Another mugo attempt

[Adair M]

Vance,

I have never said that you should stop doing Mugos. By all means, do what you like. If you don't like JBP, then don't grow them.

That said, it appears that you and others around you are misinformed as to how to grow them. Perhaps if y'all learned the proper technique, you'd like them better.

But I'm not trying to get you to change species, just stop spreading misinformation!

You are not alone with the misinformation.

I blame a lot of it on the old John Naka books. People treat those books as if they were the Bible! Unfortunately, at the time John wrote those books, he didn't know about decandling. He did learn about it later, and taught it. But it's not in his books. He describes the old starvation and keeping the tree pot bound in the books. Terribly outdated!

Warren Hill also spread misinformation about JBP. I took a workshop from him in October, and he was teaching to decandle then, in October! Again, misinformation! (There is a special case when you might want to decandle in the fall to force backbuding, but its rare to ever do it. It's not the main technique.). Warren taught fall decandling as the primary technique!! wrong !

So, please excuse me if I'm adamant about this. If someone wants to know how to grow JBP, refer them to me or Brian Van Fleet or markyscott, and just say that you don't know the current technique. (Which has been used for the past 40 years.)

Likewise, I'll refer all inquiries about Mugos to you since I don't grow them.

 

[Smoke]

You're a funny dude Al. I hope you are alright. Pain in the arms and legs seem to be haunting me more and more the older I get. I do the best I can to stay away from medications, it seem for every one pill they give you they have to give you three more to counteract the side effects. So conceivably you could wind up with three pills to do one thing.

I was recently diagnosed with type one diabetes and given the prescription Metforman to lower blood sugar. Believe it or not this stuff turned me into an ass-hole. I know, I know many of you are saying; " but Vance you were already an ass-hole." I had become an ass-hole squared. I know many of you are saying; " but Vance you were already square." Just goes to show you; you can't win. I talked the doctor into allowing me the attempt to control the problem with diet. So now I have to prick my finger every day. Boy don't get dyslexia and perform that one backwards.

Hey Sheldon, that was sarcasm......I feel like I ran into a used car saleman in this thread and some guy is trying to sell me a yugo or mugo...or something.

 

[jedge76]

It's only been a couple of weeks and I am uncertain if this is a good sign or not, but there is new growth shooting from the existing candles. Can anyone clarify if this is just a continuation of growth that was on the way anyhow or is it a good sign that the tree seems to have responded well to the root and branch pruning that I did a couple of weeks ago? I know this is a single flush species, so that's where i am confused.


--Joe

 

[MrFancyPlants]

I think new growth is always a good sign unless maybe if you are trying to create a Jin on the branch. Interesting, I have a rescue JBP that I repotted Last month that is showing the same sort of new needle growth.

 

[jedge76]

That is interesting...have you done any pruning to it? I wonder if your JBP is just happier in the conditions it is in since you rescued it and is gaining vigor.

 

[MrFancyPlants]

I did some minimal needle cutting in the middle of the tree to differentiate the future tree from the sacrifice growth as well as removing some dormant buds from the sacrifice growth in order to stimulate auxin with minimal disturbance. It definitely needed a repot as the old soil was broken down and soggy with most of the roots circling the bottom of the nursery container. I felt I needed to do something to invigorate the bottom portion of the tree. I won't declare victory until late next spring.

http://bonsainut.com/forums/showthread.php?15872-Flat-screen (I've since transplanted the watermelon or whatever it is)

 

[Vance Wood]

It's only been a couple of weeks and I am uncertain if this is a good sign or not, but there is new growth shooting from the existing candles. Can anyone clarify if this is just a continuation of growth that was on the way anyhow or is it a good sign that the tree seems to have responded well to the root and branch pruning that I did a couple of weeks ago? I know this is a single flush species, so that's where i am confused.


--Joe

Have no fear, they are only new buds forming though sometimes they will toss out a latent shoot.

 

[Paradox]

They are next years buds starting to form. Perfectly normal for mugos this time of year.
I would take it as a good sign.

 

[jedge76]

Cool, thanks guys. This is fun watching for little signs like that.

 

[jedge76]

I got another one, about 3" or a little more across on the trunk and a Pumilio which I was real happy to find. I somewhat unintentionally removed a little more than 50% of the roots, closer to 60%, so I am fingers crossed that this guy makes it.

 

[Vance Wood]

The tree looks fine. Jut put it in a location for winter storage where it is slightly sheltered from wind and direct sun. Just out of curiosity have you looked under the bottom of the pond basket? Yo may see new roots peeking out from those holes, maybe even from the sides. Mugos have been known to produce an abundance of new roots this time of year, if your soil is good, and I have no reason to believe that it is not, you might see some new roots.

 

[jedge76]

The tree looks fine. Jut put it in a location for winter storage where it is slightly sheltered from wind and direct sun. Just out of curiosity have you looked under the bottom of the pond basket? Yo may see new roots peeking out from those holes, maybe even from the sides. Mugos have been known to produce an abundance of new roots this time of year, if your soil is good, and I have no reason to believe that it is not, you might see some new roots.

I cannot see any new roots peeking through the mesh bottom of the basket from the 1st tree in this post, Vance. There are some coming out of the sides, not sure if these are new or just some roots that were pushed through when I potted the tree.

The 2nd tree that I just posted was only pruned and potted last Thursday, that's the one where I may have taken off a few too many roots.