Digging Pines

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Robsterios
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Digging Pines

Post by Robsterios »

Hello, Would love to hear advice on digging pines. (Melbourne).
I have an opportunity to dig out a stumpy white pine. Not overly old but trunk is around 3-4" with a decently wide nebari.
Should I wait for late Winter/early Spring or can be done now? It's being grown in the hills area, probably with loamy mountain soil so next question is with regards to bare rooting. Can it/should it be bare rooted and washed the soil out and put in a free draining mix or keep some for any beneficial bacteria to support the repotting? Thanks for any advice.
Last edited by Robsterios on July 4th, 2022, 9:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Digging Pines

Post by greg27 »

The SA Bonsai Society held a radiata pine dig around this time last year, so I imagine now would be a decent time in Melbourne too.

You want to keep as much soil on the roots as possible - avoid bare rooting. When you pot it up use something free-draining to top the pot up. I used ~6mm orchiata bark (sold for growing orchids) for my radiatas last year but only had 2/6 survive, so feel free to ignore me if you want!
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Re: Digging Pines

Post by shibui »

I get slightly better survival rates with transplanted pines than Greg appears to have. I prefer to shake of as much field soil as reasonable without damaging roots. We talk lots about the dangers of fines in potting soils but then transplant trees into pots with ultra fine garden soil an expect them to survive???. I would not wash roots of conifers at transplant. There's still plenty of beneficials in the small amount of soil left adhering to the roots to populate the new container though there's plenty of evidence that those are not strictly needed when all the pine's needs are met by us in pot culture. I no longer transfer mycelium when transplanting pines. It always turns up in new pots soon anyway.

I transplant straight into my normal potting soil but I see lots of experienced collectors using straight pumice or fine scoria for extra drainage and getting good success.

Just wondering what sort of white pine your target is? JWP is relatively rare in Australia but nurseries were selling grafted Pinus strobus Nana for a while.
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Re: Digging Pines

Post by Robsterios »

Hi Neil..
The pine is a Goldilocks, it's a sport of JWP. I had a rather good one a few years ago and have since regretted letting it go as part of a Bonsai swap deal. I still see it now and then and it's an awesome tree. I've been on the look out for a good one ever since. Can I ask again about timing. Is now ok or should I wait till late Winter when it's starting to move?
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Re: Digging Pines

Post by treeman »

If it's grated onto black pine, it should be reasonably easy. The most important thing is that the interior of the root ball has access to the new mix which will invariably be courser than the soil. So when transplanting, it is vital that you don't just jig it out with with a ball of soil and surround that with potting mix which has a different drainage capacity. In that case, what will end up happening is that surface tension will keep the root ball wetter than the surrounding mix. Very bad = potential rotting! That is the usual major mistake people make. I suggest you take off as many roots as you can to fit it into the pot with only about 50mm of space between the roots and the inside wall of the pot. Remove more from directly under the trunk (problems usually start there). Also remove some wedges of soil from 3 or 4 places around the ball of roots right up close to the trunk and loosen the rest without removing too much more. Remember it has to stay in the pot for at least 3 years. In 3 years you can remove most of the original soil. For potting mix, use mainly gravel and sand and maybe 10-20% bark and make sure most of the root tips can find it straight away. If you can find a terracotta pot big enough, even better. Clear as mud?
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Re: Digging Pines

Post by shibui »

I'm not sure whether there is better times to transplant pine.
I see some members here who repot pines earlier, before deciduous but I usually repot mine later after I've finished the deciduous. Both seem to work so I guess that means pine has a wider window of repotting than many of us believe.
Not sure if/how that translates to collecting from a garden.
Most of my limited experience is with P. radiata from the pine plantations but I haven't taken much notice of survival rates from different times of the year.
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