The Vance Wood Memorial Mugo 4yr. Contest

[FreshAirSunshine]

I’m happy to give this a shot. Never grown mugo but I know of a landscape nursery that has ones not too terribly setup for bonsai. Would be a good learning opportunity

 

[Dabbler]

i'm in - don't know if I can find any but I get what I can

 

[Gaitano]

I think this is a perfect way to honor the memory of one of our prized members. I’m in.

 

[shohin_branches]

I'm interested! I'm at the 1 in 1 out point of bonsai so I'll have to take a few trees to the next club meeting to offload which I probably should do anyway.

 

[The Barber]

Count me in, I have several already, sadly I just chopped one all to pieces that would have been awesome. Unless it still counts lol

 

[Kaleb]

Maybe I am over thinking this but what size would we start out with?

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

I’ll give it a try. I sparred with Vance on more than one occasion about the viability of repotting a pine in July in the South, but have not actually tried it. I might be out in a few months, but I’ll find one and give it a shot.

 

[JeffS73]

I always enjoyed Vance's posts.
I've had this the ground as a landscape tree since about 2018. No idea what the trunk is like, the location was never very good so I will dig it up and make of it what I can, I'm in!

 

[cishepard]

Count me in, I have several already, sadly I just chopped one all to pieces that would have been awesome. Unless it still counts lol

If you just did the work in the last few weeks and you have a “before” photo, then I’ll say yes, it can count.

 

[Gabler]

I have a job, so it looks like I'm not going to be able to water often enough to grow a Mugo. I tend to keep thirsty trees in wet soil, since I can't just go home and water in the middle of the day. Most thirsty trees are fine with wet soil. Apparently, Mugos are not.

@Vance Wood said:

Mugos cannot stay dry like other pines. They need to be watered constantly; sometimes two to three times a day when it's hot. However, they cannot sit in wet soil.

 

[TrevorLarsen]

Just to be clear it has to be purchased from a nursery this year to count right? Some people are talking about trees already in the ground so I want to make sure that we are all on the same page. Also I believe part of Vance’s guide is that one should use pond baskets not ground grow Mugo.

 

[cishepard]

Let’s stick with the original rules and say it should be a nursery tree starting off this spring in a nursery pot. If you bought one previously and it is still in the pot with no work done on it then it will be acceptable. This way everyone is staring off with essentially the same material. Any size to start with is acceptable as well, as is the final bonsai size.

 

[BrightsideB]

What the heck…. I’m in. A perfect reason to buy another tree

You need a reason to buy a tree?! jk

 

[Paradox]

I have a job, so it looks like I'm not going to be able to water often enough to grow a Mugo. I tend to keep thirsty trees in wet soil, since I can't just go home and water in the middle of the day. Most thirsty trees are fine with wet soil. Apparently, Mugos are not.

@Vance Wood said:

Honestly....I've never had to water anything 3x a day. When temps are above 90 I might water 2x a day. My watering system goes off every morning before work and if I need to, I run it for 10 minutes after I get home using a manual setting that runs it for the specified time then shuts if off.

 

[The Barber]

If you just did the work in the last few weeks and you have a “before” photo, then I’ll say yes, it can count.

No before photo, it was a small bush and needed cut back hard and I didn't even think about it. No worries though, I have others I recently purchased, this one was definitely my favorite though.

 

[TrevorLarsen]

I have a job, so it looks like I'm not going to be able to water often enough to grow a Mugo. I tend to keep thirsty trees in wet soil, since I can't just go home and water in the middle of the day. Most thirsty trees are fine with wet soil. Apparently, Mugos are not.

@Vance Wood said:

I have only watered my Mugos once a day in the morning and they have done great. I have one in a nursery container 2 in pond baskets with perlite and coco with a sphagnum top dressing. I repotted in the summer like Vance said and I live in Utah so it’s pretty extreme heat and lack of humidity. But maybe I have just been lucky.

 

[Dav4]

I need another project like I need another hole in the head...


So I guess I'm in .

 

[Dav4]

I have a job, so it looks like I'm not going to be able to water often enough to grow a Mugo. I tend to keep thirsty trees in wet soil, since I can't just go home and water in the middle of the day. Most thirsty trees are fine with wet soil. Apparently, Mugos are not.

@Vance Wood said:

I think you and I will be finding out just how thirsty Mugos really are. I pretty much water all my trees, including JWP, JBP, Scots pine, junipers, spruce, flowering quince, ivy, maples, crab apples, ume, etc.- just once daily unless it's quiet hot and breezy with low humidity. Only then will I water more than once, and usually just the D trees. I don't water my maples 2-3 times/day and you can bet I won't be watering a Mugo like that either... and if I'm no longer actively participating in this contest in 1-2 years, y'all now know why.

 

[KateM]

Got two dwarf mugos today at HD. I think I am in.

 

[PaulC]

I bought a nursery Mugo (my first) last week and on my way out grabbed another from the discount shelf. Unfortunately the latter turned out to be about eight plants bunched together so not much potential there yet but I'll have a closer look at both tomorrow and see what I've got.