End of March 2019

End of March 2019

Cotoneaster from a 2gallon can

The cuttings that I put in sphagnum moss in a cat litter bucket in the basement had rooted like crazy. 

I used the large boxwood stump (that I wish I didn't have) to make a Tanuki.  I threaded about ten cuttings between the holes in the stump roots. I used electrical tape inside out to hold them in place.  I placed it in a deep pot I tossed in some of the moss and tried to keep some attached to the roots from when I gently separated them.  I tied it in using jute twine.

I also planted two of the largest cuttings, about as thick as my pinkie each into old nusery cans.  I mixed in the soil from the cans with my bonsai blend, not wanting to use too much good soil.  

I did the same with three that I had arranged in a wide grow box.  I arranged them horizontally to see if I might develop a raft style.  

Lastly,  I untangled and arranged my irrigation system.  I tried to keep it as tidy as possible.

Natural uro inspiration

Natural Uro

Today, I went to walk around the Boise river to stretch my legs from a long flight from Florida yesterday.  Below are images from today's walk and from yesterday's stroll around a park in St. Petersburg, Fl.  

View "tree" pages to view the progression of my trees.

End of summer 2018 ...the winners an losers report.

Summers End 2018

It is labor day and the end of summer, I of course have a cold after being back at work for two weeks, so I didn't have the motivation to take better photos.

Below is my best success for this year and the only Siberian elm that survived collection from the plumbing supply story down the road.  Some really large wounds healed over with the use of that cut paste/duct seal from the hardware store.  

Next is the ginkgo.  It did not put on much growth this year.  Perhaps it was too shaded, but after a few years of intense sun I chose to protect my collection in a mostly sanded location under a large maple.  I also did root work this past spring, and re-positioned its planting angle.    

Next, a Siberian elm that I rescued from the front yard.  It grew really well.  Here it is pictured after cleaning it up a bit.

The olive, after the large chop this spring was really slow to respond and put out new growth.  Fresh leaves did not come out until about August.  Once the temps at night drop to around 50 she will come back inside.  I potted it a a pot that has a tray for this purpose.  Plus the green is a good compliment to the foliage.  After a slight trim I used two turnbuckles to lower the largest branches. 
(note the mating praying mantis's)

Now the losers.  I lost all boxwoods.  Two that traveled north with me and the monster that I collected.  Also, the sumo and monster Siberian elms never took.  The monster elm had lots of good growth initially, but this I figure was from stored energy reserves.  The large barberry, like the big box, just never responded at all.

I guess,  I was too extreme in bare-rooting the plants.  Perhaps the better coarse of action would to pot them up large in the existing soil root ball, to give adjustment time, and to do it over a few seasons.

Monster Multi-trunk Boxwood (burn pile)

Monster Multi-trunk Boxwood 

This is a boxwood is a single plant and sizable shrub.  The digging was pretty easy, but cramped with other garden plants and the concrete slab.  Before digging I lied down and took the below image.  There are many trunks emanating from one central trunk.  The branches on the left side of the image could be developed.  

Here is the boxwood, wider then my car. It was pretty heavy despite brushing off most of the soil.  I dragged it from the backyard and planned to thin out some obvious poor branches, to lighten the load.  

Here it is thinned out a bit.  I had to use a strap to hold the swinging trunk closed.

Below is the tree before I began work.

Based on my knowledge of boxwood and what I found in recent research.  My plan was to keep some lower branches and eliminate any crossing and dead branches.  In doing this, I can open it up and allow light to penetrate the interior of the branches, and hope for back-budding on the older branches.  It ended up looking really leggy, but that was essential. Keeping the green growth on the ends of branches ensures the survival of each branch.  

The plan is to see how the tree responds and then cut it back more drastically once new growth forms on the interior.  

Another thing about box is that it takes a really long time to grow out branches, so I will be slow in deciding which to keep because they can not be regrown easily.

Below is the pile of branches cut off, with another the same size cut before I loaded it to transport it home.

Some scale with a 16oz PBR.

Below, I began reducing the root ball and bare-rooting the boxwood.  Boxwood typically has a nice shallow root mass and this it the case here.  There are nice fine roots.

A potted it up in a big yellow recycling bin, the biggest thing I had on hand.  It was filled about one third of the way with soil.  Below is the boxwood with the bonsai bench.

Below the movement of several trunks can be seen.  Boxwood can have boring straight growth so I plan on utilizing some of these wavy branches which move from center to right in the image below.   

Here are two images that show the girth of the trunk(and a bit of damaged bark from the long day).

In this image you can see the green tips and the leggy growth.  I am wishful that it will back but well and fill out the interior.  By next spring perhaps I can consider cutting it back some.  Repot planned for 2020.  

RIP:

This Tree did not make it!! the leaves quickly dried out despite being in partial shade and being watered well.

Lessons: either don't bear root and leave it in its soil surrounded by substrate.

Or instead of trying to keep the live veins going by keeping foliage, perhaps I should have cut in  back hard and let buds regenerate when the tree could sustain them in its own time  

Siberian front fence rescue (burn pile)

Siberian Elm

This is the first collected Siberian Elm, the one that got me thinking about this invasive as potential, since it was collected as a weed along my fence line.
On the left side of the image you can just about make out the original cut made by the previous tenant.  Last summer, I cut back the branches branches and got thinking about digging it out.  It kind of has a windswept feel, although not best seen in this image.
RIP: this tree did not recover after the winter of 2018-19

Soil June 2018

SOIL

After running out of soil and desperately needing some after some weird incidents with some of my trees (puppy attack), I decided to get a new batch made.  I have not tracked down a Turface supplier so I am working some new additions.  I read about using a product called dry stall which is pumice, so I went to a farm supply store.  They did not have that product by an alternative which uses zeolite.  There are cute barn animals on the packaging so it must be good! From what I read it seems in a similar vein as diatomacious earth and Turface in that it holds water well and slowly releases nutrients. DE and Turface are more clay based while Zeolite is silica based.  A caution is that if can raise the pH a bit if too much is used proportionally. About 30% is recommended.  

I got a 40 pound bag for 5 bucks, w/ a discount for the bag being ripped.  It was really dusty so 1/3 of the bag or more was sifted out. 

DE from the auto parts store was around 6 bucks too.  I have used it in the past.  the interesting thing was the an equal amount of it in my sifter was half as heavy as the zeolite.  There was also way less fines and dust to sift out.  

I tossed in the rest of the wood mulch that I had left over from the spring repotting.  This will help with the balance by adding some acidity.  

I had some left over DE, but will probably sift it and add it too, to help with the pH.

It has been wet and mild I may try to keep an eye out for some yard collection opportunities, especially since I am out of school...