My 'Gold Coin' is 6 years old and is ~7ft tall. And I candle prune it. It wants to be a big tree. Left to its own devices, I believe it can put on 2ft a year.

~Dave

Wow! So much for Buchholz and their rate. That will get way to big in too short of a time. I understand everything will keep growing until dead but that is too fast for me. I guess gold coin is ruled out if that is the case.

It will vary greatly with your location. I saw the Gold Coin at Ken's garden (Adrian, MI) this summer and was amazed at how much faster it grew than at my southern Ohio location. There is only one zone difference, but the composition of the soil was night and day. I have dense clay and Ken had sandy loam. Ken's grew at a rate comparable to what Glacier's-End experienced and mine grows more in line with what Buchholz quoted.

gold coin grows consistent with sylv. aurea .. frankly.. i cant tell them apart ...

and both grow about half of a green sylvest ...

and in my garden P. syl grows at least 2 feet up.. and one foot out per year...

sitting in my freezing house.. as the temps drop from 40 F pre-dawn.. to 26 right now.. [i am not walking out there] .. i will guess.. that last years leader on GC and A were above 12 inches.. or one foot ... [which i can see from these pix.. because the scale is in my head ]

which translated out to ten years.. would be a 10 foot tall ... by 7 wide.. or so ...

pines grow like weeds in MI ... is all i can say

ken

Pinus sylvestris Aurea ... from a one gal in 2005 ... from arrowhead alpines ....
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Pinus sylvestris Gold Coin .. also from a one gal in 2005 ... from gee's
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This post was edited by ken_adrian on Tue, Feb 19, 13 at 9:36

I am looking for something with the interest of Gold Coin but with a much slower growth rate. I also don't know if Chief Joseph is the answer though because it is not one of the easier to grow ( or so I hear). Anyone have a suggestion? Thanks.

I believe these Gold varieties are mixed up in the trade.

The 'Gold Coin' I got from Western Evergreen was about 4-5 years old in a 5 gallon container then put out 3" of growth this past year. Of course its not established but its only 30" tall.

So best case lets say it grew 27" over 4 years.

My Gold Coin that you've seen in pictures here in other posts is about 5' X 3' and is about 10 years old. A lot of the growth has to do with its environment.

I'm in a southern climate and we rarely see growth rates like the northern areas. When they say it's a solid 12-18" growth rate, then I know for me it's realistically going to be about 6" a year.

So take your environment and soil conditions into account when you are speculating size and growth rates.

mark

I suggest you dig up the various threads concerning 'Chief Joseph' and see what some of the people who actually produce these plants have to say,especially when it comes to what understock they use and where what will succeed. Mine is sitting on P. sylvestris and it's become almost like a little shrine wich I go and visit once a day! Magic plant indeed! T.

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