Conifer Division: JEads' Scots Pines

[JEads]

I am offering these 4 Scots pines for consideration for the Shohin contest. They are a few years old, and some where sheered to keep them small.
I have photos of before my work and after I did some cutting and wiring.
I chose different types of seedlings for this experiment to see how they react.
For the most part, the original leader has been left as a sacrifice and will be removed in the next 2-4 years.
Some I removed all the shoots that I did not want, some I left some side sacrificial branches.
Lets have some fun!
John

 

[JEads]

Here they are after the wiring and cutting.

 

[JEads]

The last one.

 

[JEads]

I did a repot this spring into a grow basket and tossed them into my grow beds. I bumped into this one today and thought I would get a shot of it. Sorry the photos are not very good. I will try to get some better ones out of the ground this fall. It is starting to bark up and get some nice girth.

 

[Wood]

Hey John! What's your irrigation setup look like? Are those 1/4" poly lines that are just dumping straight into the pots? I'm curious that you're not using any emitters with those

 

[JEads]

They are 1/4" poly lines that are fed off of 3/4" mainlines. The 1/4" poly lines have built in drippers. You can kinda see the bulges in the photos. You can get 6", 9" or 12" emitter distances in my neck of the woods. These are every 6". There are 3 per plant surrounding the trunk. I think each emitter puts out a gallon an hour, or so . I run them 30 minutes on hot days. This system works well with larger pots.

My favorite way to use the built in emitter tubing is on smaller plants (4" pots). I use the hose with 12" spacing stretched out over a grow bed and then plant the trees under the emitters. super easy to install and maintain. Using things that the industry already manufactures is a great way to save time.

This photo is of a 24'x4'wide bed. 5 rows of trees. 1' on center. double drip lines for redundancy. So 10 lines per bed, in pairs. plants in an offset pattern under the emitters.

 

[JEads]

Here is the one of the beds all planted up with junipers. Pumice falls out of the mountains here, so that is the substrate. The trees are in felt grow bags that I have manufactured for my needs; the soil is 3/4 pumice, 1/4 bark compost. dig, wire and repot on a 2ish year cycle.

 

[JEads]

If you didnt have pumice, I think that bark chips or even wood chips would work. something that would break down fairly slowly, provide contact with the pots and hold moisture and nutrients. You would have to replace it every 4-5 years as it breaks down, but that is what I have been recommending to my clients east of the Rockies