Another view.

crikey man ... you are way ahead of the curve.. just like i was in the way back machine ...

plant it..

give it three years to get established ... and sort itself out..

AND THEN WORRY ABOUT SHAPE AND LEADERS ...

i have this plant right out my front door ... magnificent

welcome to GW ... Australia, eh???

good luck

ken

ps: get anything else ????

Yep magnificent plant indeed, that's why I sourced one out. This plant wont be going into the ground, at least not anytime soon as I don't have a vacant spot for it yet.

Looks like its been hanging around in this pot for a while though so I'm going to do the next best thing which is to upgrade the pot.

So you think It would be better to wait till its matured some more?

ps: Yep how did you know? Got a nice Pinus mugo!

Good luck, but I can't see it lasting long in Australia's climate - even the tops of the Snowy Mountains are too warm for it.

Resin

buy one.. lol.. yeah sure... all of us buy them one at a time... lol ...

i was wondering about what resin said .. so it might solve its own pruning problems.. lol ...

good luck with it ...

do you have other conifers in pots... whats the media??? ... trees in pots need a sip of water.. and then a lot of drainage.. which typical annual/perennial/houseplant media might not provide ... holding too much water for a tree/conifer ...

i have plenty of heat in summer in my z5 MI ... but dave has always suggested the difference with his z5 garden ... is that i cool at night ... and favor rather dry night air.. while his kansas city next to the Mississippi river.. has hot and muggy nights... and that is why i can grow things he cant.. though we are the same zone ....

so my suggestion is to look to night heat.. or lack thereof for a recovery period .. to make it thru the next day ...

and though the plant needs full sun.. dont forget that a small pot in full sun.. has the potential to cook the roots...

i am stopping now.. if you need pot advice ... start a new post ...

ken

Thanks Ken appreciate the advice, I have a few spots that would be ideal for this plant, they are mostly all shady positions with morning and afternoon sunlight. I have another position which gets dappled light in the morning, full at noon and shade in the evening, maybe this would be ideal?

We had a confer growing in a large pot many years ago, I cannot recall the exact type but it may have been some sort of pine. It was doing well and grew to a decent manageable size before we parted ways, so it can be done, however I agree with you that planting in the ground is best.

If I recall correctly, our previous conifer had sufficient drainage but as it outgrew the pot drainage become somewhat of an issue. I will keep this in mind when transplanting the Abies, I'll probably get some course river sand, perlite and volcanic rock to mix in with the soil to introduce better drainage, I think it will help a lot later on when the roots start to crowd in the pot really making drainage an issue.

Pineresin I live in a temperate zone so apart from summer we have fairly cool to mild weather throughout most of the year, it will be interesting to see how this alpine plant adjusts to this climate... if not though ill be experimenting with seeds from other conifers so if this one doesn't make it then at least I've got a backup plan to keep me busy for a while :D

This post was edited by sprucefir on Tue, May 6, 14 at 18:56