Pinus mugo

Hello all!

I bought a Pinus mugo in june and i want to transplant and styling/wiring/pruning it. Should i wait until next Spring or can i do it in late summer/early autumn?? (i live in Portugal)...

thanx

So, what should i do? Transplant and style it in the next month or should i wait until the next spring?

Hi Capo Regime. First of all please don't take our silence as rudeness or lack of interest. It's just that sometimes people don't want to make any comments on trees they have not seen in case they give incorrect information, A really helpful first step would be for you to post a picture of the tree.

More specific to your actual question, you seem to be wanting to carry out several tasks at the one time - transplanting, styling etc. Most people, including myself, would advise caution here as any one of those ativities will cause stress to your tree. The cumulative effect could be pretty harmful to the tree. I suggest you want to start searching the internet or books for information relevant to this type of pine and see what they advise.

Hopefully someone more local to you might now pick up on this thread and give you some additional advice. But if we could get a pic in the first instance, that might prompt a response.

Good luck

I'd only add that success in many of these procedures depends upon your experience. Someone who has little experience will always be better off waiting until early spring, when trees are coming back to life.

A foto of the tree:





I read in Bonsai4me web site that pinus mugo react far better to transplant if transplanted in late summer/early autumn. So now i'm confused because i don't know what to do.

Thanks for posting the pic Capo_Regime. May I ask what you intend transplanting it into if you go ahead now?

Well, i'm thinking to transplant it to a more large and less deep pot and use a more draining soil like - 1/3 garden earth , 1/3 gravel and 1/3 akadama...

Well, if I were you I'd still wait. The tree looks very healthy where it is.

Sorry I missed this post earlier. This tree looks like a lot of the Mugos that I frequently work with. I have been doing nursery Mugos for many years and I have found that they respond best when transplanted, repotted and an assortment of other processes in the Summer. I start work on them as early as the second week in June in Zone 5 and continue with them till the middle of September. The only Mugos I have ever had problems with in relation to repotting problems have been those that were done in the early Spring.

Hi Vance I'm from Portugal and here the temperatures still are high ( 30ºC - 35 ºC). Should i do the transplant, prune and wiring now? What kind of soil and pot shoul i use?

thanx

capo_regime wrote:Hi Vance I'm from Portugal and here the temperatures still are high ( 30ºC - 35 ºC). Should i do the transplant, prune and wiring now? What kind of soil and pot shoul i use?

thanx

You can do some general pruning now to open the tree up and eliminate any branching you know you wont need as long as the over-all prunning does not go more than 50%. You should be able to prune the roots as well but I need you to tell me what you consider a method for root pruning.

Well... it will be my first pinus bonsai project. I don't know what method of root pruning should i use... I usually prune only the roots that are too long... What method do you recomend?? And What soil?

thanx...

After my info gathering about mugo i decided to transplant it today and prune some of the branches. The roots were a massive hard "rock" and i didn't touched too much on it because i wanted to avoid too much damage (i'm thinking to remove this "rock" in the future, in a 2 or 3 years - if the tree survive ). I think I removed above 25% of the root mass and some 30% of the green mass. I also did some wiring. I used this soil mix: 50% gravel + 30 % garden earth + 20 % Akadama.


Some photos:


The root mass -





After some root pruning -




And the final result -






Plan: For now it will rest on the shadow for about 4 weeks and than i will put it in sunny position. For the next 2/3 years, if it survives, it will be "resting".

Well what do you think? It's my first pinus project...

I think it will be OK. You will know in about two weeks. The soil is not what I would use but it sounds OK. and should work fine. Did you read my article in two parts on root pruning? If you have not you should. It's available on Knowledge of Bonsai forum.

That's one of the ugliest training pots I've seen so far!! But very convenient with handles and all!
What are the winters like in Portugal, do you get any frosts at all?

Henrik Stubelius wrote:That's one of the ugliest training pots I've seen so far!! But very convenient with handles and all!

LOLOLOLOLOLOLLOLOLLL


Well, winters in Portugal are warm, speacially in the coast. However sometimes there are some night frosts but temperature rarely downs more than 0º.

Well, I think we are many to use the cheapest convenient tools and pots at hand:



Who cares as long as it is the best available solution when you don't have a professional equippment?

It's just for training, and is much more adapted to bonsai than the plain plastic containers. when the trees begins to take shape, you can then invest in a more suitable pot:



And a few years later, when it's at its best, order a pot from professional potters, in Europe (many, many great potters there), or Japan (Tokoname pots are rather cheap if you choose the to have them sent by boat containers, but it takes time).

Now i order pond baskets online from a French supplier, they're cheaper than the collanders I bought in a discount store a few years ago.

Pond baskets are good, I have a few of them too. The cheapest pot i've used soo far was when I was too lazy to put a yamadori pine in a suitable container, and left it in the black plastic bag I wrapped around the rootball with duct tape when collecting. I made some holes on top and bottom, water in, water out;) Left it for summer, put it in wooden box in autumn, six months later and I still have it.