PINES - from Peter Adams talks at Ideas Summit

[MelaQuin]

PINES
From Peter Adams talks at the Ideas Summit in July 2009

To bud adequately you should foliar feed your pines as they go towards dormancy. When you have really wild growth cut off rising and descending needles. Feed weekly for eight weeks. The tree will explode with energy. Buds will erupt all around the branch ends. Thin them out. Use ones alternatively placed. This gives you the possibility of building up a branch in one season. Do this every year for three years and you will have filled in the framework of the tree. Budding on new candles – 8 week fertilising regime in addition to regular feeding. Foliar feed use Miracle Grow full strength. When you foliar feed you MUST water the soil first to avoid root burn.

Pull needles leaving the sheath behind. If the sheath comes off you have left the stripping too late and no buds will result. Buds will occur anywhere in the terminal.

Do not needle pluck more than 30% of the tree each year. It takes three years to do a complete plucking.

When you feed use fish emulsion and seaweed with low nitrogen. This gives the best possible results with no big needles and lovely compact buds.

Pruning channels energy as well as shaping the tree.

Japanese White Pine feed organic food regularly. Feed, feed, feed and they will bud strongly. But it will take three years with white pines.

There’s a new Scots pine variant out that grows very well in Sydney’s climate. The Scots pine produces more variants than any other species in the world and they tend to be diverse and strong. The new variant ideal for Sydney is the JEREMY Scots Pine.

[kcpoole]

Thanks Mel for the summary.
You must have been taking Notes

BrettS tree I hightlighted in the Sunday photo post is actually a "Jeremy" Scots Pine and not a Mugho as I thought See this tread
viewtopic.php?f=25&t=1562&hilit=peter+adams

Ken

[LLK]

Thank you lots for that series of notes re: Peter Adams at Ideas Summit, MelaQuin. Very useful.

Lisa