Mugo Pine - General TLC

[shibui]

Very unlikely to be pruning. Much more likely to be either too wet or too dry.
There's still some green needles so there's still a chance it could recover if you can get watering right.

[Ryceman3]

Very unlikely to be pruning. Much more likely to be either too wet or too dry.
There's still some green needles so there's still a chance it could recover if you can get watering right.

Agree with that, if it was a pruning issue I wouldn’t think the ill health would be so consistent across the tree and instead more pinpointed. The loss of vigour seems to be across everything, which indicates to me a root issue… so likely too wet/dry as stated (the result is the same for both). Hopefully you turn it around, good luck!

[olicreighton]

Very sad that my Mugo is on its way out in its first season despite my daily best efforts and reading into Mugo pines, I can't pin point where I went wrong exactly.

My thoughts are I kept it on the dry side during late winter early spring but did I let one dry spell go too far?

I didn't repot but could it be my pruning?

It hurts to see a tree weaken slowly, decolour, brittle branching and nothing you could do to save it.

I will be looking for another Mugo in time but no graft variety or at least not this particular variant which I read does not take to bonsai practices well.

Sorry to hear Specimen. I appreciate you posting the outcomes, even if it’s a negative outcome!

Here’s hoping it pulls through, but I’d be interested to know what climate you’re in, watering in late winter etc. All info is useful!

Oli

[The Specimen]

Thanks all for the info share and inspiration across your posts (and pics!) and I'll certainly come back with a new Mugo in time. Sadly he did not make it.

If I had to pinpoint where I felt I went wrong was the one time I had let the Mugo go 1 week without water either last week winter or first week spring (VIC). Around that time, I saw new buds in multiple areas and was super excited that he was doing well.

The pot was the decent sized original nursery pot the tree had come in that I had drilled holes in on the sides to help with air circulation and being overly precious with root rot prevention, I felt I had let the dry period go longer than needed before it all went south from there.