Scots Pine seedling cuttings

[TacomaBonsai95]

Hi everyone,
I'll be experimenting with some scots pine this season by making some cuttings. I'll post everything here and we'll see how it works! I started my first wave of seeds indoors because I have a trip to Ireland in April and don't wanna risk losing everything while I'm gone haha. They've started rising from their peat cocoons.

 

[Wattsy]

Will be nice to see this Scot’s pine is the only pine we have in the uk so I like read and watch anything related to them

 

[TacomaBonsai95]

Just wanna let people know to be careful if you use root riot or other types of foamy seed starting plugs. Smaller seeds like scots pine and some jrp seeds did fine, jbp is too big and gets stuck. I decided to investigate. They were all growing sideways, burrowing into the plug AWAY FROM THE HOLE! One had already given up trying. I'll take a pic when I get home tonight to prove that they're not damping off

 

[TacomaBonsai95]

Risen from the dead.

 

[TacomaBonsai95]

Also gonna do some JRP seedling cuttings. Alot of em' look like starfish

 

[TacomaBonsai95]

Too lazy to sift substrate for a just a tiny amount of soil? I spray the bottom of a bucket with water and toss my soil in and all the dust gets stuck to the water .

 

[JeffS73]

Hey Tacoma, stop me if you've done this before, but I recommend growing the stage from seed in a tray of perlite, then cut and put in the plugs. Looks like you're at prime damping off stage, watch that moisture!

 

[TacomaBonsai95]

Hey Tacoma, stop me if you've done this before, but I recommend growing the stage from seed in a tray of perlite, then cut and put in the plugs. Looks like you're at prime damping off stage, watch that moisture!

Yeah, I wanted to try something new and learned my lesson. No damping off luckily, but enough hassles to stick with the usual methods. I will say one benefit of the peat cubes is that the taproot gets air pruned very early on. I think that's why all the seedlings in the peat cubes are shorter.

 

[TacomaBonsai95]

I moved them into slightly bigger pots before the roots started curling around the old pots.

 

[TacomaBonsai95]

Thought I'd give an update since everything exploded with growth.

 

[TacomaBonsai95]

!Not a cutting!
Here's what starting a seed in a peat plug does to the roots!

 

[TacomaBonsai95]

Here's my soil mix. 1:1:1 with a little peat mixed in.

 

[JeffS73]

You're going well, and your trees will be great, I offer this info to help you do even better.
I am just potting up Scots and other pines grown in the same / similar cubes, one year later. Your cuttings have sent out multiple roots, but they are heading down, and you want them heading out. Those cubes are quite tough (compared to glasswool ones), so it's a bad idea to try tearing them apart now. You could possibly open them up with a craft knife or scalpel, from below, but maybe better to try and encourage more horizontal roots by planting low in wider containers.
Adding peat is, IMHO, a bad idea, I tried a leca/perlite/peat mix and got a lot of root rot. The plant picks one or two strong g roots and ditches the rest. You need an open soil, like 6mm pumice and bark.
Keep looking at Mark Comstocks work and figuring out what he's done, his are the best going.

 

[TacomaBonsai95]

Thank you!
I repotted all of them today and pointed all the root outwards. I'll be ditching the peat going forward and just starting in perlite/ pumice and vermiculite. Here's one started without the plugs in the 2nd pic.

 

[TacomaBonsai95]

One is growing too fast and has stretch marks now . The stem had too much sap and cracked open to accommodate for it... yikes