Hello there. I have as of recently collected scots pine seeds and am stratifying them. I have read about repotting seedlings and cutting half of the main taproot and putting it back in the pot as if nothing happened. But i have also read about cutting all of the taroot off and treating the seedling as a cutting as from then after repotting. These arent contradictory methods but different ones and am asking whether anyone has tried any of these methods and to be as kind as to post somekind of review of sort on these methods. Thank you in advance . Or could anyone be as kind as to post any methods of seedling development methods apart from those mentioned ? Any posts on seedling development fine especially pine seedlings.

Hi Bob,
Here are my seedlings.
Pinus Densiflora from 21-11-2013 i let them grow indoors till spring. I had them in a ikea indoor greenhouse,a small one with a heatmat from a terrarium on à bright spot.after they have acclimated outside i divided themin 3 batches.

batch 1:
cut of all the roots and put them in Root Stimulating Hormone in 50/50 akadama/kiryu.layered in size.

batch 2:
I only repot them no pruning of the roots same soil 50/50 akadama/kiryu.layered in size.

Batch 3:
I cut of the taproot complete and put it in a mix of 70/30 cat litter and soil from a established pine tree.



Left pot: batch 1. Middle: batch 2.right pot: batch 3

For me the best result batch 3.batch 1 i lost 20%

Cheers

Never grown Pine from seed and my only recent seed grown trees are Pomegranates - but I have collected many 'wild' seedlings from my garden over the years and I usually let them establish intact for a good while before removing any root. The Poms were sown last year and are about 12 months old, I will remove the full taproots when repotting next Spring, as long as there are plenty of feeder roots which can remain to develop they should be fine.
Hope this helps

Dave

Interesting result Orlando - I suspect the old Pine tree soil is the reason batch 3 has done better, conifers need the beneficial fungi I believe to grow faster

Dave

Yes i think it's the mycorrhiza in the soil.

The mycorrhiza are root tips that when reach an average number of 40000 will produce a fruiting body we call a mushroom. I did some researh a month back. For example a truffle and an oak tree, the tree gives the truffle moisture and the truffle gives back the tree some key nutrients like zinc... That will benifit the health of the tree. The symbiotic procees helps all manner of plants including trees. 9/10 of the worlds forest would have died if there was not any of this fungi-maybe not have even formed (if statistics are correct maybe 8/10). I will try and get some non sterile but benificial bacteria and fungi in my small organic ingredient. Thank you both .

That is a very enlightening experiment. Good to see people´s experiences. Usually, it is a good way of learning. There is nothing better than hands on experience gained by continuously trying new things. Sometimes you fail, other times you succeed! Well done, Orlando.

Orlando wrote: Batch 3:
I cut of the taproot complete and put it in a mix of 70/30 cat litter and soil from a established pine tree.

Very interesting! I agree it must be the soil you used and the mycorrhizae in it that caused the big difference.
Also interesting that this proofs that apparently cat litter works just fine...

Auk wrote:

Orlando wrote: Batch 3:
I cut of the taproot complete and put it in a mix of 70/30 cat litter and soil from a established pine tree.

Very interesting! I agree it must be the soil you used and the mycorrhizae in it that caused the big difference.
Also interesting that this proofs that apparently cat litter works just fine...

*nekodama

Auk,
i think nekodama does the job just fine,the only "problem"i have if it had a small rootmass i can't get the tree very stable in the pot ,then if i put it in akadama.