whats the history.. from seed ... rooted??? [not realistic ...] ..etc ...

this is the way babes grow.. until they can grow a good root mass.. to start growing to expectation ...

when dealing with trees... you have to think in tree time ... absolutely no instant gratification ...

most pines ... have only one growth spurt per year ... and then thats it. so no real exponential growth ...

yellow pines are possible.. especially if seed grown ... otherwise its a media issue ... when is the last time they were repotted ... might be a good idea in spring ... or even better.. get them in mother earth .... [how big is that pot??? .. scale is hard to tell.. common one gal... as they are called??]

ken

btw ... presuming the pots.. media.. fert.. watering is all the same.. the fact that one is yellow and one is green ... sort of tells me.. its shouldnt be a nutrient issue ... since everything is presumably the same ...

if its not al the same .. then tell us why ... if you want further analysis ...

ken

Size is about right for >2 years from seed. As for color, that could be a sun or nutrient issue. How are they cared for during the growing season?

tj

I germinated them in March of 2019 and repotted in Spring of 2020 in 5-1-1 mix. I had to bareroot it because the 2 seedlings we’re all tangled up in their original pot that they were in. The root system was massive and deep so I chose the 1 gallon container to repot. I kept them in more shade than sun for the beginning of the season because they were just repotted but put them out in full sun later on. I made sure the media didn’t dry out but did take it away from forecasted rain if they were still moist as these species like dry better than wet. I never fed them yet because they were still in their first year after being repotted.

I bring up my concerns with this because in 2017 I ordered several 1 year old pinus thunbergii seedlings from a nursery and they were definitely bigger than my pines now. Why were their pines considerably bigger than mine right now when my pine is older than their‘s from back then? Here is a pic of that 1 year old pine seedling I received 4 years ago.

did you edit the original post .. or did i just ignore the first sentence. ... lol ..

so.. your first stab at all this.. and you are worried that you cant grow them like a professional grower ... yup.. been there... lol ...

but for the color of one ... i think you should be high 5ing yourself for how well you did.. rather than comparing yourself to a professional grower ... just dont do it in public.. im sure the neighbors are already wondering about you ...

ken

If you have never fed them that would account for their size and color.

tj

I'll have to agree.

All my seedlings get water & fert as soon as they sprout.

It's especially important when using soil-less media like 5-1-1.

Not familiar with that particular pine, but I have been growing a lot of conifers...

The color can also be a water issue. If you're watering them by hand then you might want to pH your water and make sure it is right. I had problems with browning and in some cases dying because it turned out that my water was alkaline. Now, I add vinegar to anything I water with a pail. I bring the pH to about 5.6 (I am not sure if that is exactly right; I figured it out a while ago and now just add the right amount of vinegar each batch of water.)

This also gets to nutrients. If the plant prefers acidic soil then alkaline water can change the pH over time, and a high pH can inhibit nutrient uptake.

So fertilizer it was. I was worried fertilizing too soon as a young plant would burn the roots so I didn’t this year.

I’m not certain if pinus thunbergii prefers acidic or alkaline soil. I assume acid because it naturally grows in sand along shores and I think sand is more acid. I did allow a lot of rain to soak my pines this past year more than hand watering it so I don’t know if it’s a pH issue. Maybe too acid? Since 5-1-1 mix is very acidic(although I incorporated sprinkles of lime in it)