Backbudding Pine

jfecme

About 2 months ago I dug a young pine from an altitude of about 3000 feet in the Georgia mountains and moved down to my location at about 250 ft. and a lot more heat. It's a two needle pine which I think is Virginia pine. It was in a covered mountain forest.

It's thin, little over an inch and a half in diameter at the base, and tapers upward to about 32". It was sparsely limbed, and appeared to be a good candidate for literati styling.

I dug plenty of roots, and when I got it home I potted it in a 5 gallon nursery can, using a tree and shrub commercial soil to fill in. And, yes, I watered it down with Superthrive (There's the magic word sure to engender discussion. Keep the cards and letters rolling in.). It was placed under a maple tree to keep up it shaded environment.

I did what I thought was some serious candle pruning for that time of year and pruned all the upward and downward pointing needles I thought necessary.

Now here is the good part. The thing has back-budded out all up and down the rough long trunk! And on the limbs. I never expected this, considered that the move in altitudes and sun and drought would be enough to keep it from doing anything much, if it survived. I was going to wait until next spring to pot it up in a bunjin pot, and may still wait 'til then.

But I sure have an itch to do something with it this fall.

So what do you think about any or all of this? If I can get my buddy to come over with his digital camera I'll try to take a picture.

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Over 25 years experience - good and bad, and still learning!

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rockm

"But I sure have an itch to do something with it this fall."

Scratch that itch at the tree's peril.. It's too soon.

Graydon

Post photos. Stop itching. You have done enough - let it recover and acclimate. Let the buds grow as you can cut off what the future tree does not need later.

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