Field Grown JBP

[SexyGArdener]

I met up with Dave back in the fall at his farm and contemplated on buying a large JBP. I wasn’t prepared for how massive they are up close; easily 4’ tall and 3’ wide. I’m just not experienced enough and lack artistic vision to style it smaller and/or keep it alive. I might just buy one in the next few weeks and hope for the best. I’m told I need to remove 50% of the needles to ensure survival. He also has hundreds if not thousands of trident maples; I declined getting one then but I will get one now in case my taste evolves in the future.

 

[roberthu]

I met up with Dave back in the fall at his farm and contemplated on buying a large JBP. I wasn’t prepared for how massive they are up close; easily 4’ tall and 3’ wide. I’m just not experienced enough and lack artistic vision to style it smaller and/or keep it alive. I might just buy one in the next few weeks and hope for the best. I’m told I need to remove 50% of the needles to ensure survival. He also has hundreds if not thousands of trident maples; I declined getting one then but I will get one now in case my taste evolves in the future.

Don’t be like me and go by yourself if you are going to dig one of those pines. Get a friend or two and go in a truck. Potting up that pine almost killed the tree and myself.

I also regret not buying one or two of his tridents before I left GA…

 

[Cosmos]

Some branches died during the fall. Maybe they didn’t get enough sunlight? I cleaned up the dead needles and branches. Hopefully it thrives here. After all, this is the sunshine state!
View attachment 418105

Where do you see the foliage pads?
Do you anticipate having to do big trunk bends or grafts?
Will you try to integrate the smaller subtrunk on the right in the design?

 

[roberthu]

Where do you see the foliage pads?
Do you anticipate having to do big trunk bends or grafts?
Will you try to integrate the smaller subtrunk on the right in the design?

I don’t have a set design in mind yet. Right now I am just focusing on getting the tree strong and healthy. But I don’t think I will bend the trunk with the curve already there. The smaller trunk will definitely be considered carefully in the design. I think it fills the void nicely since there is no branch on that side from the main trunk.

 

[SexyGArdener]

Don’t be like me and go by yourself if you are going to dig one of those pines. Get a friend or two and go in a truck. Potting up that pine almost killed the tree and myself.

I also regret not buying one or two of his tridents before I left GA…

Yeah, I was going to use a truck because I plan on buying a little of everything. Perhaps even an enclosed trailer to protect the needles from windburn. I didn't get the impression that your tree suffered from the repotting based on your posts other than a few branches dieback. I'm assuming it's because the tree is huge and you had difficulty getting it stabilize in the pot. Did you reduce the foliage or partially bareroot it at all? Dave did mentioned that his soil was fairly loamy and could fall off during the digging process, so I'm debating if I should add pine mycorrhizae during the repotting to ensure it's survival.

 

[roberthu]

Yeah, I was going to use a truck because I plan on buying a little of everything. Perhaps even an enclosed trailer to protect the needles from windburn. I didn't get the impression that your tree suffered from the repotting based on your posts other than a few branches dieback. I'm assuming it's because the tree is huge and you had difficulty getting it stabilize in the pot. Did you reduce the foliage or partially bareroot it at all? Dave did mentioned that his soil was fairly loamy and could fall off during the digging process, so I'm debating if I should add pine mycorrhizae during the repotting to ensure it's survival.

My tree didn’t suffer much in my opinion. The branches that died were all shaded or cramped in the middle of a dense clump. So even if the didn’t die, I would still cut them off down the road. It also shed old needles in the fall but that is also common.
My tree weighed about 75 pounds and too heavy. So getting it to stand up in the position and angle I wanted was a huge challenge. I ended up cutting some 2x4’s to support like Ryan does in his videos and finally got it tied down. But if I had a helper or two, I would have done a better job with organizing the roots and working the bottom layer of soil.
I did wash all the red clay off as they were heavy and dense. And they fell off anyway and there was no sign of Mycorrhizae at all. I potted with 111 mix and it took a lot of soil for sure. The total process took about 4 hours. I used a little mycorrhiza powder but not sure how much it helped. The pine pushed candles like my other JBPs so I didn’t worry too much. I fed lightly with both organic and inorganic fertilizer just to supplement. It didn’t get the most sun it needed though as my yard is on the north side. Now I am in FL, the tree is on the south side of the house so it’s getting 10-12 hours of direct sun a day. We shall see if how it responds.