RJG2's 2023-2026 Little Christmas Tree Entry

RJG2 · Dec 28, 2023

I have a couple, but I'll choose a final entry at some point.

Small red pot mugo (~$8):

Black Hills spruce (not in a red pot, but 30% off, and next to the "normal" Christmas trees)(~$50):

czaczaja · Jan 13, 2024

Did you do any work on them yet? Any winter pruning?

RJG2 · Jan 13, 2024

czaczaja said:
Did you do any work on them yet? Any winter pruning?

No, I always repot as my first order of business while the plants are still healthy and vigorous - with plenty of top growth to fuel new root production.

czaczaja · Jan 13, 2024

RJG2 said:
No, I always repot as my first order of business while the plants are still healthy and vigorous - with plenty of top growth to fuel new root production.

Ok, good plan. I'm in the same boat. I was wondering if I should first repot mine or do some pruning on them. They're potbound from the nursery but also need to be cleaned up and I can't decide what's more important.

RJG2 · Jan 13, 2024

It's a toss up with a contest I think, but I've had good results doing the report first with all nursery trees. To be clear, and considering this is cheap material, I'll probably do a complete bare root just to get it over with.

If they do okay over the summer, I'll work them in fall.

Juniper that was bare rooted first, but worked relatively slowly after that:

Box store San Jose Juniper

Left erased; right shortened: I like this a lot. When will you do the work?

www.bonsainut.com

RJG2 · May 2, 2024

Go big or go home. Considering it's a 3 year contest, I figured I'd go extreme with the root work first. If it lives it's already reduced to final pot size-ish, and I have 2 years to worry about styling.