Englemann spruce progression.

Hartinez

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Last spring I collected 3 engleman spruce and 1 doug fir from the mountains of northern New Mexico. The one in this thread had the smallest collected root ball of the bunch and I was worried I did not collect enough of the original root system to keep alive. I potted it up in a 90% pumice and 10% composted bark mix, left all of the foliage on the tree and placed it in partial sun. From there I basically watered and fed all season. As I was going through my trees after a rough winter here in Albuquerque (where I lost several trees) I noticed quite a few roots growing out of the bottom of the nursery container this tree was placed in. I decided to cut open the container to slip pot into a slightly more shallow container and investigators a bit the roots I was seeing. To my delight the root ball had more than doubled and a large amount of large white feeder roots were covering the root ball. I felt comfortable enough at that point to Pot the tree into a suitably sized chinese container with a vision of the finished size and styling. I left most of the very fine roots and clipped only massive barked up roots from directly under the tree. This was 4 weeks ago, and the tree has began to explode with the opening of last falls buds. Again, I plan on not cutting any foliage, watering and feeding the tree heavy and leaving be till fall of 2020 where I will be pruning and beginning initial styling. Quite a few @Walter Pall Pall trees from his blog, directly inspired the digging and excitement for this tree. Ideas and feedback always welcome. Looking forward to this trees progression.IMG_7231.JPGIMG_7764.JPGIMG_7336.JPG
 

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Hartinez

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Great piece of material! Engelmanns make wonderful bonsai subjects. My advice is to go at them in stages. Do not attempt at styling it all at once or you will risk loss of branches or even the demise of the tree itself. The take away... go easy!
Serg! thanks for responding! Means a lot to me. Exactly my plan. I had read on Michael Hagerdorns blog to keep spruce work, in particular englemann, to "1 insult per year" ie. repotting, major pruning, styling, etc. And I just read the same response from you on englemann on another thread! The other 2 englemann I collected are just as mature and raw as this one with there own unique characteristics. When I begin work on those, i'll start threads as well.

On a side note. I follow you on Instagram, (my page is @dannyhartdesign if you care to take a peak) and I saw that you acquired that Linden from Ryan Neal at Mirai. GREAT SCORE! I've loved that tree from the first day I saw it! Cant wait to see where you take it! Your recent photography of the tree highlighted the bright red buds against the mature bark so well.

Thanks for the feedback!
DH
 

MACH5

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Serg! thanks for responding! Means a lot to me. Exactly my plan. I had read on Michael Hagerdorns blog to keep spruce work, in particular englemann, to "1 insult per year" ie. repotting, major pruning, styling, etc. And I just read the same response from you on englemann on another thread! The other 2 englemann I collected are just as mature and raw as this one with there own unique characteristics. When I begin work on those, i'll start threads as well.

On a side note. I follow you on Instagram, (my page is @dannyhartdesign if you care to take a peak) and I saw that you acquired that Linden from Ryan Neal at Mirai. GREAT SCORE! I've loved that tree from the first day I saw it! Cant wait to see where you take it! Your recent photography of the tree highlighted the bright red buds against the mature bark so well.

Thanks for the feedback!
DH

Sure, you are very welcomed and thank you! Lindens are an unusual species to find in bonsai and this one from Mirai is a really powerful tree. Happy with the purchase. Good to know and I'll take a peek at your Instagram page :)
 

Hartinez

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Sure, you are very welcomed and thank you! Lindens are an unusual species to find in bonsai and this one from Mirai is a really powerful tree. Happy with the purchase. Good to know and I'll take a peek at your Instagram page :)

??I’ve been a full time designer for about 4 years now and I’d love to apply some of my design and carpentry aesthetics to some Bonsai stands here in the near future.
 

Hartinez

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Yo @PiñonJ ! Check this one out. When I collected this tree, I was not able to get a very big root ball at all. Quite small and pathetic in fact. But when I collected I had already mostly removed the tree so I went ahead and took it regardless. To my surprise though, this tree grew more roots than any of the trees I collected that day. Here’s a pic of it when collected and a pic of the roots when I removed the container. Root ball more than doubled and probably even bigger. I think though it was just as you said. The strong foliage and bud growth AND NOT CUTTING ANY OF IT, forced incredibly strong root growth. 44B986B5-77AE-4BEE-B6EA-478EE57C3C41.pngE7762F5F-CC34-411F-8E04-DDE4B1364D13.jpeg
 

PiñonJ

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Yo @PiñonJ ! Check this one out. When I collected this tree, I was not able to get a very big root ball at all. Quite small and pathetic in fact. But when I collected I had already mostly removed the tree so I went ahead and took it regardless. To my surprise though, this tree grew more roots than any of the trees I collected that day. Here’s a pic of it when collected and a pic of the roots when I removed the container. Root ball more than doubled and probably even bigger. I think though it was just as you said. The strong foliage and bud growth AND NOT CUTTING ANY OF IT, forced incredibly strong root growth. View attachment 237817View attachment 237818
Excellent! I’m so glad your yamadori are doing well. I’m hoping for a good collecting season this year.
 

Albertageo

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It's interesting to watch the progression of your Engelmann spruce. White spruce is the more common spruce here in Alberta. However as one gets into the montane to subalpine transition then Engelmann /White spruce hybrids...then Engelmann prevail. There is still some debate among tree experts if they are separate species or the Engelmann is a White Spruce subspecies.

A lot of our Engelmann is found on steeper slopes. I'm always thankful for them as it wouldn't be possible to climb some areas easily without the trees to grab on to. They also tend to be on the slightly shaded side of mountains where there is a bit more moisture and more winter snow. The transition to higher bare cliff faces is often populated by Engelmann krummholz dwarves. Weird contorted trees that seem well adapted some harsh conditions. Pikas ( a tiny mammal) and these krummholz miniatures seem to like each other as the Pikas often stand on them and do their Pika call.
 

Hartinez

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This spruce and englemann number 3 will be ready for styling next season. The growth and new buds setting has been phenomenal. Very robust needles. I plan on taking this one to a workshop next year. Hoping Todd Schlafer will Be in the area at the time it’s ready. Or maybe @MACH5 will happen to passing through Albuquerque next year. 🤔View attachment 248929
Drawing is a bit of a mess but here is the plan. Twin trunk. Much like a @Walter Pall tree I’ve seen. 248925248926[A
248931248932
 
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Right?!?! He makes it look pretty effortless. What seems to be a “simple” tree is anything but.
I have several small Engelmann spruces ground growing ATM but it will be years before I can do abytgung with them. And it's bloody hard to get a collecting permit :/ not to mention time to go collecting lol
 

Hartinez

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I have several small Engelmann spruces ground growing ATM but it will be years before I can do abytgung with them. And it's bloody hard to get a collecting permit :/ not to mention time to go collecting lol
That’s unfortunate. It’s pretty straight forward here in N.M. 20 bucks gets me 5 trees at or under 5ft. And up in northern NM there are loads of great conifers. THe time thing I do get. With 3 kids, just wiring a tree is a task.
 

wireme

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That’s unfortunate. It’s pretty straight forward here in N.M. 20 bucks gets me 5 trees at or under 5ft. And up in northern NM there are loads of great conifers. THe time thing I do get. With 3 kids, just wiring a tree is a task.

Nice tree and recovery, this and the others you showed. Looks like it would be good as a single trunk too but I understand the desire to use both for sure.
 

PiñonJ

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Buds starting to move on this one! Styling coming up! View attachment 290973
I count myself lucky that spring comes a couple weeks later up here, but my Subalpine Fir’s buds are starting to swell and I’m waiting on a Heinzlreiter pot for it that won’t ship until the end of the week. Talk about just-in-time production!
 

Hartinez

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I count myself lucky that spring comes a couple weeks later up here, but my Subalpine Fir’s buds are starting to swell and I’m waiting on a Heinzlreiter pot for it that won’t ship until the end of the week. Talk about just-in-time production!
Hopefully the timing is perfect.
 
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