Hey there guys
I want to know if the Stone Pine is single or multi flush? Im also presuming its n long 5 needle
Finding a lot of hoticultutal info on it, but nothing that gives indication of the above
I’m in the Southern hemisphere
Hope somebody can help
Ben H
Stone Pine, Pinus Pinea, is a multi-flush pine, two-needle pine. Some report P. Pinea is capable of 3 flushes of growth under optimal “Mediterranean” conditions. The Pinea will push juvenile growth, which is blue in color, through adventitious buds on a strong tree when pruned back into woody growth provided there is still mature needles present. Some cultivate the tree using techniques to foster juvenile growth because they feel the mature needles are too long. I have grafted 3 JPB scions on to P. Pinea in the fall but I found the grafts to be generally weak. After cultivating the tree for 3 years I’ve found the needles reduce nicely through building ramification and the light green color is really attractive; I ultimately removed the grafts. The mature needles are soft and slender and seem to have a thin cuticle when compare to JBP. The soft needles can make wiring tedious.
They produce flaky bark rather young, and the branch collars at the trunk can swell significantly on vigorous branches. The swelling produces a doughnut shape on the trunk which I think is ugly. As the trunk thickens and bark matures this feature “disappears” but I would want to be sure to remove branches that are too big for the composition as early as possible and utilize energy balancing techniques on trees in development to mitigate the collar swelling tenancies of this species.
The wood is rather supple and branches can be bent like JBP.
They seem to be tolerant of significant root reduction, but I have only dug one large tree out of a landscape and re-potted another from a #5 container into a bonsai pot; both survived, with the latter showing significant slowing of growth after the major root reduction. I also pruned the tree in the fall after re-potting in the spring - this is not something we want to do to trees in general but I was half-way between not knowing any better and experimenting based on what I read about P. Pinea.
In my area, my trees can get wooly aglids which don’t seem to go after my JPB on the same bench, but they like P. Pinea. If left unchecked infestations will cause sooty black mold and branches will start to die back. I use chemical spray to knock down the pest when they appear.
-Adam
Thank you so much!!!
More than I bargained for
I’m currently growing an inexpensive Stone Pine to see how it handles my weather. I’ve had it for a year, and besides some spider mites doing some damage, the little guy is growing well. Repotted mine a week ago, and it responded with a crazy amount of buds. The soil it was in was really damaging the health of the plant and it seems happy to be in better soil.
I would recommend being very gentle with new buds, because it doesn’t take much to knock them off.
Thanks
I collected 3 stone pines. I have them in a 100 Pumice mix and at the moment they look happy. Ill probably know in 3 months if they made it?
Pretty exited as we do not have any indigenous pines in South Africa to collect. The Stone Pine is my best bet to get good old material.
We do have spider mites. So good to know
Thanks again for everyones comments…huge help
Get them as soon as you see them, because they do a lot of damage very quickly. They killed a few branches on mine, because they started close to the trunk where the needles were dense. They were at full speed when I noticed them going out towards the tips.
My little pine is doing well so far. If it holds through the summer like it did last year, I think I’m going to have a winner here.
I do have a question, though. I’ve seen Ryan’s lectures on multi-flush pines. That said, would I also be treating this the same way? Should I be pruning/needle plucking in the summer and selecting shoots/needle plucking in the winter like any other pine?
Hey there el_cheezer. Yes you ahould. If its a multi flush. You should be needle plucking with shoot selection in fall as soon as the needles hardened off. I have just finished off doing mine (here in SA were in falll at the moment)
Any updates? I picked one of these up this year as a tiny indoor Christmas tree. It’ll go into a colendar in the spring.
How is the tree doing? About to snag one of these at a local Home Depot. Got to love Christmas season for fun finds at the hardware store. Lol
If you wait til after xmas they’ll be half off. I got one last year.
Sharing a progression; Oct 2017 - May 2023
This was a xmas tree in a 5 gal from Home Depot. First 2 images are May '23: you can see the light green mature candle & needle flush, then Oct '17 - Mar '22. This year I decandled around June 21 - juvenile buds have formed an are starting to push. (Aug 5, 2023)
