Mugo pine questions about design.

[TrevorLarsen]

I have read and saved the great info on this site about mugo pines so I have that gold. I was just wondering peoples thoughts on the quality (or lack there of) of this tree and wether I should grow it taller or keep it small. I bought it a a grocery store for $25 so I was shocked at how good of nebari was hiding under the soil. It looks like there is a second tree growing on the side of it too. Is that bad should I take it out? I’ll put some before pictures too. I worked on it before I read the info on here about mugos so I did things wrong with it but thankfully it is alive and well still. I did root work and pruning in the spring so a rookie mistake with mugos. Thank you so much for reading.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I would keep the second tree and focus on backbudding. The size seems about right to me, but the branches lack ramification that you can achieve by just exposing them to sunlight and hoping for backbuds.

 

[MeDupree]

Take it from a rookie who killed about 6 last year...you probably shouldn't do anything else to it until late fall with pruning so just water, fertilizer, limit candles to two per branch and maybe pluck some of the older needles away. They should survive as long as you don't do anymore cutting now.

 

[MeDupree]

Did you leave any of the old soil in the root ball??

 

[Shibui]

There's no rules about having 2 trees together provided they look good. Eventually the 2 trunks will fuse together and become one anyway. Some of the roots may already be fused together. The question now becomes does it look better with the second trunk? If not get it out.

The tree(s) look good. Nice thick trunk, plenty of branches and still lots of needles on the longer branches that should give possibility for new buds to create better ramification on branches you choose to keep.
When @MeDupree suggests plucking some old needles don't fall for pulling all the lower needles, leaving some at the ends of each shoot and thereby create a poodle cut. That will often limit new buds to the ends of branches. When pulling old needles leave some wherever you want new shoots to emerge. That usually means pull needles along the top and bottom of shoots instead of all around.

 

[TrevorLarsen]

Thanks for replying. I should have made it more clear but this is my second year with this tree and I’m not doing any work on it until later this year so it will for sure survive since it is doing much better this year. I’ll for sure do what you guys suggest.

 

[TrevorLarsen]

Also I only removed the outer soil on the root ball. I am aware of the needed fungus in the soil but that said I probably pushed it too far last year but like I said it has survived and is looking pretty strong this year.