{"id":3317,"date":"2017-07-26T11:56:08","date_gmt":"2017-07-26T11:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bentpinefarm.org\/?p=3317"},"modified":"2018-07-10T14:35:57","modified_gmt":"2018-07-10T14:35:57","slug":"long-needle-pines-lovely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bentpinefarm.org\/?p=3317","title":{"rendered":"Long Needle Pines &#8211; Lovely"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Pinus Palustris<\/em> &#8211; The Long Needle Pine thrives in Central Florida&#8217;s acidic, sandy soil. The trees are very fast growing, once they get started. When they first germinate they resemble a cartoon character with a stiff, bushy tuft of needles covering its eyes. The tuft grows straight up until about 8 ft, then starts to spread a canopy, branching gracefully in all directions. Full grown long needle pines are straight as an arrow and can grow upwards of 60 ft high.<\/p>\n<p>Long needle pines grow quickly, once they establish their deep tap roots. \u00a0 \u00a0Planting three together will give lovely shade in a short time. \u00a0 We plant acid loving blueberries in the shade of our pines. \u00a0The long needles make a great natural looking canopy floor and mulch for forest paths and other areas of the farm.<\/p>\n<p>There are several long needle pines on our farm, although there were more before the previous owner had them bulldozed. \u00a0Only 5% of the original long needle pine acreage remains from Texas across the southern States and down into \u00a0Florida, due to land development and mismanagement of forests.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3Ik5zRdoeYc\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This stately beauty sits solitary in our front garden. \u00a0The wind must have caught it just right. \u00a0When we came out one morning a huge branch had snapped and was hanging by the bark, a fascinating attraction for an adventurous grandson who wanted to see how far that pendulum would swing. \u00a0\u00a0The branch came down easily and the tree looks none the worse for wear.<\/p>\n<p>Happy Homesteading,<\/p>\n<p>T.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1147 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/bentpinefarm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/featherPen-1.jpeg\" alt=\"blog post\" width=\"225\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bentpinefarm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/featherPen-1.jpeg 225w, https:\/\/bentpinefarm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/featherPen-1-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/bentpinefarm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/featherPen-1-100x100.jpeg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pinus Palustris &#8211; The Long Needle Pine thrives in Central Florida&#8217;s acidic, sandy soil. The trees are very fast growing, once they get started. When they first germinate they resemble a cartoon character with a stiff, bushy tuft of needles covering its eyes. The tuft grows straight up until about 8 ft, then starts to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/bentpinefarm.org\/?p=3317\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Long Needle Pines &#8211; Lovely<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17,9],"tags":[64],"class_list":["post-3317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-florida-weather","category-garden","tag-florida-weather"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bentpinefarm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_1634.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7igqH-Rv","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bentpinefarm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bentpinefarm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bentpinefarm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bentpinefarm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bentpinefarm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bentpinefarm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bentpinefarm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bentpinefarm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bentpinefarm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bentpinefarm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}