AusBonsai

Howdy have some picture of a pine that im working on collecting at my parents place that i planted many years ago i chopped it back about 2 weeks ago went back today to dig under an cut some main roots. After about 1-2 hrs job was done cut a few big roots from under the tree an left some roots for the tree to feed from its nice an lose now back filled it with soil an gave it a good drink of seasol. I did notice a bit of back budding from the big chop so ill check it every few weeks ill do more work on it in spring as ive got plenty of time to collect it . Been told it maybe a allepo pine not radiata ill look into that later tho.

Jeez that is Huge!
Ken

Man, that's freaking awesome trunk and material
Good work and have fun bloke

Cheers,

Han.

Have a close up of the trunk the file was to big so had to crop the picture a bit

Hi Olivecrazy, mate that's definitely an Allepo , going on the cone . Bloody nice material as well .Take plenty of time even a year or two to remove it and you will have something very special to work with .

Cheers Alpineart

Thanks for the id alpineart have you got any tips about allepo pines do they back bud well ive never had pine bonsai before so any info would be great

Hi Olivecrazy , cant say i have one at all . I would fill the hole with some nice bonsai mix with some added sharps even a bit of moisture retain material , coco peat or spagnum moss , then tackle the other side in 6-12 months time and back filling the same . Pinch out all the tips and see how it goes , it cant grow on so it should back bud , if you haven't dug it out or severed the entire root mass you still have 50% of the root mass in tact and that's power to feed the trunk .I have taken up to 4 years to remove specimens, chop topping in year one by digging and spading 1/4 at a time or 1/2 in opposite sides in the second year then in the third year cut the remainder and back filling with the same blend , then removing in the forth year.

Not having worked with Aleppo , i don't know how they will react with chop topping and digging out or root cutting in one hit . It may go wheels up , only time will tell . Some guru's say to spade all around 3-6-9-12 o'clock then the following year go back and spade in between the first cuts . I have found this actually produces club roots on most pines i have done , where they were spaded a callous forms to heal the bigger roots . Dab a bit of hormone on the cuts won't hurt after they are cleaned up with secateurs cutting so the cut faces down this tends to aid in producing finer roots alleviating the club callous effect . Best of luck with it .

Cheers Alpineart

Thanks for the tips alpineart i dug under from one side an only found 1 root going straight down an one going to the right so i cut them both. The tree was still solid in the ground so decided to do the same from the other side found 1 big root so i cut that an was able to wiggle the tree so filled it back in . A good thing is where they are growing there is limestone 30cm under the surface so the roots of my trees tend to be shallow

Check on this pine today to find its doing great candles on this tree are about to show needles, it has also started back budding which great . Allepo pines tend to have immature foliage when cut back does any one no how to deal with this cant seem to find much info on these pines as bonsai

that is awesome. Its gonna be a killer bonsai!! Keep.us up to date please !

The only information that i can find on this type of pine is this an going by the times they say to do things it would be Northern hemisphere i think

Aleppo Pine (Pinus halepensis) B,R ^
yellow needle tips probably indicate that soil is too wet; do not overwater, especially in spring and summer -- allow soil to ALMOST dry out in between waterings, and then thoroughly rewater; NEVER bare-root ANY pine; pull off longer mature needles to maintain size and shape; Aleppo is different than most other pines in that this produces both juvenile and mature needles; February and September are best pruning months; in May and June use chelated Iron fertilizer, and in July and August when the monsoon comes, use Organo rose food; do not pinch new growth during July and August; NOT an indoor bonsai candidate; buds back better than other pines; do not prune and repot at the same time. [Pinaceae; Pinales]

I just got 3 Alleppo pines from Grant on the weekend
We are largely in new territory i think.

Ken

Got some updated pictures for this pine about mid may i cut all the growing tips back to the best set of two branches it seem to have done it well. Its budding really well not much immature foliage like they tend to do if cut back hard. I also noticed candles forming well back on a branch which is great to see my next step now i think is during spring is to dig under from a side i havent yet done an cut some roots give it some seasol an collect in march like i did with the other one i have collected.

Checked out this tree today it growing well my dad will water it every few days till Dec then let it do its own thing from there collected another in late march the other year an all went well so ill do the same for this monster