Mugo seedlings

[James W.]

I ordered some mugo pine seedlings last spring expecting them to come in May.(https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/holly-hill-nurseries.16288/)
They arrived yesterday.
My intention is to attempt root over rock with these, but I'm thinking that it is a little late in the season to plant them on rocks this year.
I have a couple of options:
I can go ahead and plant them on rocks and see what happens.
I can attempt to store them by temporarily planting them in DE or mulch, then stick them on rocks next spring.
I can plant them in tree pots and wait until spring 2019 to plant them onto rocks.
I have 26, so I will probably do at least a few of each option.
What do you all think?

 

[Bonsai Nut]

I can attempt to store them by temporarily planting them in DE or mulch, then stick them on rocks next spring.

This is what I would recommend. I wouldn't mess with the roots until early spring unless you were planning on greenhousing them in the winter. (Heated greenhouse)

 

[JoeR]

This is what I would recommend. I wouldn't mess with the roots until early spring unless you were planning on greenhousing them in the winter. (Heated greenhouse)

For mugo? Vance recommends summer for mugo repots, but I don’t know if that applies to seedlings or not..

 

[0soyoung]

For mugo? Vance recommends summer for mugo repots, but I don’t know if that applies to seedlings or not..

It does.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

For mugo? Vance recommends summer for mugo repots, but I don’t know if that applies to seedlings or not..

Ah sorry... my comment was for "seedlings in the mail" in general instead of mugos specifically. I should have been more careful in what I said

 

[sorce]

They arrived yesterday.

Whoa!
That post made me mad.
You got them !
Crazy!

Usually...

I would be all....
"Do some now some later"....

But not with Mugo RoR....
Thats a project too close to my heart.

Of 2six...

One MAY have appropriate roots.

Best wait til summer !

So you don't kill the one perfect one now.

Sorce

 

[James W.]

It is unlikely any of these have appropriate roots, the biggest is almost 3" tall.

My plan:
Plant a dozen in tree pots to develop long roots.
Mulch and protect the rest until next spring or summer.

Vance Wood recommends repotting after Father's Day. Adjusted for a month's difference in weather, expected ideal timing would be after Mother's Day, which might give a chance for some recovery before we get 100 degree weather. He also mentions timing based on candle development, I'll have to dig back through and see if I can find it. Most likely I will start working a couple at a time "too early" and finish up "too late". Kind of like an experiment, except too many uncontrolled variables and too small sample size.

 

[Vance Wood]

I ordered some mugo pine seedlings last spring expecting them to come in May.(https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/holly-hill-nurseries.16288/)
They arrived yesterday. View attachment 166337
My intention is to attempt root over rock with these, but I'm thinking that it is a little late in the season to plant them on rocks this year.
I have a couple of options:
I can go ahead and plant them on rocks and see what happens.
I can attempt to store them by temporarily planting them in DE or mulch, then stick them on rocks next spring.
I can plant them in tree pots and wait until spring 2019 to plant them onto rocks.View attachment 166338
I have 26, so I will probably do at least a few of each option.
What do you all think?

They are very young and can probably tolerate almost any abuse. Looking at the plugs they are planted in you most likely have some long roots you can utilize. What does the distributer suggest? This is a time of year most in the business will be planting in the ground. You can try a sacrifice experiment in taking one of them and try planting on the rock if you can avoid going absolutely bare root. Open up the root mass by opening it up from the bottom gently pulling it apart and laying it on the rock and tying it in place. Cover it with sphagnum moss and keep in something deep like a 1 quart milk carton, stone and all. Don't mess with it again till the summer repot period. If it has survived this long you should be successful. Keep the tree in a spot where it is sheltered from the light and heavy winds. If you get snow shovel snow on it. If it gets hot you might have to water till it become frozen in place.

 

[James W.]

Thank you, Vance. I will try a few now.

 

[Vance Wood]

Thank you, Vance. I will try a few now.

You need to remember under their own DNA response Mugos are shallow rooted trees. This means that if you want the tree to grow on a rock you must provide the encouragement for the roots to go down rather than out.

 

[James W.]

Just a quick update. I will take pictures of survivors next spring.
Planted 12 into long deep tree pots.
Planted 14 onto rocks of varying sizes. The seedlings all had roots 6 - 10 inches long when all combed out. The roots were horribly tangled going up and down and around throughout the plugs. Makes me wonder about how the roots will look in the tree pots where I did not straighten them. I guess I'll find out.

 

[James W.]

Was supposed to get down to 9 (-12C) so I brought the root over rock plantings into the garage last night. There is some distress showing from the rough treatment, but nothing is obviously dead yet. I don't expect to really know until March how many will survive.

 

[James W.]

I bought 12 seedlings from Grower's Solution. Pinus mugo 'Enci'
I am very happy with the service and product.
I will plant these onto rocks soon.

 

[James W.]

One tree:

 

[James W.]

Another:

 

[Vance Wood]

Good luck. What you have done should work.

 

[James W.]

An update:
All but one is looking like they want to live!
1 dead, half of another dead (but pushing candles on the live half)
The 12 planted into tree pots are WAY happier than the ones on rocks.

 

[Vance Wood]

This is great to see. It is not surprising that you have lost a few but over-all you have done very well and getting as many to survive as you have. Trees on rocks will always have problems. Do you know what kind of rock you are dealing with? Sometimes the acidy or alkalinity of a rock can make a difference.

 

[James W.]

Most of the rocks are a hard mineral like flint or chert. A few are holey limestone. A couple a planted on sandstone, which I'm thinking may be too soft. The limestone will dissolve a little bit increasing alkalinity, but we have hard, alkaline water anyway and I'm kind of used to adjusting for it (I use a lot of acid fertilizer).
Here are some of the hard ones:

 

[James W.]

The seedlings in tree pots are looking good.