Mugo pine

[Mailo06]

Hi my fellow bonsai lovers. Bought myself a Mugo pine from a nursery (Mughos variety), after cleaning dead twigs and cleaned the nabary I found some nice trunk, the usual worls and some leggy branches. I’m not to experienced with pines at all so looking for some guidance in the right direction. I’m in Uk . Also found some curly needles on some of the branches, any reason for concern?

 

[Shibui]

Nice start to a mugho pine.
There's the usual long, bare branches but mugho seem to back bud on bare a bit better than some others. Also some inverse taper at that low junction but can't be helped. I suspect you can style to draw attention away from that.

First up, it's a pine so you won't have an instant bonsai the way we can with junipers. It's probably going to take 5-10 years to chase growth back on the bare branches then use those buds to develop new branches and apex.

It is extremely difficult to design from 2D photos because we can't see the depth, where branches start and go to, etc. You will need to take responsibility for that or get it to someone who can see the tree in 3D

First step is to remove any more obviously unneeded branches - inside of bends, whorls, branches close above or below better options, etc Trim a few cm from the main trunk/branch they grow from for now. Stubs may be converted to dead wood or removed completely at a later date.
Second step would be to trim all the remaining branches back to leave just a cluster of 6-10 pairs of needles. At a minimum the tree should grow new buds from the needles you've left. If my experience is anything to go by you should also get plenty of new buds emerging from the bare sections of the branches.
From there you'll need to let it recover for at least a year, probably 2 years before making more decisions and pruning again.

Mugho is considered a single flush pine sp so buds will usually only grow in spring.

Don't think the curled needles are anything to worry about but wait for some other UK pine growers to confirm or deny that.

 

[Mailo06]

Nice start to a mugho pine.
There's the usual long, bare branches but mugho seem to back bud on bare a bit better than some others. Also some inverse taper at that low junction but can't be helped. I suspect you can style to draw attention away from that.

First up, it's a pine so you won't have an instant bonsai the way we can with junipers. It's probably going to take 5-10 years to chase growth back on the bare branches then use those buds to develop new branches and apex.

It is extremely difficult to design from 2D photos because we can't see the depth, where branches start and go to, etc. You will need to take responsibility for that or get it to someone who can see the tree in 3D

First step is to remove any more obviously unneeded branches - inside of bends, whorls, branches close above or below better options, etc Trim a few cm from the main trunk/branch they grow from for now. Stubs may be converted to dead wood or removed completely at a later date.
Second step would be to trim all the remaining branches back to leave just a cluster of 6-10 pairs of needles. At a minimum the tree should grow new buds from the needles you've left. If my experience is anything to go by you should also get plenty of new buds emerging from the bare sections of the branches.
From there you'll need to let it recover for at least a year, probably 2 years before making more decisions and pruning again.

Mugho is considered a single flush pine sp so buds will usually only grow in spring.

Don't think the curled needles are anything to worry about but wait for some other UK pine growers to confirm or deny that.

Thx for advice, so you are saying I can cut all the tips without risc? What will be the best time to do so as I read winter not ideal as it’s store it’s energy in the branches, also first would be repotting or cut back?

 

[Shibui]

also first would be repotting or cut back?

Either depending on your priorities. If you think it needs a repot to maintain health you should do that first. If the roots and soil appears good then maybe the priority is pruning. Every year you wait to prune the bare branches get longer.

However it is one or the other. Young, vigorous pines can usually cope with a light repot and light prune in the one operation but it is generally accepted that we should only do one at a time as pines definitely recover from root reduction when they have active growing tips to aid the new roots.

With Mugho in particular, it seems to be OK to chop hard in winter/spring then repot the following late summer/autumn when it has plenty of new shoots growing.

so you are saying I can cut all the tips without risc? What will be the best time to do so as I read winter not ideal as it’s store it’s energy in the branches

Store energy in the branches is an odd term IMHO. Whoever started saying that struck a chord and so many people since have just parroted it that it has now become bonsai law. All trees store energy in all parts of their system. It is just that some survive better when they have intact growing tips to provide growth auxins but that's not really sexy enough to grab everyone's interest.

I have just done exactly this to my old mugho as part of regular maintenance. Every branch was cut to just leave a small bunch of needles. It is mid summer down here now and I do not expect the mugho to grow again until next spring but have no doubt that it will do so. Strong, healthy trees almost always have enough resources stored to survive until their next grow cycle.
You are quite welcome to wait until the 'approved' time of year. Cutting late winter means you won't have to wait and worry quite so long before you see the new shoots grow.

 

[Paradox]

Before you cut back anything, start feeding this tree well in the spring to build up more strength.
Cutting all the branch tips will be a stress and you can help the tree prepare for it by making sure it is strong beforehand.
This should never be done on a weak tree. Your tree looks healthy but it would be a good idea to feed it well before doing such a procedure.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I have a mugo where I lopped off 65% of the plant and it has been stressing out since 2018. It's a mughus.
Meaning it has produced juvenile foliage and never stops growing because of the stress. You want to prevent that, so take it slow. It will bud back and it will turn out to be a tiny tree, over time.

Mugo tends to grow new buds when the branches are exposed to direct sun light, so maybe before you do any rigorous trimming, consider wiring some branches sideways and leaving those for a year or two.

Twisted needles can be a sign of high nutrient availability in the soil. Mugo compartimentalizes, in the sense that a certain patch of roots feeds a certain patch of foliage. That's probably why a few needles twist and others don't. It's likely that your soil contains some osmocote pellets somewhere, or like the ones grown here: the soil is full of them.

Hope this helps a little.

 

[leatherback]

If you do heavy pruning now, not a lot of effect will be seen. Cutting back branches into the needled area now will not reliably result in new buds on that branch.

However, if you prune in the period that the tree normally is producing buds -late spring as the extension of the candles has finished and needles are pushing- you will get a reasonable response in new bud-setting. Keep in mind, always leave a good number of needles at the end of a cut branch, or the chances are that the branch dies off. If you at that time cut back into older needled areas you should get good budding.

Here a quick snip of a video I am doing on Scots pine pruning. In July I pruned all the growth back to clusters of maybe 10 needles on each branch. In october this is the response. Blue lines: Where I cut. Blue circles furthest backbuds observed in that scene. What I can tell in my trees is that Mugo responds similarly.

Quite aggressive bare-root, 90 degree tilt repot of mugo done in September seems to have given no concerns. I see loads of fat shiny buds on this mugo now.

 

[leatherback]

[an another example of backbudding after summer prune]

 

[Paradox]

Sometimes they can react badly as @Wires_Guy_wires says his tree is doing

I have done similar to what Leatherback is describing on mugo and gotten back budding.
Cutting back as he described is less risky for the branch as you are cutting back the current year's growth.
A healthy and vigorous tree should give you buds. I have gotten buds on older wood back on a branch and feeding the tree well this way.