AusBonsai

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.

shibui wrote: ↑October 16th, 2025, 6:23 pm 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!

The Specimen wrote: ↑October 15th, 2025, 9:27 am 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

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.