Orion_metalhead
Masterpiece
Grabbed this at a local nursery. Will see what I can do with it. I hope in the end it is something worthy of it's Purpose.
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Orion's Vance Wood Memorial Mugo
- Thread starter Orion_metalhead
- Start date
Orion_metalhead
Masterpiece
shit. I misspelled the title!!!!! @Bonsai Nut can you please change!
cishepard
Shohin
I fixed it. Thanks for joining the contest!
Orion_metalhead
Masterpiece
So as an homage to Vance, I am going to specifically quote his steps through this tree's life from the listed thread. Any work done will be specifically in keeping with his guidelines.
Orion_metalhead
Masterpiece
Did his new nursery stock treatment today:
TREATMENT OF NEW NURSERY MUGOS:
Removed the pot, cleaned off soil
1/2 root ball removed, reduced some foliage as well.
Roots teased out around circumference
Box, used some steel grating to fill gaps then used a layer of pea gravel as a bottom layer.
Final product. Will probably wire in august if looking good.
TREATMENT OF NEW NURSERY MUGOS:
- Repot anytime after Father's Day through August. Early July is ideal.
- Remove the tree from the container. Remove the duff and detritus from the top of the soil mass. Don't go digging around for the nebari.
- Using a saw, remove one half off of the bottom of the soil mass. (Vance no longer teaches the pie cutting method of removing soil).
- Using a root hook or chopstick, loosen the circling roots. Remove only the thickest ones, no more than 25% of the circling roots.
- You can also remove approximately 1/2 of the foliage at this time.
- Plant the tree with a well-draining bonsai mix into a pond basket, colander, or specially designed bonsai planter and allow it at least three years before disturbing the roots again. A pine tree is not a garden flower that you can totally disregard the way the roots are handled; there are protocols that should be followed if you expect the tree to survive. One of those protocols is that you do not disturb the roots more than once every three years for pines.
- Aftercare: Water the tree thoroughly. Place in partial shade and watch it closely for 2 weeks or so. Don't water it again until the soil is dry down to the first knuckle under the soil.
- Bare rooting a Mugo should never be done. You can take three or four repotting cycles to replace all the old soil. I believe it is important to leave at least 50% of the root system intact and functioning without being disturbed. That 50% must be all around the soil ball. I have found that mugos, like many mountain pines, tend to be of a sector architecture, roots to branches top to bottom. If you kill a root you will kill the portion of the top it is attached to and the same vice versa. If you kill a major branch you will kill the root that it is attached to. It for this reason you cannot do what seems to be practice with some other pines and that is in removing the 50% of the growth from one side. The odds of destroying a critical sectored growth line to a critical part of the tree is too great. This is one of the reason some really good bonsai growers, successful with other pines, seem to kill mugos.
- Planting it in a larger pot or pond basket will allow the trunk to thicken. Your goal is to get the trunk to thicken instead of the branches, which is the tendency for young mugos. I have found that planting in a basket will thicken the trunk better than ground planting.
- Thick bark comes from many years growing in a container. You cannot get great quality bark from growing in the ground.
Removed the pot, cleaned off soil
1/2 root ball removed, reduced some foliage as well.
Roots teased out around circumference
Box, used some steel grating to fill gaps then used a layer of pea gravel as a bottom layer.
Final product. Will probably wire in august if looking good.
Michigan Tree Murderer
Masterpiece
That's awesome and a great guide for future Bnuts.
radhatter
Sapling
This is great, I just picked one up today as well. Do you have a compilation of all his steps for how he worked Mugo pines?
Paradox
Marine Bonsologist
There is an article in the resources section of the forum
Here is the link to the contest rule with the compilation included.
https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/the-vance-wood-memorial-mugo-4yr-contest.63959/
https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/the-vance-wood-memorial-mugo-4yr-contest.63959/
Orion_metalhead
Masterpiece
Yep, link to the resource in the first post.
Orion_metalhead
Masterpiece
"FEEDING: I feed full strength every week with Miracle Grow, and once in the Summer with Miracid. Then, continue with Miracle Grow till October."
Been a little slow to get this fertilization regime started but I did begin today. Full strength with whatever MG fert I had laying around. Once I finish this box up, Ill shift to the regular green and yellow box.
I also removed some old needles and some small dead branches I missed in the initial clean out.
Been a little slow to get this fertilization regime started but I did begin today. Full strength with whatever MG fert I had laying around. Once I finish this box up, Ill shift to the regular green and yellow box.
I also removed some old needles and some small dead branches I missed in the initial clean out.
Orion_metalhead
Masterpiece
Fertilized again today. Missed last week.
Orion_metalhead
Masterpiece
You can see the Vance tree on the left bench a few days ago before the snow storm. Third in.
