Hello everybody, my first post here.
Earlier this year, I purchased a large 45 year old Mugo Bonsai - it's around 2 meters high.
It is planted in full sun, and i've been very careful with watering, although, to be honest, I am still trying to find my bearings with this plant.
I live in Luxembourg, so Zone 7
It was planted late march. Around early may, it was very vigorous and candles started to appear. I pinched off around half of all candles when these were around 1 inch tall, so leaving around half inch. It was my first experience doing this and wasn't sure what to expect.
This past month there has been an immense amount of needles browning. I literally can put my hand between the foliage and pull out fistfuls of brown pine needles. While the general outside of the pine seems healthy, on the inside, a number of smaller branches lost their needles completely.
Being my first pine and this being my first year, I am not sure whether I should be worrying. The remaining foliage is not as dense as when i purchased it.
Here are my questions:
1. Should I be actively cleaning out the pine from the dead needles? Does the action of removing them risk damaging the healthy needles? Or are pines generally ok with being handled this way?
2. I understand that pines lose their 2/3 year old needles, but I wasn't expecting such a large amount. I'd say it's probably 2/3 of the overall foliage which has browned. Did I do something wrong with pinching the candles as now I feel like I perhaps didn't leave enough on the tree to grow healthily.
3. Should I remove the network of dead straggly branches which lost all their needles?
4. I am very wary about the water/fertilizing requirement as I've read in many places that by the time the plant is showing symptoms it's probably too late. I am not convinced i am overwatering or underwatering, and I've been hesitant to put any fertilizer down, as the tree was surrounded by several bags of good quality compost when planted, but I'm thinking it's probably a good time to put some long duration fertilizer down at this stage?
Any feedback greatly appreciated!
