Loblolly pine from seed

[*tree*]

These were started at the begining of july 2023, after 1 month stratification, thankfully we had a recordly warm september so they had three full months, I neglected them a bit, only 6-7 hours of sun, not much fertilizer + I cut 70% of the roots of in spring. But I cared about them well this year so they grew a lot and there are still like 2 months left.
This central european climate is not good for them, so they were in the greenhouse this entire year, not last year. But the light in the greenhouse is a bit reduced so they are a bit sparse.
They also grew multiple flushes, 2-3 so far on all of them, but two of them are opening the terminal bud again now.
One of them rooted into the ground.
With better conditions in the first year and bigger pot, you could probably get like 30% more growth or more.
I will be updating on these.

 

[*tree*]

What temperature range is the best for these? Because the temperature in the greenhouse recently hit 40C on sun, of course there is no shade there so I can't measure temp in shade but generally I measure 5 - 6C difference between shade and sun above dry soil. So isn't this too hot?

 

[johng]

Loblolly pines should do fine in your heat. They are native to the coastal areas of southeast US and regularly handled temps over 100F in my garden.

 

[*tree*]

What affects the number of buds on the nodes? The 2 year old loblollies have only 1 shoot going from the first node, so I would like 2 or more on this years batch.

 

[TomP]

I grow loblollies. They need more water than most pines, and they back bud very freely.

 

[Dabbler]

Your best bet would be to grow them in the ground if possible and I'm close to your same zone and the few I have don't mind the heat at all as it get 36C regularly in summer. They love water as I've seen a ton grow right into the ocean or lakes here. I showered mine with organic ferts and water and it grew like mad. I did a video on mine a little bit ago.

 

[*tree*]

Your best bet would be to grow them in the ground if possible and I'm close to your same zone and the few I have don't mind the heat at all as it get 36C regularly in summer. They love water as I've seen a ton grow right into the ocean or lakes here. I showered mine with organic ferts and water and it grew like mad. I did a video on mine a little bit ago.

I do live in 6b but the difference between summer and winter temps is smaller. The avg july high here is only 25C so growing them outside of the greenhouse is probably a waste of time at least when they are young. I'm going to make a bigger greenhouse for them in fall, the current one in very provisional. I must try growing them in the ground, I have a feeling that they wil be touching the roof in a year.

 

[*tree*]

The two smaller ones are not larger than an average 2 yo jbp, but they have multiple short flushes and nodes and each of the nodes has an unopened bud. And the low branches on one are pretty strong, so a lot of options. But the stems are longer than anything I have seen so they won't be shohins probably.

 

[*tree*]

in the ground now