Mugo Pine 1 Year Later - Any Suggestions?

hooligan

Hey, I'm new to Bonzai. This is my first tree... A Mugo Pine. My girlfriend got it for me about a week ago from Target. It looks in bad shape to me! It was in one of those pots with glued rocks over the soil. I took the rocks off and the soil was all soggy and didn't look too good (had slimy stuff in it..along with other stuff) so i repotted it in a bigger pot and new soil (not a bonzai mix). I'm not sure what to do with it really. I've been reading some stuff online. I trimmed it back, dont know if that was a good idea. Well anyway i guess i just want some suggestions. Picture isnt too good cuz my digicam was running low on batteries and shut off.

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TreeBay

bonSai.

Mugho won't tolerate anything less than perfect drainage, so you will need to be very careful not to let the soil stay soggy. Get it healthy before you do anything else. Then I suspect you will need to cut off most of the branches that are growing from the same point.

But not until it has recovered and is pushing new growth would I touch it.

Regards,

Matt

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hooligan

Thanks matt... lol BonSai.... I knew that. Thanks for the advice. I will see what happens... Hope it doesnt die!

Big Tree

With alittle work and some time and alot of studying and reading it will be a great tree.I know one thing it will need some bonsai soil pines don't like wet feet I hope to see more pics as it grows.


Big Tree

hooligan

Thanks for you're input too Big Tree! I will post pictures once it has improved. Which most likely wont be for a while though. I'll try to pick up some Bonsai mix sometime.
A little off subject... - I've read one post about how to protect your tree during the winter. I was wondering if I would need to do anything for this tree before winter comes? I may be going off to college so I wont be able to watch over it very much besides when I come back on vacations.

Thanks again both of you.

hooligan

Well, I posted pictures of this tree (my first and only tree, someone gave me it) a little over a year ago when I first got it. It wasn't doing very good so I just left it alone since.

Here is the pic from last year July 02


Here is a pic just taken today... I think it looks a lot better


It seems to have sunk down a bit since last year! Well, i've been meaning to repot it but haven't got around to it. I didnt fertilize it this year either . And there are a couple dead branches that need to come off (and probably some others). Other than that, I'm not sure what to do with it? I just cant seem to get any ideas looking at it. Sorry the pic isnt that good. Any ideas would be helpful, to start on now or next year.
Let me know if I should try to get better pics up. Thanks
-Andre

TreeBay

It should be healthier than this. I think the watering issue is the key thing. There should be strong buds and the needles should look fresh and green.

Maybe slip it out of the pot and have a look at the rootball.

Thanks for following up on this post.

Regards,

Matt

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hooligan

Thanks Matt, it actually does have a lot of growth coming and the needles are all pretty green now. I guess you cant really see it that much in the pic. But if you look at the first pic from last year and the pic from this year, the needles are much more green (almost no brown anywhere now) and there is a decent amount more needles.
But I agree it probably could be a lot healthier.
Well I will keep working on getting it healthy, thanks.

TreeBay

Please see this thread for a healthy mugo. The leaves should be straight, full, and deep green. The linked thread is a miniature variety, but you get the idea:

http://forum.bonsaitalk.com/showthr...=&threadid=4415

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