Oct and just got 2 new mugo pines

[DhD47]

This are my first mugo pines so I don't know if I should do anything to the plants before winter or just let them be until spring.
The soil they are in is not the best but will be fine until sprint when I can repot and change the soil.
What I need to know is there any trimming I need to do becore winter season.

Thanks. I'm excited to start some mugo pines.

Dave.

 

[0soyoung]

Nope, you do not want to repot next spring. Wait until next summer (after the summer solstice, though Vance advises after Fathers Day). If you want, you could style them now (i.e., clip and wire) or sometime over the coming few months.

Meanwhile, read and Vance Woods' posts on mugos here at BNut!

 

[barrosinc]

Nope, you do not want to repot next spring. Wait until next summer (after the summer solstice, though Vance advises after Fathers Day). If you want, you could style them now (i.e., clip and wire) or sometime over the coming few months.

Meanwhile, read and Vance Woods' posts on mugos here at BNut!

badda bing http://bonsainut.com/forums/showthread.php?14635-A-question-for-Vance-Wood

 

[Kelly]

Welcome!

Welcome!
I'm relatively new as well with Mugos ...
Vance Wood is "the" master and I have been following his advice ... repot after "Father's Day" despite what other pines can take. Also, differences in de-candling from other species.
Vance will probably roll in and comment.
Suggest you fertilize prior to winter ... 10-10-10 and consider a fungicide e.g. Captan as many of the pines have fungi direct from the nursery ... These don't show up for a season as in "next year".
Hard to help without pics ... the experts will want to see the trees.
Cheers
Kelly

 

[DhD47]

I will gladly post some photos this weekend. It is dark now so I will wait until morning.

For now I'm off to read that link. I'm excited to be starting my first mugo pines now

Thank you

 

[DhD47]

And then there was 5

I stopped by the home improvement store again today and I couldn't help myself. I had to buy 3 more mugo pines. At $5 each I had to buy more. I will get photos up soon.

Dave

 

[DhD47]

5 photos of the trees from store

As you can see I have not done a thing to the trees but I wanted to know if there is anything that needs to be done before winter. I plant to place the trees in the garden into a hole with the trees covered with straw to protect from the winds and any super cold we may get this year. After I place in the garden how much do I water over the winter? Do I not water if it is freezing?

Thank you.
Dave

 

[M. Frary]

That's a good plan for wintering these. As for watering you are correct. No sense trying to water a block of frozen soil. Really you could just set them on the ground and they would be fine. They don't mind super cold at all.

 

[Adair M]

Those pictures don't show anything except for a bunch of green needles.

What you need to show is the trunk, and how it emerges from the soil (nebari).

We often cut the extra lip off the nursery cans so that we can see the trunk from the side. Often, nursery stock has extra soil so the the trunk is buried down an inch or two. You might want to feel around to base of the trunks to see where the roots start.

The most important part of any bonsai tree is the lower trunk, and how it emerges from the soil.

 

[DhD47]

Those pictures don't show anything except for a bunch of green needles.

What you need to show is the trunk, and how it emerges from the soil (nebari).

We often cut the extra lip off the nursery cans so that we can see the trunk from the side. Often, nursery stock has extra soil so the the trunk is buried down an inch or two. You might want to feel around to base of the trunks to see where the roots start.

The most important part of any bonsai tree is the lower trunk, and how it emerges from the soil.

I guess the photos could have been better but on the iPhone they looked ok but now on the PC they look really small. Sorry about that, I'll post photos from the PC from now on.

I did check the trunks before I purchased them and I will get better photos later. For now I wanted to show the plant and see if I need to cut back anything now before I winterize them all. I will get a photo of the trunks so you can see if I did any good at my choices on trees. I know a couple at least are good.

Thanks for the info.
Dave

 

[Adair M]

How could anyone tell from those photos?

They probably do need cutting back, but it's impossible to see where.

You need to let sunlight into the interior. Else the limbs become long and spindly. You want to encourage foliage to grow near the trunk.

Most box store Mugo will have a crown of foliage, but when you look underneath there lots of old dead brown needles and twigs that got shaded out. The challenge is to look inside, pick the keeper branches, remove the excess branches, the then Eire it out do that light gets inside the canopy and you'll hopefully get some backbuding.

 

[Giga]

I would also suggest along with pruning is planting them in the ground and let them grow for a few years. I've been on the lookout for a mugo pine for a while but all I find are the saplings that you bought. Though for the price they will be of great help in learning how to care for mugo as they are a little different

 

[Paradox]

Dont cut anything back now. Placing these trees along the foundation of your house, preferably on the north side and covering with mulch will be fine to overwinter...I think.

The reason why I say "I think" is we have no idea where in the world you are.
Since on one else has said it yet: please update your profile with your location information ie: closest large city and state. That way we can give you proper advice for your location.

 

[Vance Wood]

It's hard to know for sure what you are dealing with so I will come at them as I would with a bunch I have purchased to grow out, style and resale at some point down the line. Without seeing any trunk details it is impossible to assume you have one or more trees that really can be developed as a bonsai without having to go through what I am going to describe.

I am not a big fan of putting Mugos in the ground to grow them out. Most of the time they go in the ground and stay there. You right now have bushy little trees,--- if you put them in the ground you will have bushy larger trees If you don't have some sort of idea what you want to do, or have to do, to develop the trunk this process is a wast of time and in the end,--- probably a wast of material. The most important thing in a Mugo, or any other Pine bonsai for that matter, is the trunk. The trunk of your tree will define the quality and nature of the finished tree.

The problem with putting them in the ground without making trunk oriented decisions is today's defects, solvable with minor pruning, will become major problems latter down the road that could smothered out more desirable, even if weaker, branches and trunk directions that could have been developed.

I so often hear people complain about the landscape nature of the Mugo Pine, it's just a bush that is round and all kinds of trunks and--- bushy, turn around and suggest the tree be placed in the ground to develop, putting the tree in the very situation that created the problems they complain about.

The Mugo is a mountain tree. It is adaptable to a host of environments and I have found them in landscapes as far South as Texas. However they need to be treated differently than JBP which is the standard two-needle pine bench mark for bonsai culture, wrongly so in my opinion, but it is what it is. You can only treat a Mugo like a JBP so long before it fails. I have been growing this tree seriously since 1972. I am constantly trying to learn more about the tree and one thing I discovered this summer is that the Mugo is quick to form a Krumholz in order to survive the environment. This is also why single trunked Mugos are not that commonly encountered in the Nusrsey trade. The Krumholz formations are more encouraged for landscape purposes. Single trunks have to be developed out of the beginnings of the krumholz formations.

This is a Mugo Krumholz located in the parking lot of the Hovenweep Museum in Southern Utah. This tree and three or four others demonstrate a couple of things about Mugos. This particular tree has been here for 25years according to curator of the Museum along with three or four others:

This tree was planted at the same time with the same group of trees and is about 12' high.

Sorry for the rant but this brings us to the point already alluded to; defining the nature and shape of the trunk. Until you discover what you have going on I would suggest that you place all of these trees in Pond baskets or colanders. These will allow the trees to grow but give you the ability to work on them at the same time.

 

[Vance Wood]

Dont cut anything back now. Placing these trees along the foundation of your house, preferably on the north side and covering with mulch will be fine to overwinter...I think.

The reason why I say "I think" is we have no idea where in the world you are.
Since on one else has said it yet: please update your profile with your location information ie: closest large city and state. That way we can give you proper advice for your location.

This too is a good option. Not much of what you can do now is going to have more effects than how you get them through the winter. I agree the North side is good and mulching it also good even in pond baskets and colanders.

 

[Vance Wood]

I would also suggest along with pruning is planting them in the ground and let them grow for a few years. I've been on the lookout for a mugo pine for a while but all I find are the saplings that you bought. Though for the price they will be of great help in learning how to care for mugo as they are a little different

You can do some minor pruning but what I have found is that many people new to bonsai or new to Mugo Pines, tend to get a pair of pruners in their hands and go to far this late in the year. There are some tricks to pruning a Mugo to prevent it from dying back in places you would rather it did not. I have found that Mugos are to a great degree, compartmentalized in their relationship root to tops. This is something you have to think about especially when removing larger branches.

 

[Giga]

listen to him he's an expert and go find all his thread on mugo-very informative. I only meant trim when appropriate to define a single trunk line or twin(whatever your style is) and then let it thicken in the ground. Though planting in a colander seems like a better idea.

 

[Giga]

You can do some minor pruning but what I have found is that many people new to bonsai or new to Mugo Pines, tend to get a pair of pruners in their hands and go to far this late in the year. There are some tricks to pruning a Mugo to prevent it from dying back in places you would rather it did not. I have found that Mugos are to a great degree, compartmentalized in their relationship root to tops. This is something you have to think about especially when removing larger branches.

I didn't know he was new-Yeah I find the same thing. I don't have any mugo but I do have a lot of pines. Again listen to Vance here

 

[Paradox]

Vance, when you say put them into pond baskets/colanders, do you mean simply slip potting and should he do this now? Like with pruning, new people often go overboard when repotting as well. As you know it is a bit late for repotting too and the trees should be fine in their nursery cans over the winter.

 

[Vance Wood]

Vance, when you say put them into pond baskets/colanders, do you mean simply slip potting and should he do this now? Like with pruning, new people often go overboard when repotting as well. As you know it is a bit late for repotting too and the trees should be fine in their nursery cans over the winter.

Either way. Not knowing for sure where the OP is located it's difficult to be more specific. Slip potting a Mugo is seldom a problem.