I have quite the collection of pine trees now, all in various stages of growth. Some are outside in seven gallon pots, others are still growing in their little quarter gallon pots. I will not be transplanting any more for the time being, the weather will be too hard on them. But in the spring. I should have even more to bring outside into large pots. And maybe in a couple years I will be able to plant them in the ground finally.
These are the Mondell pines, they look a little different from the Korean pines. They are a bit smaller.
The Mondell pines are also known as desert pines, so I hope they will do well here. Hopefully the humidity here is not going to be an issue.
I need to keep an eye on the bottom of these cloth buckets. If I see roots poking through its time to go in the ground. They are quite hardy, but I do not want the roots to get bound. Could cause problems later on.
They seem to be dormant, they lost a bit of their pine color luster and have a slight yellow color.
But I think most of them will make it through the winter and come out the other side as winners.
Korean pines:
These also have some yellowing to them, but I think they are just dormant during the cold winter season here. They seem to be growing out more horizontally than vertically.
Got so many, they should really help to fill in some areas nicely. They can make a good wind break, or just change the landscape of an area.
I wonder how big they will be by this time next year.
Inside the grow room:
Here we have the smaller seedlings, they did not get big enough by late autumn to make it into pots outside. So they will live inside until spring. Will be a few months like this, hope their roots do not get too packed.
So far the mycorrhizae has not done any better than the controls, seems worse honestly.
The controls without the fungi are doing great though.
I grow them under pinkish red LED lights, its low intensity but enough to keep them alive.
So for now I just need to make sure I water them every few days, and otherwise just wait for warmer weather to come around in April or May. And then it will be time to put them in pots outside.
I have now gone through all my pine seeds, so I will grow these and see what happens. Maybe I will start more at a later date. But a few dozen at the moment and these are going to be very big trees one day. I am still curious what the pine nuts taste like, seems like the Korean pines are more often consumed by people. But maybe the Mondell pines will also be nice to try.
