Jesse's Ponderosa Pine #1

[JesseKane]

Thread to document this Ponderosa I acquired in August of 2024. It was collected in the Rockies in 1989 by Bert Rhodes. This is the tree on the day I picked it up:


After some minor wiring to start getting it back into shape:


This spring I plan on repotting and changing the angle. It's hard to tell in the pictures, but the tree is currently leaning heavily away from the viewer. This is hiding quite a bit of beautiful movement in the trunk and results in a very angular and straight trunk line. Here's a pic I snapped a few days ago when starting to plan the repot:

It's a little hard to see between all the needles, but by simply planting more upright and rotating the front slightly this tree has a completely different feel. Also allows the primary branch structure to been seen better, showcasing Bert's work over the last 30 years. The new angle also puts the lower branches in a much better place, allowing for separation and good definition of the first branch.

This sketch shows my long term goal for the tree:


This should be fairly straightforward to accomplish by simply compressing the left side a bit and continued work on ramification.

 

[JesseKane]

Yesterday was repot day! The tree managed to hold off on extending shoots until the day after Nao Tokutake visited our club and help a pot sale after his presentation. I picked up a nice pot that I feel fits the tree better than the vintage Japanese pot I had originally picked out and wouldn't need quite as severe of a root reduction. Glad to be able to remove the old soil, turns out it was just pea gravel and a fine dense soil that reminds me of the rich black mud you find in the bottom of wetlands.

First I removed the gravel that was used as a top dressing and a fair amount of the soil on top of the root ball.

Close up of the larger surface roots. The Nebari is weak on this tree, so I'm going to make sure these are covered to try and encourage developement. Not expecting miracles, but what else can you do?


The tree lifted out of the pot pretty easily and I was able to get a look at the bottom matted roots. Lots of little growing tips but no sign of mycorrhiza. Roots could definatly be happier.



The bottom layer was very thin and was easy to loosen with a chop stick. Underneath I discovered even more pea gravel, thicker pieces that I assume was used as a drainage layer. Combed it out gently but didn't go very deep.



Next I got to work loosening the edges. I was able to get a lot of the old soil and gravel out without much reduction in the actual root mass. Roots were pretty tangled but teased apart with some gentle persuasion. Highest density of root is in and around the large structural roots, but there are fine roots growing to some degree around the full circumference of the trunk. Hoping to encourage developement of the fine feeders close to the trunk over the next few years.



There was a lot of what I can only imagine is 36 year old field soil in the major structural roots that I left alone, the only difference with the rest of the soil is that it didn't contain any gravel. At this point I'm happy with the amount of old soil removed while leaving a decent portion of the root ball untouched. Time to anchor into the pot!



I was able to get to about 80% of the angle change that I wanted during this repot and will take it the rest of the way in a few years. Could have fit it into a pot about an inch smaller, but probably not all the way to the original pot I had picked out. Glad I waited until I had another option! I used the typical APL mix with >1/8inch particles and about 10% pine bark added to help with moisture retention in our hot, dry, and windy climate. Top dressed with some sphagnum and we're done!



Took some glamor shots today to get a comparison to the pics I took last summer. The improvement from the angle change and rotation aren't as apparent in the pics as they are in person, but I'm pretty happy with the results.



And a closeup of the new pot, what a beauty!