mugo pine from a mentor back in October of 2017. It began its life as nursery stock and has been in training for about 8 years. It was repotted from its broken rectangle into a Sam Miller pot in March 2018 and grew very well this spring and summer. I just finished wiring and styling it over the past two nights, and am very pleased with how it is progressing. I am always happy to hear feedback from anyone who would like to chime in.

 

[Soldano666]

Nice one

 

[Silentrunning]

I really like the trunk on this one. Lots of action!

 

[petegreg]

Nice little tree, nice movement and I like little ones with a bark and this one has a good bark.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Nice, really nice little mugo.

Nice pot but too small. I would have potted this tree lower in the pot, you have exposed a large number of fine roots on one side of the root ball. You may eventually loose them. Hopefully the tree will not drop branches as those roots die. You might get lucky, not seeing the tree in person I might be over estimating the amount of exposed roots.

It can work out, at this point I don't think I would disturb the tree at this time of year unless Vance recommends doing so. So see how it is doing next year and decide.

 

[Josh88]

This little fella has been very happy and healthy and has had a great start to the growing season. It has blown up this spring with a ton of back budding. The needle mass had become too full and heavy, so I cleaned it out yesterday and plucked needles in between all of the new buds and on strong candles to better balance the tree. Of course I forgot a before pic, but here it is after cleanup.

The overall image is getting too big and full for my liking, and it seems logical to me that now would be a good time to cut back to strong extending interior buds. I’m wondering if you more experienced mugo folk would cut back to the interior growth now or is there a better time to make this transition? Here is a closeup of what most of the branches are looking like.

Some of the low branches are not quite this strong and I will leave those be to gain strength and get more interior budding. Any thoughts and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I would guess it is safe to start pruning. Here, growth has not firmed up yet, but our last freeze was around May 10. I wager your spring was earlier, you've had more growing season. It looks like it's okay to start pruning. When pruning back to an interior growth, make sure the growth is in at least it's second year. Brand new growth might not be strong enough to support a "whole branch". Doesn't look like it will be a problem.

Vance recommends not pruning until after the summer solstice, usually June 21 or 22. We're getting close, if you are itching to do something, I would guess it's okay, as I said, your spring is a month or so earlier than ours.

 

[sorce]

I agree it's safe, but I don't think it's necessary, and since you just plucked some things, you may even be teetering with safe.

The next thing that happens with Mugo is the Bud reinforcement in fall. Until then they are just gathering energy so cutting now is Only losing energy. Unless you are absolutely desperate to have light to the interior, but wire and lesser needle removal can accomplish the same, with less energy loss.

Regardless of the years into the back branches, and other "guidelines" in the books, I would only feel safe cutting back to interior buds, when they are pushing candles in spring. That's when you are "out of the woods", if you will. Of course, cutting everything back to wee candles can put you right back in the woods, if you cut now, with no sign reading, it can just die. In and out of the woods is safer!

Here's where I'd be.

Keep the nicely angled ones in green.

Cut the red stuff as close to before the bud reinforcement as possible. This gathers all the energy and reinforces the buds you want.

Leave the yellow drawing sap and life until your greens are stable enough to be cut back to.


Mugo tips seem to work the same as Spruce, one bud is alive, two or three is healthy, 5 is vigorous.

The trouble is we don't see what it will be till bud reinforcement. Watch for bud reinforcement! We had an early winter, my mugos knew it, I didn't get as much bud reinforcement last fall, but got more action and division in spring.

Sorce

 

[Mike Corazzi]

Mugos are the smartest pines. There is no end to the things they can think of to do.

 

[Adair M]

I agree it's safe, but I don't think it's necessary, and since you just plucked some things, you may even be teetering with safe.

The next thing that happens with Mugo is the Bud reinforcement in fall. Until then they are just gathering energy so cutting now is Only losing energy. Unless you are absolutely desperate to have light to the interior, but wire and lesser needle removal can accomplish the same, with less energy loss.

Regardless of the years into the back branches, and other "guidelines" in the books, I would only feel safe cutting back to interior buds, when they are pushing candles in spring. That's when you are "out of the woods", if you will. Of course, cutting everything back to wee candles can put you right back in the woods, if you cut now, with no sign reading, it can just die. In and out of the woods is safer!

Here's where I'd be.

Keep the nicely angled ones in green.

Cut the red stuff as close to before the bud reinforcement as possible. This gathers all the energy and reinforces the buds you want.

Leave the yellow drawing sap and life until your greens are stable enough to be cut back to.
View attachment 309280

Mugo tips seem to work the same as Spruce, one bud is alive, two or three is healthy, 5 is vigorous.

The trouble is we don't see what it will be till bud reinforcement. Watch for bud reinforcement! We had an early winter, my mugos knew it, I didn't get as much bud reinforcement last fall, but got more action and division in spring.

Sorce

Sorce, a recurring theme of a lot of your posts recently has been a concern over “losing energy”.

indeed, energy management is a key to success in bonsai. Bonsai do best when they are well fed, have plenty of sun and water. They’ll grow strong and healthy. That said, they will try to grow as if they were landscape or wild trees, and OUR goal is to contain that growth, and direct that growth to create and maintain an image of a mature tree in miniature. Therefore, there will be “excess energy” that we as bonsai artists will have to deal with. Which usually means pruning and/or cutting back. Depending upon the species, other methods include leaf thinning, needle pulling, defoliating, etc. Even repotting and root pruning have a role in “energy management”.

Another thought: trees often grow “unbalanced”. That is, some parts grow strongly, and others not so much. For bonsai, to have the look that WE as bonsai artists generally prefer, WE tend to prefer that the tree look uniformly strong all over. It doesn’t matter to us what the tree wants, we want it to look a certain way, so we take steps to try to even out the strength. To “balance” the tree, if you will.

How do we do this? Can we selectively make a weak section of a tree stronger? ??? Not really. All we can do is try to make the whole tree stronger. But, if we make the whole tree stronger, we will be strengthening the parts that are already strong! Making them TOO strong! So, that’s where we come in and intentionally weaken the strong sections. Remove the excess energy of the strong sections, but not do anything to weaken the “weak” sections of the tree. Over time, repeated attention to this will allow the weak sections of the tree to catch up with the strong sections and begin to appear more uniform, more “balanced”.

Another term for this is “refinement”.