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Sumo Scots Pine
http://weetrees.co.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=19047		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  Dustmonkey [ 26 Jul 2020, 20:58 ]
Post subject:  Sumo Scots Pine
Good evening all,

I acquired this chunky Scots pine from a Portuguese seller a few months ago, Its seems to have settled in well after the ordeal of a change of climate / country. The new needles have elongated fully and a few new back buds are appearing on the lower branches . Its in a training pot and the soil seems to consist of red lava, pumice and organic matter (i assume its more suitable for a hotter climate) that drains very well and i have to water much more regularly than i expected when i first got it and saw soil based mix! Being a Scots im not in a panic to get it into a fully non organic soil in a major hurry (will be covered in winter)

I would like to ask for advice on the sacrifice trunk tho (cant really call it a branch... :lol: ) Obviously the final image of the tree is all in the bottom 6 inches from soil level. I'm assuming the Autumn would be the right time to deal with it??

Ive never dealt with such a major sacrifice on a conifer before, would the approach be to lop it off in one go (ill leave an inch or two of Jin i expect) or would it be more sensible to reduce the branches of the sacrifice trunk to say half to push the energy distribution to the lower part of the tree over a season then the following season totally remove the trunk?

Im in 2 minds wether to do the reduction this year or next...my gut is saying do it next year as It does currently seem healthy to me but maybe going from one country to another it would be better for it to experience all 4 english seasons before i mutilate it! Would you leave it a year or do it this year?

I did remove about half the needle mass from the top of the tree yesterday to get the ball rolling on energy balance as the top had gone mental the last 8/9 weeks and depending on what i do to the trunk i may or may not do reduction on this years growth on my lower keeper branches ( remove most of the new candle length leaving 6/8 pairs of new needles)

So In summary if this was your tree how would you approach the....

Trunk reduction - in one or over several seasons?
Timing of the reduction- autumn/winter/late winter/spring maybe??
Soil composition- would re potting be higher priority than the height reduction for you?
August cut back of this years new growth on the lower branches for back budding if trunk was left till next season?

Thanks for reading and any input you have! Here's some photos of the tree when it arrived and some taken today after needle plucking.

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From today....

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Author:  Cuchilo [ 26 Jul 2020, 21:52 ]
Post subject:  Re: Sumo Scots Pine
Nice !
I'd cut it off myself . Its not a small sap puller , it's just sucking the energy from the lower branches you want to keep .
Author:  darreng [ 26 Jul 2020, 23:46 ]
Post subject:  Re: Sumo Scots Pine
Personally I'd cut it off in Spring just before buds start to swell. I'd also cut flush and seal with cut paste, it wouldn't look right with a jin IMO
Author:  Gary Jones [ 27 Jul 2020, 11:45 ]
Post subject:  Re: Sumo Scots Pine
darreng wrote:
Personally I'd cut it off in Spring just before buds start to swell. I'd also cut flush and seal with cut paste, it wouldn't look right with a jin IMO


I would possibly go with this. It looks like a sacrifice that has already been reduced once. You have good foliage at the base so it should be fine with total removal.

I might however take the alternative route of re-potting first in the spring and keeping the top under check before removing it a year later. Root health always being the priority. Also by re-potting it into a smaller pot you can establish a smaller root-ball which will stop the base branches galloping away when you remove the top.
Author:  darreng [ 27 Jul 2020, 13:42 ]
Post subject:  Re: Sumo Scots Pine
That's a good point, I agree with Gary about repotting
Author:  Dustmonkey [ 16 Aug 2020, 21:40 ]
Post subject:  Re: Sumo Scots Pine
Thanks lads for the suggestions and apologies for not replying!
Life is a bit full on at the moment and had no time to post....

The more ive been thinking about it the more im leaning towards a re pot now despite not being bothered about it when i first posted this! Thank you Gary for making me think twice about this I recon your right mate!

Since posting it has back budded more on the keeper branches and the terminal buds are larger than those on the sacrifice so the needle pulling has defiantly stated pushing the energy from top to bottom. My main concern now is reducing the new candles down to two pairs per whorl, whats the optimum time of year to do this?

I will let them grow this season as i want minimum elongation on the keepers and rather the energy was divided between 3 or 4 shoots growth then get rid of whats needed instead of reducing down to 2 before spring then them having double the energy to elongate.

Regarding the Jin, i will leave a stub and then cut the bark flush with the trunk line. ill then reduce the radius of the stub so the callous has something to heal towards (will leave like a smaller branch using the centre of the trunk if that makes sense?? ) rather than a flush cut which would be nearly 60/75mm top to bottom! which may never heal? can give it a few years an if healing well remove the snub to allow it to heal flush, if its reluctant ill leave the jin i guess.
Ill up date this thread after spring re pot, thanks again for the input its much appreciated!
Author:  richardb [ 17 Aug 2020, 14:02 ]
Post subject:  Re: Sumo Scots Pine
If you do cut it back next year I would cut about an inch above where it needs to end up. The bark should then die back to its natural point and you can clean back to this the following year.
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