A Detailed Guide to the Planting Methods and Key Technical Points of Buddhist Pine
Buddhist pine (scientific name: Podocarpus macrophyllus (Thunb.) D. Don), also known as the Chinese yew, is an evergreen coniferous tree of the family Podocarpaceae and the genus Podocarpus, reaching up to 20m tall with a trunk diameter of up to 60cm; the bark is gray or grayish-brown, shallowly longitudinally fissured, and flakes off in thin sheets; the branches spread out or slant upward and are fairly dense. The leaves are spirally arranged, linear-lanceolate, and slightly curved. The male cones are spicate and axillary, with several triangular bracts at the base; the female cones are solitary in the leaf axils, stalked, with a few bracts at the base. The seeds are ovate, rounded at the tip, and when ripe the fleshy aril is purple-black with a white bloom, while the fleshy seed receptacle is cylindrical and red or purplish-red. The flowering period is April to May, and the seeds mature in August to September.
How to grow Buddhist pine
Soil:When grown in pots, Buddhist pine prefers loose, fertile, slightly acidic soil with good drainage, so humic acid soil should be used. It is highly adaptable to soil and can even survive in saline-alkaline soil, but does not perform well there.
Water:Although Buddhist pine itself is drought-tolerant and can withstand poor soil, and is not strict about water, potted Buddhist pine is quite the opposite: it needs plenty of water during the growing season, and on sunny summer days it should be watered frequently, twice a day, along with regular misting of the leaves. However, attention must be paid to drainage, and waterlogging of the potting soil must be strictly avoided, otherwise root rot and yellowing leaves will occur.
Light and temperature:Buddhist pine can tolerate shade, but plant growth cannot do without sunlight, so after growing indoors for some time it should be placed outdoors or on a balcony. Large Buddhist pine trees do not need shading under strong light, but seedlings need to be grown under tree shade. Buddhist pine likes warmth and has poor cold tolerance, so the growing environment in winter must not fall below 10°C.
Fertilizing:Fertilizing potted Buddhist pine benefits its growth and development, but it is not suited to concentrated fertilizer; apply light fertilizer frequently, mainly nitrogen fertilizer. During the growing season, decomposed organic liquid fertilizer can be used, preferably 2-3 times a month. For potted plants, *** the best method is to spray each time with a water-soluble fertilizer containing 0.5%-1.0% compound fertilizer or a dilute cake fertilizer solution, which helps root absorption.
Pests: Buddhist pine suffers relatively few pest and disease problems, but during the hot, dry summer season attention must be paid to controlling spider mites. Spider mites gather as adult mites, nymphs and larvae near the veins and leaf margins of Buddhist pine leaves and on young twigs, sucking sap. The upper surface of damaged leaves shows many powdery-green spots that later turn grayish-white, losing their original luster, and in severe cases the entire leaf turns grayish-white. The control method is to spray insecticides for spider mites, such as pyridaben, hexythiazox and fenbutatin oxide, during the peak period of spider mite outbreaks (May to September), once every 10 days.
Diseases: The main diseases of Buddhist pine are leaf spot and anthracnose. The control method is to spray with a 500-fold dilution of 50% thiophanate-methyl wettable powder. Pests include scale insects, spider mites and bagworms, which can be killed by spraying with a 1500-fold dilution of 40% omethoate emulsifiable concentrate.