The ugliest pine ever...sort of

Penn State

Well i admit this is wretched. It was a local nursery find from two summers ago. I found it burried in the depth of the place, laying on its side. About the size it is now, in a 1 gallon pot. The roots were breaking thru and into the ground. That was a mess to sort out. But for $5 i couldn't resist this ugly duckling. So after two years of saying, some day i'll have an idea. I finally had some time to sit down and remember why i bought it. The first 6'' of trunk are awesome. They are gnarled and old looking. Cool in my opinion. So my master plan for early spring is to try to graft some of the fluff on the top down on the the lower part, and eventually ditch the top part and have a nice little shohin in a few years with branch development. I just thought i'd share the pics, and see if my idea is do-able, or ever what you guys would do.

fyi: when i bought it i had no idea what kind of pine it is. Still don't know for sure.


oh and mad props to whoever took the pics outside and night to get a black background. It works well, unfortunately the snow reflected light from the road, and house that was within a stones throw of the pics. But i can see this being a really nice tool to get good black backdropped pics.

Attached Images

	pinus.jpg (42.3 KB, 114 views)
	pinus_side.jpg (71.6 KB, 61 views)
	pinus_trunk.jpg (53.7 KB, 55 views)

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Carl_Bergstrom

Hi Penn State,

I'm afraid that trunk is not really work grafting anything onto, what with it's reverse taper. Better to chalk this one up to a learning experience and go find some good material.

Best of luck,
Carl

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cbobgo

I would agree with the crow, unless you can also graft a big root on the right side of the base to cover up the reverse taper.

- bob

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Penn State

A learning experience it shall be then... I didn't even really notice the reverse taper until i looked closer at the pics. Guess its not like i'm loosing much.... will look good in the ground next to the rest of my mistake

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John Dixon

Penn State,

Maybe all is not lost. I was thinking a semi or full cascade is still possible. I think that the reverse taper can be minimized (or even eliminated) by re-adjusting the base over to the right (facing) on a re-pot. Some wiring and bending could make this tree worth keeping. Depending on the age, I would like to see some shari in the lower trunk, but that's a personal choice. I've attached a quick sketch to explain what I mean. Sorry, but I'm a doodler, not a photoshop"er".

BTW, I would introduce more movement (wiggle) into the trunks/branches but I didn't want to show it in a manner that doesn't reflect its current state.

John

Attached Images

pine cascade.jpg (49.2 KB, 62 views)

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Si vis pacem parabellum

Stay off the trails of others, that's where the booby-traps are.

Will_Heath

First.... if you're not quite ready to give up on this learning experience yet...

at the base of the tree, right under where the trunk flares out and upward, right at the soil line, scrape the bark down in 4-6 places and dust with rooting hormone. you are not girdling the trunk here, you are taking the bark off in narrow strips around the trunk keeping in mind that this is where you want roots to form. I I I

Then take a 3" or 4" plastic nursery pot and cut off the top 3" so you have a ring, then cut the ring in one place. That that ring and set it around your trunk, right on the soil and push it in about inch into the soil.

Now put some soil in, your choice, some people use straight sphagnum moss, some regular bonsai soil, I personally use 1 part turface, 1 part sphagnum moss and 1 part aquarium sand for this technique.

With luck and time the tree will shoot out new roots in a more pleasing manner and solve your reverse taper problem as well.

Meanwhile, stop the elongating and don't forget to pinch back those candles.

Just another option....

Will

Edit: On another note, that moss looks healthy on that pine, that would tell me that you are watering too much.