Stubmle's Vance Wood Memorial Mugo Contest Entry #1

[stubmle]

This is my first entry in the Vance Wood Memorial Mugo contest. It is a small Pinus mugo 'Slowmound' dwarf cultivar grown by Iseli. I picked it up at a nearby nursery on May 19 this year for about $20. In the time since I have done nothing with it except water it, feed it, and remove some dead needles in the interior.

Mugo #1

• stubmle
• May 29, 2024

This is a small Pinus mugo 'Slowmound' dwarf cultivar grown by Iseli. I picked it up for the...

Mugo #1

• stubmle
• May 29, 2024

This is a small Pinus mugo 'Slowmound' dwarf cultivar grown by Iseli. I picked it up for the...

Mugo #1

• stubmle
• May 29, 2024

This is a small Pinus mugo 'Slowmound' dwarf cultivar grown by Iseli. I picked it up for the...

Mugo #1

• stubmle
• May 29, 2024

This is a small Pinus mugo 'Slowmound' dwarf cultivar grown by Iseli. I picked it up for the...

Mugo #1

• stubmle
• May 29, 2024

This is a small Pinus mugo 'Slowmound' dwarf cultivar grown by Iseli. I picked it up for the...

They had several others this size, but this was the best-shaped one of the bunch. They also had some larger Slowmound mugos available (maybe 1-gallon pots?), but it did not seem like any of them had good single trunks when I felt around in the soil. I am planning to repot and perform initial styling in early July if conditions are favorable & the tree is still healthy.

...To be honest I don't expect much from this one before the contest ends as it is very small and grows very slowly, but I'm still going to take a crack at it and see where it goes.
I also got a larger one elsewhere in case the little one does not work out, but that will get its own thread.

 

[Hack Yeah!]

Welcome to the site, I couldn't open your photo links. Can you attach them directly?

 

[stubmle]

Welcome to the site, I couldn't open your photo links. Can you attach them directly?

Oh! I had put them up as gallery images, I think they were set to private. Can you see them now?

 

[Hack Yeah!]

Yes, thank you

 

[cmu268]

Welcome! This looks like a pretty good starter. I'm in Norwood too.

 

[stubmle]

Welcome! This looks like a pretty good starter. I'm in Norwood too.

Small world! Moved there in 2019, turns out that was a great time to get out of the city!

 

[cmu268]

Small world! Moved there in 2019, turns out that was a great time to get out of the city!

Definitely timed it right!

 

[stubmle]

This past Sunday I bit the bullet and repotted this one.

Mugo #1 (Roots)

• stubmle
• Jul 11, 2024

Close-up of the roots of my 'Slowmound' Mugo. The nursery soil was 100% composted bark and was...

Nebari, such as it is, does not appear very interesting, but it might turn out decent with time. The nursery soil was very easily removed. This particular tree was grown by Iseli; seems like they use 100% composted bark for their stock. It was easy to loosen it up and shake it off with bare hands- I only had to use a chopstick once or twice. I was careful not to break too many fine roots. The roots appeared to be in good shape, with lots of nice white tips (the pic doesn't do it justice). This is a young tree, so it hand not become root-bound yet and there were only a few large or circling roots. I cut off the worst of them (less than 10% total root mass), spread out the rest as best I could, and tied it into a Tokoname training pot I had (I think it's a #5.5?). For soil, I used Tinyroots Deciduous Blend (mix of akadama / pumice / expanded slate / horticultural charcoal, don't know the ratio) with a bit of the nursery soil (composted pine/fir bark) added in. Maybe not the ideal mix for this tree, but it was the best I had on hand. I top-dressed with shredded dried sphagnum moss and watered thoroughly.

I then removed some foliage. The result:

Mugo #1 (Front)

• stubmle
• Jul 11, 2024

Front view of my 'Slowmound' Mugo. The first branch has a nice curve not visible at this angle...

Mugo #1 (Front)

• stubmle
• Jul 11, 2024

Front view of my 'Slowmound' Mugo. The curve of the first branch is more visible at this angle...

Mugo #1 (Back)

• stubmle
• Jul 11, 2024

Back view of my 'Slowmound' Mugo.
This tree is in the 2024 Vance Wood Memorial Contest.

Mugo #1 (Side)

• stubmle
• Jul 11, 2024

Side view of my 'Slowmound' Mugo.
This tree is in the 2024 Vance Wood Memorial Contest.

As you can see in my first post in this thread, this tree had 2 options for the First Branch- both had similar characteristics and I was struggling to pick one. I have heard that often when you face decision paralysis, that means either choice would be a good one. That seemed to be the case here so I picked at random. As soon as I did, it was like a "Eureka" moment and I could suddenly see the shape of the tree. Before that it just felt like a little bush!

I also thinned out the remaining foliage, trying to reduce any 3+ junctions down to 2. I think I removed about 50% of the total foliage mass. There is still one branch that needs to go, but I am hesitant to do so immediately as it's got a decent amount of the remaining foliage on it. I have heard that these "ultra-dwarf" cultivars can be a bit fussier than others, so I don't want to push things too far & risk killing the tree; better to wait for next year if recovery is good.

Honestly I'm pretty happy with how it turned out so far. Of course, this was the easy part- now to keep it alive! I'm going to keep this in part shade for a few weeks and water sparingly until the soil dries to the first inch or so. If it hasn't croaked by then, back into full sun. Probably going to hold off on fertilizing this for a few months as well.

Not planning to do any more makor work on this until Spring at the earliest. I'll post an update periodically or if anything major occurs.

 

[cmu268]

Nice - looks like it has potential for a really nice shohin size tree. Hard to tell but looks like it has a bit of inverse taper towards the top, but with some vigorous growth over the next couple years I bet it could be worked out.

 

[stubmle]

1-month update: No significant changes, which I'm taking as a good sign. Tree has dropped some older needles but otherwise seems to be doing fine, at least so far. I may start fertilizing lightly soon, probably just fish emulsion to start out.

 

[stubmle]

1-month update: No significant changes, which I'm taking as a good sign. Tree has dropped some older needles but otherwise seems to be doing fine, at least so far. I may start fertilizing lightly soon, probably just fish emulsion to start out.

Pic:

 

[stubmle]

Still going strong! Looks pretty much as it did in the last pic, though there are a few new buds in various places.