lodgepole pine good to learn on?

[GailC]

I'm thinking about trying out a pine and since lodgepole grow like weeds here, they seem a reasonable species to learn on. Any opinion on these? I've tried looking for info but most sites cover Japanese pines or mugo.

Are they a single or double flush species and can they only be collected in the spring?

 

[crust]

I think they would be great to learn on. Really any northern native pines are all single flush. I find them very stable growers and have a nice short needle.

 

[RickMartin]

From what i just researched they make good bonsai material.

Rick

 

[GailC]

Guess I'll have to start scouting then. I'd like to dig a couple this year but if I find a really nice tree, I'll wait until spring.

Now to research pines, they seem a lot pickier then deciduous.

 

[ghues]

Guess I'll have to start scouting then. I'd like to dig a couple this year but if I find a really nice tree, I'll wait until spring.

Now to research pines, they seem a lot pickier then deciduous.

Good luck in your search.....if you do find a decent candidate you might even think about feeding it... A little preparation for your return in the spring. I've used a prill type of fertilizer which becomes active with temp/H2O.
Was working on one of mine this am....a little different = shore pine, a Lodgepole (Contorta, Contorta) found out here on the west coast.
Cheers Graham

 

[GailC]

Good idea, I have granular fertilizer I can easily pack up and take with me.

 

[0soyoung]

I'm thinking about trying out a pine and since lodgepole grow like weeds here, they seem a reasonable species to learn on.
... can they only be collected in the spring?

I would bet they can be dug now (until 6-8 weeks before your first hard freeze) - this might a better time than spring.

 

[GailC]

Was thinking about going to the woods today. We had a really heavy rain a couple days ago and now it's starting to warm up. It's almost into the dry season, would like to collect before then.

 

[Arcto]

You are thick with them. I agree with others. They are good material to work with. Tough, single flush trees with smaller needles. A pioneer species so generally not super long lived and susceptible to disease and insect attack. I've seen some really nice bonsai created from yamadori material. Please research summer digging and aftercare before collecting. Avoid trees with dwarf mistletoe infestation. Good luck.

 

[BrianBay9]

Was thinking about going to the woods today. We had a really heavy rain a couple days ago and now it's starting to warm up. It's almost into the dry season, would like to collect before then.

I've had success collecting ponderosa pretty much any time if you select the right tree - growing in a pocket in stone ridge, the entire root ball rocks when you move the trunk, a few support roots to cut. I avoided the heat of the summer for my own comfort mostly, but I would assume the tree would be OK collected during its drought-induced, summer "pause". Pick the wrong tree and it's alot of work for a dead piece of wood.

 

[BrianBay9]

You are thick with them. I agree with others. They are good material to work with. Tough, single flush trees with smaller needles. A pioneer species so generally not super long lived and susceptible to disease and insect attack. I've seen some really nice bonsai created from yamadori material. Please research summer digging and aftercare before collecting. Avoid trees with dwarf mistletoe infestation. Good luck.

Good tip on the mistletoe....

 

[ghues]

Was thinking about going to the woods today. We had a really heavy rain a couple days ago and now it's starting to warm up. It's almost into the dry season, would like to collect before then.

For some inspiration here are two Lodgepole from my friends garden, collected and cared for many years now and starting to really take shape.
I've have successfully collected in the heat of summer...after a few days of rain, the root ball was very dry, but Inwrapped it with wet mosses and after I got it home, it soaked in a tube of water for three days to fully hydrate it.
G.

 

[GailC]

Ended up going out and didn't have much luck. Its hot today so I stayed low, going up high would be a all day venture. I did end up with 1 douglas fir, 1 cedar and 1 lodgepole. None are very nice but they are good starts to experiment on. The lodgepole is a tall spindly thing that will need severe bending at some point in time. I do have a plan for it though.

The doug fir is one my daughter wanted, right now I'm only worrying about keeping it alive. It may never be worth a damn but it is what it is.

The cedar looks promising but it has a lot of foliage and some has died off from lack of sun. I thinned out the dead stuff and removed a few of the spindly branches so it can get more light. It has good movement but the top is weird, it will probably need sever bending too.

 

[PaulH]

I've collected a lot of lodgepole and they are great bonsai material. Watch out for borers though. They have killed several of mine. They are single flush and should be treated like Scots pine or white pine. They are so flexible that they need repeated wiring to hold shape. Here are some of mine...

 

[petegreg]

Very nice pines, Paul.

 

[GailC]

Nice, I notice you didn't wrap the trunk on the tree with the rebar. Do these things ever crack when bending? I was playing around with some in the field and none cracked, even when severely bent.

The white pines were the same. I'd like to get a WP too but they seem to grow really straight. Might be difficult finding one.

 

[Vance Wood]

This is one native American species that should be available in the nursery trade but is not. Tough and beautiful. It's good to start on, good to learn your skills on, and a great finished bonsai when you have matured your skills on the tree.

 

[parhamr]

Here's my Pinus contorta var murrayana. It was permit harvested from BLM lands near Diamond Lake, OR.



They're definitely a single flush species and fairly responsive to care. I've been treating it similar to Vance's guidance on Mugo pine. I just repotted it at the beginning of July. It had last been repotted summer of 2014 and it was not quite yet rootbound. Nearly all of the medium pine bark had disintegrated and intermixed with the original sandy clay loam soil.

Needle cast and needle rust have both been troublesome for me so I intermittently spray with copper and Daconil.

 

[PaulH]

Nice, I notice you didn't wrap the trunk on the tree with the rebar.

Hard to tell from my lousy photo but it is wrapped with raffia where I did the biggest bend.

 

[GailC]

Here's my Pinus contorta var murrayana.

Nice tree. It's what I was looking for, with needles

Here's my Pinus contorta var murrayana.

Looks good, that's more along the line of what I was after but not many have lower branches like that.