Silver pine pinus sylvestris watereri multi trunk windswept

[Jesters1gamble]

Hello all I picked this silver pine pinus sylvestris watereri up in September this year and chopped the center trunk and other branches. I was going to try air layer 2 of the branches but I'm thinking now of a multi trunk windswept. I have not messed with the roots yet so i don't know what the nebari looks like. Let me here your thoughts please

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

They're always grafted, so there is probably 10cm of trunk underneath the soil line.
That kind of eliminates the multi trunk option.

 

[Jesters1gamble]

They're always grafted, so there is probably 10cm of trunk underneath the soil line.
That kind of eliminates the multi trunk option.

Is that common in every country.

 

[Jesters1gamble]

They're always grafted, so there is probably 10cm of trunk underneath the soil line.
That kind of eliminates the multi trunk option.

My design idea is to make it look like it's lived on the baltic sea coast getting beat by the wind and have it at a lean like its still holding on to the last of its roots so about 45°

 

[Ozz80]

I am a newbie, so please take my suggestions with a pinch of salt, but as far as I know, it is risky to make a final design decision without first examining the trunk base and nebari below the soil line. You may find unexpected movement, inverse taper, or other features that will completely alter your initial plan.

With nursery material I carefully excavate around the trunk to locate where the rootball begins, then cut the nursery pot and remove the soil down to that level. This reveals the tree's true character.

On a related note, I'm dealing with a leggy grafted 'Watereri' myself. There is one vendor that imports them from Europe to Turkey (I cant remember the export country) and all of them are grafted. To my luck, the graft on my tree looks OK without a reverse taper or an ugly bump. Since it is leggy though, I am planning to approach graft lower branches and essentially rebuild the canopy from the base up.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Is that common in every country.

Yes, they have a very weak root system on their own.
They're mostly sold in Europe, and they are grafted on scots pine roots.

Cool variety! I had a couple, now only one.
But it took me an hour to go through the selection at the garden center; a lot of them had ugly graft unions and no good nebari. It's important that the selection up front is done thoroughly, because it's very difficult to fix.

That doesn't mean you're in trouble or did something bad, we all started somewhere and we all made enthuasiastic decisions. But I do recommend digging away the top layer of the soil to see if you can find the graft, and the position where the roots flare out to the sides.

 

[Jesters1gamble]

Ok I will pluck away at the top layer probably Wednesday after work. As for my final design how I said leaning and windswept like on the baltic sea coastline would technically give me the option to hide the graft site if it truly is bad. I would build up a sand dune on the side the wind comes from and style it to help with the design. But all things could change once I see the graft and nebari

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

For what it is worth, Pinus sylvestris and all it's cultivars, none are known to root as air layers with any reliability. Vast majority of pines can not be propagated by air layers or cuttings.

There are a very few specific cultivars of JBP that with some difficulty will air layer, but they are the exception, not common at all. And from experience, I can say they are not easy to get to air layer, failures are common.

Learn grafting to propagate pines. Grafting is not very difficult to learn. Graft unions do take time to fully fuse, 5 years or more to be fully fused.

 

[Jesters1gamble]

For what it is worth, Pinus sylvestris and all it's cultivars, none are known to root as air layers with any reliability. Vast majority of pines can not be propagated by air layers or cuttings.

There are a very few specific cultivars of JBP that with some difficulty will air layer, but they are the exception, not common at all. And from experience, I can say they are not easy to get to air layer, failures are common.
Learn grafting to propagate pines. Grafting is not very difficult to learn. Graft unions do take time to fully fuse, 5 years or more to be fully fused.

Ah I knew pines where difficult to air layer but did not think almost impossible