The Ubiquitous Mugo Pine by Vance Wood

An old favorite! Vance Wood an American pioneer in Mugo Pine gives us a look at his approach to this fascinating pine.

Mr Vance you wrote a really good article. I have two mugos that I am planning to start working on this year and I am going to use your advise to see if they will do better than the other ways I have worked pines before you have always given me good advise so i think my mugos will do really well

Thank you for the article

Hmmm, going to have to try repotting some of my mugo 'play trees' this summer and see what happens. I've got several that are definitely due some attention!

Hi Vance,
Interesting article. Couple of points, Japanese Black Pines really don't like dry conditions at all in pots, they really don't do well when water restricted, as was taught to many Americans (and was practiced by the japanese until the 60's-70's or so). I agree that JBP don't like to stand in water in pots, thus poor repotting practices, poor soil mixes and congested debris (fines, organic muck, etc) lead to serious problems. Potting into a rapidly draining yet moisture retentive soil mix that is coarse enough to maintain appropriate aeration of the roots is essential to their rapid growth and continued strength. When reared in an appropriate environment JBP grow like weeds (to quote Larry Jackel) and will develop extraordinarily quickly.

Ponderosa Pines are not like JBP. They have very different strategys of survival and growth and have few similarities in Biology. JBP are Island and Coastline trees of the warmer regions of the Main Islands of Japan, Ponderosa, is a Mountain and High Desert tree. JBP respond vigorously to repotting and decandling techniques. Ponderosa pines respond in a more measured fashion. As I have learned from Walter Pall, if you plant Ponderosas in Rapidly draining and moisture retenetive mixes (a little coarser than JBP), provide water freely and fertilize aggressively Ponderosas will respond very favorably. I think this is even more true in cooler climates, in our hot climate we fertilize a little less agressively in the hot part of the summer.

There are lots of "misinterpretations and Misinformation" out there. We work JBP, prune, wire and repot and do the same with Ponderosas, we do it in Winter. I have too much Juniper and deciduous tree work to do in the summer, tho I am sure if we were to invest the time and effort we could make more pine work doable in summer- I just have too much to do, and pine work in winter is quite satisfying.

Cheers,
John