Thickening mugo pine

[Nishant]

Hello Friends, I want to thicken up my Mugo pine. What are the right things to do. I can put it in larger pot or ground. My question is :

Given that I would eventually want it out in a pot, will it a good idea to put the root ball in a collander before putting it in ground (or larger pot)? So that I can cut out the roots easily when I extract it from ground.

Please share your experience in this topic.

Thanks
Nishant

 

[Adair M]

Hello Friends, I want to thicken up my Mugo pine. What are the right things to do. I can put it in larger pot or ground. My question is :

Given that I would eventually want it out in a pot, will it a good idea to put the root ball in a collander before putting it in ground (or larger pot)? So that I can cut out the roots easily when I extract it from ground.

Please share your experience in this topic.

Thanks
Nishant

If you want maximum trunk growth, plant it in the ground. No question.

Here’s the “gotcha”: You need to have prepped the tree properly before you put it in the ground. You see, if you plant a tree with a one sided rootball, all heavy roots on one side, and few on the other and plant it in the ground, 5 years later when you dig it up, you’ll have a fatter tree with too heavy roots on one side and no roots on the other, making the tree a poor bonsai, and a waste of 5 years.

Spend the time, a year or two properly developing a balanced, radial, root system, then plant it in the ground.

About colanders; that article about growing JBP from seed that originated the whole colander craze was by a guy who wanted SHOHIN pines. The colander would keep the roots contained in a small area so that he could eventually pot them in tiny Shohin pots.

If you’re not after a Shohin, just prep the root system, and plant it in the ground. It would not hurt to place a tile or something under the rootball to keep the roots from growing down.

 

[Adair M]

If you want maximum trunk growth, plant it in the ground. No question.

Here’s the “gotcha”: You need to have prepped the tree properly before you put it in the ground. You see, if you plant a tree with a one sided rootball, all heavy roots on one side, and few on the other and plant it in the ground, 5 years later when you dig it up, you’ll have a fatter tree with too heavy roots on one side and no roots on the other, making the tree a poor bonsai, and a waste of 5 years.

Spend the time, a year or two properly developing a balanced, radial, root system, then plant it in the ground.

About colanders; that article about growing JBP from seed that originated the whole colander craze was by a guy who wanted SHOHIN pines. The colander would keep the roots contained in a small area so that he could eventually pot them in tiny Shohin pots.

If you’re not after a Shohin, just prep the root system, and plant it in the ground. It would not hurt to place a tile or something under the rootball to keep the roots from growing down.

One more thing... the way the a Japanese growers do it is they don’t just grow one or two. They start 50 to 100! Pot them up, or stick in the ground, and let them grow. Then 5 years later, they come back and cull. Keeping 5 or 10, and tossing the other 90 trees!

 

[sorce]

I was just out looking at my Pugo Mine thinking about taking a picture of the Shari and it's subsequent healing.
I was amazed at how thick of a "rollover" it's putting. Just in a colander. And not with great amounts of foliage. Fish.

It seems the ground would allow it to get away from you too fast from here. Unless you are spending the ground growing time learning how to graft.

The risk, colander in ground or not, of ground growing, seems larger than the benefits. Since mugo, very unlike American Elm, is not a "set it and forget it" ground candidate.

The attention and care you'll be able to give it in a basket at eye level will be plenty enough to move this along to a believeable tree without need for the ground.

What's gonna go in that pot then?

Sorce

 

[sorce]

Sorce

 

[Nishant]

What does this picture mean Sorce.

 

[Adair M]

What does this picture mean Sorce.

I have no idea what Sorce was trying to illustrate.

But what it does show is one of the reasons that Mugos are difficult subjects for bonsai here in the United States. There’s nothing wrong with them as a species, the problem is how they’re grown by the commercial landscape industry to be shrubs, not trees. They don’t let them develop a central trunk. They shear them into balls, each year letting them grow about an inch bigger. So what happens is they develop whorles and whorles of stubby branches, each whorl has about 8 branches. It’s bad enough there’s whorls, but the whorles build knobs of reverse taper. Even if you remove the excess branches, you’re stuck with the knobs. If you try to remove enough wood to remove the knob, the portion above the knob may die off. If not, it still takes a long time for the tree to heal over that cut, and even then, Mugo produces pretty thick callous tissue, so you’re back having a knob again!

a Scots Pine would be a better choice. The landscape industry grows these to be trees, not shrubs.

In Europe, there are wonderful Mugo pines. They’re allowed to be trees over there.

 

[Nishant]

Adair, I checked the roots today and it was all round equall growth in all side. Transplanted it in a bigger pot today. My mugo has a a decent trunk 7 inches long before it bifurcates. No knots.