All aboard the Mugo train!

I noticed a group of mugo pines at the nursery where I work (zone 8b), will these trees actually grow here?
 
I noticed a group of mugo pines at the nursery where I work (zone 8b), will these trees actually grow here?
Probably but you don't say where here is? Nurseries usually have a return policy and they don't like to follow that if they don't sell trees that grow there.
 
You will likely find a lot of people that will tell you no. They will do well for the first five years then they die. I have my ideas why they die, but you would probably do better with Japanese Black Pine of some of the local stuff.
 
Picked up a Mops mugo.
Iseli TRUdwarf are grown from cuttings so I thought I would take a look. While I was digging around trying to feel the trunk (in the rain) an employee stopped by and asked if I needed help. I explained what I was doing and he recognized me from previous explorations. He suggested I knock the tree out of the pot so I could see it better! While I was looking at this tree he dumped another one out and brushed the duff off the top so we could see it, too. Who would have thought! He didn't care how deep I dug down to try to feel the trunk, he understood that the nurseries always bury the trunks too deep and actually complained about it because of the problems that it causes in landscape trees in a couple of years (the nursery has a very good warranty on trees they install). Anyhow, after that kind of service I had to buy one.
Nice thick single trunk with a mess of branches. I scraped as much dirt off the top as I could without removing any roots. Feels like I can remove almost 3 inches of soil from the top to expose a nice 2" trunk.
Questions:
Can/should I start removing some of those excess branches now? If I do, can I still do a full prune and repot at Father's Day?
Has anyone grown one of these for a couple of years? what can I expect? (I have seen several posts with Mops but none long term) Iseli says 3" - 5" growth per year. Monrovia says 5 ft tall in 30 years vs 10 years for pumilio.
DSC_0013.JPGDSC_0017.JPG
(I tried to get a picture of the trunk. Failed.)
 
They do well if repotted during the late spring early summer through the early fall. It is best if they have new growth that has elongated before you disturb the roots.
You can remove some branches like bar branches and any downward growing branches at the same time.

The Mugo shown below was started in 1983. They tend to be a bit slow but not too bad.


DSC_0894 copy.JPG
 
Last edited:
They do well if repotted during the late spring early summer through the early fall. It is best if they have new growth that has elongated before you disturb the roots.
You can remove some branches like bar branches and any downward growing branches at the same time.

The Mugo shown below was started in 1983. They tend to be a bit slow but not too bad.


View attachment 240446
I've been hitting @sorce up to fire me a pot similar to that one.

Vance, would you recommend for such a full stock as what @James W. just got
to trim any branches he would prune off to let it breathe and find the "bones"
to 1st prune ~1/3 to 1/2 the length at 1st ? then come back with better interior views
as it would be typical for me to remove branches I wished I'd let grow on when 1st starting into such a full head.
That 1/2 length would be more apt to retain viable pruning/budding points that would not be there if I just dug in
making horizontal layers.
 
It is not always so much an issue of how much you cut, or what you cut and to where you cut it,,,,,but---- the timing of the cut. It is for this reason I usually opt for anytime after the summer solstice, circa July 4th or the first full Moon after the 4th of July. I have found that with Mugos it is like stomping on the breaks of a truck going down hill at 90mph being the optimum time when you can cause the tree to respond favorably. If you do this in the Spring the tree gets set back and sometime pouts for a couple of months or a year or two. Do things in the early summer your Mugos will look for places to do something because its urge to grow far out passes it's urge to feel sorry for itself. By the time the tree discovers it has been injured it will already be healed and starting to plan for next year. This last point is critical. Most things done with a double flush Pine like a Black or Red Pine is done to encourage a double flush of growth. In other words you can with timing cause these two trees to put on a second flush of growth. Every thing done with a Mugo or Scots Pine is done to create a massive setting of a ton of buds for next year which will not activate until next year.
 
Orange Out.

The period after the candles elongate and needle tips begin to get white.

See this one orange one left?
20190505_100223.jpg

The rest have reached Orange Out.

These stages are important to me and having them defined would be wonderful, since tree work should actually take place according to these stages, not calendar dates.
This is why stuff works for some folks, and not for others. Works some years and not others, some trees and not others.
Sometimes calendar dates end up being correct, but consistent success depends upon a deeper understanding of the tree's actual seasonal stages.

So I'm calling this stage Orange Out.

I swear to God I knew winter was going to come early last year because of how fast my mugos exited this period in spring, and we had snow in October.

This year it took quite a bit longer which tells me we won't get real cold and snow till later in November.

The stage in August which I call Bud Reinforcement is technically Orange In.
Since all those tips that show up then are these Orange tips until now.

Agent Fucking Orange.:mad:

So we don't forget Lord Mugo and his service to us and our country.

Let's see them tips!
Where are your mugos at?

Sorce
 
Orange Out.

The period after the candles elongate and needle tips begin to get white.

See this one orange one left?
View attachment 241012

The rest have reached Orange Out.

These stages are important to me and having them defined would be wonderful, since tree work should actually take place according to these stages, not calendar dates.
This is why stuff works for some folks, and not for others. Works some years and not others, some trees and not others.
Sometimes calendar dates end up being correct, but consistent success depends upon a deeper understanding of the tree's actual seasonal stages.

So I'm calling this stage Orange Out.

I swear to God I knew winter was going to come early last year because of how fast my mugos exited this period in spring, and we had snow in October.

This year it took quite a bit longer which tells me we won't get real cold and snow till later in November.

The stage in August which I call Bud Reinforcement is technically Orange In.
Since all those tips that show up then are these Orange tips until now.

Agent Fucking Orange.:mad:

So we don't forget Lord Mugo and his service to us and our country.

Let's see them tips!
Where are your mugos at?

Sorce
To cut to the basics as asked. The orange buds you have shown are epicormic buds that have started to respond. These are buds that exist below the bark and respond for two reasons: One because the tree is so vigorous that they are compelled to, two; if the tree is injured and the orange/epicormic buds are a emergency response or the limb or tree dies. The long elongating shoots and candles are the primary buds that are simply doing their thing. They can appear any time, usually we notice them when we are paying attention to the active growth of the tree, at other times we kind of ignore them. Most of the time they are accidentally or on purpose rubbed off.
 
The pollen cones on my smaller mugo, and both of them just growing and waiting to be pruned and repotted.
 

Attachments

  • Mugo pollen cones.jpg
    Mugo pollen cones.jpg
    245.5 KB · Views: 29
  • Mugo trunk.jpg
    Mugo trunk.jpg
    180.1 KB · Views: 25
  • Mugos.jpg
    Mugos.jpg
    254.7 KB · Views: 22
  • Mugo trunk.jpg
    Mugo trunk.jpg
    180.1 KB · Views: 28
May 7th huh!?

That's when I got my Una. Una Amore.

She drove me home a Ticket Today.20190523_163556.jpg

Found this shopping for work stuff! I eat on the run so I had minutes to spare.

Stupid trunk bend...cascade certain...
More pics tomorrow.

Sorce
 
Back
Top Bottom