AusBonsai

I'm heading down to my sisters house just out side of mt gambier. She lives about 10m from a pine plantation. What pines are they?? Could I collect this time of year?? Better still any one from mt gambier on this site that would have some stock to sell??

The question of mt gambier pines came up a couple of months ago: viewtopic.php?f=131&t=14432&p=150155&hi ... er#p150155

Send a pm to damian79 if he doesn't see this post.

I can't answer about collecting and from what I hear pines are 'tricky'.

Most common plantation pines these days are Pinus radiata but older plantations experimented with a number of species. Most radiata have 3 needles to the sheath so quite easy to check.
Radiata is very tough - that's why we grow them as plantation trees - and can be collected at almost any time of the year. We ripped a reasonable sized one out by the trunk last July and I potted it up the following day and it has grown on strongly. Most will have very straight trunks so not worth collecting for bonsai unless very small. look for trunks with bends and twists - often found on roadside cuttings or steeper hillsides or where something has fallen on the young tree.

ps Plantation owners do not take kindly to people taking their trees take care