THE PINE PROJECT

[boom64]

Hi Ryceman 3 ,Great to see a Neagari project .Hopefully more than one happening... . I have used a similar technique ,but like to have a little more control. I would not cut the tube away but instead at yearly repotting time .Remove the tube and check roots , I use grafting tape to compress bends ,separate any to close together etc. Also if you start to get a single root that starts to dominate you can cut it to force it to divide. Place roots back in tube and refill with smaller coarse gravel /scoria .This will force any smaller roots to separate as well. I know we all have different ways of doing things but thought I would share this with you. Looking forward to this one .
Cheers John.

[Ryceman3]

Hi Ryceman 3 ,Great to see a Neagari project .Hopefully more than one happening... . I have used a similar technique ,but like to have a little more control. I would not cut the tube away but instead at yearly repotting time .Remove the tube and check roots , I use grafting tape to compress bends ,separate any to close together etc. Also if you start to get a single root that starts to dominate you can cut it to force it to divide. Place roots back in tube and refill with smaller coarse gravel /scoria .This will force any smaller roots to separate as well. I know we all have different ways of doing things but thought I would share this with you. Looking forward to this one .
Cheers John.

Nice John... thanks for your input! You do some pretty nice exposed root stuff so I’ll keep your advice in mind, I’m a bit of a control freak so I like the idea of checking out what is going on rather than just hoping for the best!
Just one neagari project to date. If all goes well I might be prompted to do some more next year but they take up more room than standard potting projects... and I’m running out of room! We’ll see how it plays out, many thanks for your input.

[Ryceman3]

One month into Spring - candle extension is going very well on all pines - but particularly the JBP... some are over 20cms in length and still growing on nicely. Others even have some baby cones developing. I'll be removing the cones to channel the energy into foliar growth, below is a shot taken this morning as I was watering ... with things beginning to heat up I expect this growth to accelerate.

JBP candle extension.jpg

[Ryceman3]

This post is really just a bit of reflection on the growth of pines. The image shows a shot I took today after stem cutting a few of my latest JBP seedlings (on the right) with some I did at pretty much the same time last year(on the left). Last year's one is about the average height/size of those stem cut JBPs I have left ... I reckon that is pretty nice development in 12 months, gotta be happy with that!

stem cut JBP.jpg

[terryb]

Very timely Ryceman3, I've been thinking I need to get on to my babies fairly soon.

[Ryceman3]

I've taken a different direction with some of the trees I started last year ... it's getting serious!
I'll be interested to see how development compares with the pot-grown ones I have.
I planted out 9 JBP, 1 JRP, 2 Scots and 2 Austrian Black Pine. The grow bed has very sandy soil that I added a few things to which hopefully gives them the best chance of success. I'm pretty excited about their potential but those that know me and my set up will realise that this is not my garden!!
It in fact belongs to my in-laws who live almost 2 hours away so I don't have my eye on them as much as I would like (the pines I mean - not the in-laws! ). They are not exactly known for their gardening prowess, so this is a gamble. I'm going to try and keep them motivated to water for me as much as possible and I'll do a couple of trips down in the next few weeks to monitor them. I think once they get set they should be fine.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained ... we'll see how it plays out.

Pines in Ground_01.jpg

Pines in Ground_02.jpg

Pines in Ground_03.jpg

Pines in Ground_04.jpg

[Greg F]

Hi Ryceman3,
Looking good, I hope water them enough for you.
Looking forward to seeing the progress and the difference between these and the pot growm jbp.
I have a similar growbed that ive put a few trees in recently and have had mostly good results in a short time.

Greg

[tgooboon]

If i were you, i would get a tap timer and set it to water every couple of days. The one I got is a pope one which looks like a camera, cheap enough, very easy to use, long lasting battery and very reliable. I am not casting any dispersions on your inlaws, but would be dissapointing to loose them to lack of water.

Did you put a saucer or tile under them to encourage to roots o go out before they go down?

[Ryceman3]

Did you put a saucer or tile under them to encourage to roots o go out before they go down?

Nothing under them... it’s all “au natural”. I feel like the initial root work and placement while planting in the grow bed will be enough.
I’ll be digging up and inspecting next August (that’s my plan) so we’ll see how it looks then.

The tap timer is a good idea but sometimes you gotta put your faith in others. I kinda feel like chucking a timer on the tap is a ‘slap in the face’ when it comes to my trust in them... they know I’m watching!

[TimS]

Next thing you’ll be growing advanced rough stock! I’ve had a few youngish pines in the ground before at my place, they never stressed about any kind of watering schedule whatsoever. The benefits of ground growing over container growing!

Start a flat root base next year, then give them a couple of years undisturbed. Try and get some mycorrhizae in the ground there too with them if you haven’t already as that will help them bomb along. I’m pretty sure than any pine based Mycorrhizae will work on all your pines, I don’t believe the pine one is species specific beyond the pine genus.

Other than that just usual stuff of tonnes of sun and leave low/ sacrifice branches for trunk caliper and away you go!

[Ryceman3]

The spring candles have now fully opened up on my pines (specifically the JBP for this post) and with the explosion of all this foliage I have noticed that their bases are being shaded out by the growth above. Obviously that's not so great for the low-down branching I'm looking to develop.

So today I thinned a few back, stripped the sacrifice branches of a lot of their needles and even decided to experiment with decandling a few of the lower branches on some trees to see how that would play out. The pics below show an example of what I'm talking about ...

JBP-Dec01.jpg

JBP-Dec02.jpg

JBP-Dec03.jpg

JBP-Dec04.jpg

They are developing pretty well, if they keep this rate of growth going through summer I'm going to run out of space for them all ... again!

[melbrackstone]

Impressive growth on those trees Ryceman! I can see why you're going to run out of space soon

[Ryceman3]

Just a quick update to keep track of what I have been doing with my pines.
I have Scots pine seedlings that have been waiting for me to get around to potting them out of the seedling trays for about 2 months now ... today I finally got around to doing it ...
Just one tray (12) ... all had their roots pruned back to encourage more ramification in close to the trunk, no stem cut ones - it was just too late in the season I think and I don't think they'd aprreciate it. Will be interesting to see how these progress compared to the others I did closer to the "ideal" time.

SCP_RC 0120_01.jpg

[Boics]

Great work!

Clearly more time and motivation that I've got!

Inspiring!

[Ryceman3]

Since it's the end of summer (according to the calender) I thought it was time for a quick update.
This one specifically relates to the new seeds I planted last July as opposed to the original pines that started this thread. They are going along fine ... super healthy - but compared to the ones from the previous year they are not as developed. Why? My guess is it has to do with timing and care.

TIMING :
This season I missed the window for initial root work(compared to the year before) and I think this has delayed their progress. Mid October is when I would've liked to get stuck into that but I wasn't around until mid November, so this work was pushed out to Nov/early Dec.

CARE:
I found myself away from home quite a bit for periods over a week or more which meant 3 things.
1. I left the watering to my automated system which does a stellar job, but I err on the side of caution with it and to that end I think they were overwatered too often which has slowed growth.
2. I used liquid fert weekly last year with good results, but when I wasn't home - these feeding sessions were missed.... so less fert than the previous year.
3. When I am away, they don't get shifted out of the overnight "possum bunker" and into better sunlight each day, so I think there is a definite case they had less quality time in the sun.

So, like I said they are healthy little trees, just a little behind in terms of progress compared to the previous year's batch... stuff to remeber should I back up again at some stage. I think this year I'll be resting from growing pines from seed and concentrate on those I have.

Pine Seeds 19_02 0320.jpg

Pine Seeds 19_01 0320.jpg