ITALIAN STONE PINE; Pinus Pinea from nursery stock

[ZombieNick]

Awesome progression, I haven't seen one kept up with the mature foliage like this. I started experimenting with this species a couple years ago myself.

Just a note: As an experiment couple years ago, I cut a candle in half and 4 new shoots arose out of that. It might be a way to gain ramification.

This is what I found too, especially if you are going for the juvenile foliage. Can let the candles grow long and strong and then cut them back hard. I got crazy back budding even with no growing tip. Then you can start pinching the back buds which will cause even more buds to form. This is probably the strongest species I have worked with in Socal, it's kind of crazy how fast they grow.

 

[Wulfskaar]

This is what I found too, especially if you are going for the juvenile foliage. Can let the candles grow long and strong and then cut them back hard. I got crazy back budding even with no growing tip. Then you can start pinching the back buds which will cause even more buds to form. This is probably the strongest species I have worked with in Socal, it's kind of crazy how fast they grow.

Last year was my first year pinching the growing tips, and I only did it on one side of my tree. I look forward to seeing how it reacts this spring.

 

[Dave704]

Please I need some advise on how best to grow Italian Stone Pine into pre bonsai. I have some 30+ year old Japanese Black Pine I started from seed and an assortment of other Pine species including Pines native to the SE area of North America like Loblolly, Virginia and Short Leafed. It does not help that I am in zone 8A and very high humidity with average monthly rainfall of about 3.7 inches. April our dry month averages 2.7 inches and March our wettest with 4.4" for that month. My ISPs are not happy. Several years ago I bought some ISP from the markdown section at a big box store. These ISP had been grown to be miniature Christmas trees about 15 to 24" tall by a nursery that specializes in these decoration trees. The trees are grafted at ground level. I would like to know what type of graft was used and why they are grafted. Is this some type of regular graft for better roots or a nursery graft to keep the foliage juvenal? Many of trees had a bad reverse taper above the graft. I made air layers above the graft and instead of a plastic wrap I buried the sphagnum in soil in the pot. Most of the trees rooted however they are not growing well or back budding readily. Many of the roots in the sphagnum have poor growth and rotted.

I am planning to repot the trees into a very fast draining soil. My usual nursery mix is the UC Riverside potting mix with about 50% inorganic and 50% pine bark . To this mix I plan to add some amount of pumice. What do you think of 1:1:1 pine bark, inorganic (I use Stalite (expanded shale as it is made near my home and inexpensive also sold as Permatill) and pumice. I will use pond baskets or air pots. I have not been aggressively fertilizing these trees as they do not seem to be ready for a big push. I use several organic fertilizers and often formulate and mix my own based on results from tissue testing. My ISP do not have enough needles to have tested.

What do you recommend for a fertilizer program, how much and when? What do you recommend for pH, moisture, etc. Any information and at any level of detail will be appreciated. If it works for you I am interested. If you tried something and it didn't work for you I am interested too. Thanks for any advice you share. Dave

 

[Wulfskaar]

Please I need some advise on how best to grow Italian Stone Pine into pre bonsai. I have some 30+ year old Japanese Black Pine I started from seed and an assortment of other Pine species including Pines native to the SE area of North America like Loblolly, Virginia and Short Leafed. It does not help that I am in zone 8A and very high humidity with average monthly rainfall of about 3.7 inches. April our dry month averages 2.7 inches and March our wettest with 4.4" for that month. My ISPs are not happy. Several years ago I bought some ISP from the markdown section at a big box store. These ISP had been grown to be miniature Christmas trees about 15 to 24" tall by a nursery that specializes in these decoration trees. The trees are grafted at ground level. I would like to know what type of graft was used and why they are grafted. Is this some type of regular graft for better roots or a nursery graft to keep the foliage juvenal? Many of trees had a bad reverse taper above the graft. I made air layers above the graft and instead of a plastic wrap I buried the sphagnum in soil in the pot. Most of the trees rooted however they are not growing well or back budding readily. Many of the roots in the sphagnum have poor growth and rotted.

I am planning to repot the trees into a very fast draining soil. My usual nursery mix is the UC Riverside potting mix with about 50% inorganic and 50% pine bark . To this mix I plan to add some amount of pumice. What do you think of 1:1:1 pine bark, inorganic (I use Stalite (expanded shale as it is made near my home and inexpensive also sold as Permatill) and pumice. I will use pond baskets or air pots. I have not been aggressively fertilizing these trees as they do not seem to be ready for a big push. I use several organic fertilizers and often formulate and mix my own based on results from tissue testing. My ISP do not have enough needles to have tested.

What do you recommend for a fertilizer program, how much and when? What do you recommend for pH, moisture, etc. Any information and at any level of detail will be appreciated. If it works for you I am interested. If you tried something and it didn't work for you I am interested too. Thanks for any advice you share. Dave

I would consider using a fast-draining, non-organic soil mix, or at least, get rid of most of the organics. I think you want that rainwater to go right through the soil without the organics retaining it.

As far as all the other questions, I don't think I can help.