Pinus pinea
Stone pine
Common names: Mediterranean pine, Italian stone pine
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Lifespan
- Perennial
- Hardiness
- Cold damage below −12 °C
- Water need
- Low
Photo: Livioandronico2013 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source
This description was machine-translated.
Description
The stone pine is known for its distinctive umbrella-shaped crown that characterizes Mediterranean landscapes and produces prized pine nuts from its large cones. In Germany it only thrives in very mild locations or as a container plant that is wintered indoors without frost. It requires many years of patience before the first cone harvest.
Care instructions
Place the stone pine in the sunniest, warmest spot and provide a well‑drained, somewhat sandy soil, avoid waterlogging. In harsh conditions grow it in a pot and winter it in a bright, cool place at a few degrees above freezing. Cones mature only in the third year; harvest them in late autumn (October, week 43) and extract the nuts after drying.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
HarvestOct–Nov
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
sandy, well-drained, dry, lean
You need deep, sandy-gravelly and free-draining soil, which may well be dry and poor. The stone pine does not tolerate waterlogging. It tolerates lime and copes with slightly acidic to weakly chalky soils; rich, nutrient-rich garden soil is rather unfavourable.
Feeding
Light feeder
Months
Apr–Jul
The stone pine is undemanding and needs hardly any fertiliser. If you want to help along, work some mature compost shallowly around the tree circle in spring and add horn shavings as a slow nitrogen source; stop feeding by mid-July at the latest so that the shoots ripen before winter. Do not feed in autumn and winter.
Overwintering
The stone pine is not hardy in the lowlands of Germany, Austria and Switzerland and is kept in a container. Before the first frosts, bring it into a bright, cool place (about 3 to 10 °C), for example an unheated conservatory or a bright, cool stairwell. Water sparingly, so that the root ball never dries out completely but never stands wet, and put it back outside only after the Ice Saints (mid-May · week 20).
Propagation
Methods
- From seed
The most reliable way to propagate the stone pine in a home garden is from seed (pine nuts). First soak the nuts for about 24 hours in lukewarm water to soften the hard seed coat. Then stratify them for 4 to 6 weeks in the fridge at about 4 °C in damp sand. This clearly promotes germination. Keep the sand only lightly moist, not wet. Afterwards sow the nuts about 1 to 2 cm deep in a free-draining, low-nutrient compost (seed compost mixed with coarse sand or a little perlite) and press them down lightly. Place the pots in a bright, warm spot at 20 to 25 °C and keep the compost evenly, lightly moist; avoid waterlogging consistently. Germination usually happens after 4 to 6 weeks. As soon as the seedlings are strong enough, prick them out into individual pots. Vegetative propagation by cuttings practically does not succeed with Pinus pinea in a home garden and is very demanding even for professionals, so it is not recommended.
For your garden
Grow Stone pine yourself
Gartenkern tells you when frost is coming, when to sow and when to harvest, for your location.
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