brewmeister83
Chumono
So I came across this very unusual cherry birch (betula lenta normally grows straight as a beanpole in the woods around here)
Sorry about the orientation, don't know how to rotate pics on my phone so they post right.
This thing is huge, the trunk at the base is easily 8" but with a tree this big I have some concerns about how to collect it being it would be the first time I collected anything this big. Should I trench the whole thing in one go, or trench 1/2 the roots one season and the other half the next season, or should I dig down and tourniquet the major roots to induce growth closer to the trunk? What do you guys think, what would you do if you were collecting it?
*I know birch can be fussy about bonsai training, but I've never seen a cherry birch rot and die back and grow from a burl around here. They callus over and keep on growing, unlike white or grey birch, so I figured it might be worth a try - as a side note, I wonder if not readily rotting has something to do with the methyl salicylate in their sap (the stuff that gives the tree its wintergreen smell when you break the branches)
Sorry about the orientation, don't know how to rotate pics on my phone so they post right.
This thing is huge, the trunk at the base is easily 8" but with a tree this big I have some concerns about how to collect it being it would be the first time I collected anything this big. Should I trench the whole thing in one go, or trench 1/2 the roots one season and the other half the next season, or should I dig down and tourniquet the major roots to induce growth closer to the trunk? What do you guys think, what would you do if you were collecting it?
*I know birch can be fussy about bonsai training, but I've never seen a cherry birch rot and die back and grow from a burl around here. They callus over and keep on growing, unlike white or grey birch, so I figured it might be worth a try - as a side note, I wonder if not readily rotting has something to do with the methyl salicylate in their sap (the stuff that gives the tree its wintergreen smell when you break the branches)