5yr Native Tree Challenge Forrestford's Acer Rubrum

Forrestford

Shohin
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Location
Western CT
USDA Zone
6b
Backstory, it was growing in a lot next to my house that was being cleared out. It was about 30 ft high when chopped. C9F5D4A1-88C4-41D6-A48E-97556AA5939D.jpeg
I count around 35 years old.
anyways, next up is a repot next spring into a shallower wooden box. I let the roots escape this year and I want to fix the roots before working on any branches. I will probably trim all the growth back to the first node. except the main leader up top. And a bit of carving is in order.
 

HorseloverFat

Squarepants with Conkers
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Northeast Wisconsin
USDA Zone
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Nic’n! These are fun.. fast growers, as well. There is lots of potential there!!

I “loike” it!

🤓

A “goo” plan indeed!

*bumps OL with my oL-Elbow*....
 

Forrestford

Shohin
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Western CT
USDA Zone
6b
‘Twas a fun evening. Lots of dead wood, some rot and a few beers! Cut back to the live part of the tree all around the dead section. Luckily these trees heal pretty quick. After I put cut paste on, I applied wood hardener to the entire carved surface.
It will sit like this under my bench until spring. Winters are mild here in VA beach.
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Forrestford

Shohin
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Western CT
USDA Zone
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Here she is after a barefoot repot. The buds ready to explode! I also added 5 root grafts, the roots are very cumbersome and I want to reduce them eventually. Very cool looking tree,
I keep thinking about the final design, I would like to make it so there are several big competing trunks. Ill attach a photo for inspiration.
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Silvanaturalis.blogspot.com
 

Forrestford

Shohin
Messages
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Location
Western CT
USDA Zone
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Some lessons learned.
1. When collecting, chop back harder at the bigger roots to bring them closer. From my experience, the cut sights all produced lots of roots.
2. I used General all purpose thumb nails for the grafts, Some longer pins would be more helpful.
 

boguz

Mame
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Izmir, Turkey
Great work 👏
I want to ask smt, why did you apply wax just to the edges? I mostly use it through all the cutted surface.
Thanks
 

Forrestford

Shohin
Messages
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Location
Western CT
USDA Zone
6b
Great work 👏
I want to ask smt, why did you apply wax just to the edges? I mostly use it through all the cutted surface.
Thanks
I guess you could.
In the past I have found that when I put cut paste over the ENTIRE area after carving, it held moisture and ended up creating more rot. Just my experience, I'm sure others may say different.

The reason I applied only to the wound is the way I carved it was to not have any dips or crevices in the area so that water won't form and thus create more rot. I then treated the dead wood with wood hardener, which has substantially made the wood harder and more resistant to water.
The alive section plus+ maybe 1/4" is protected with the paste. Once the wound starts to heal and roll over ill readdress the area.

Now, the above is intended for this situation. Removing a branch for instance is completely different and I would apply cut paste over the whole area.
 

Forrestford

Shohin
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Location
Western CT
USDA Zone
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little update. Tree is doing well, left to grow and heal this year. I may thin the branches out a bit and add some wire here and there. But for now this is how she sits.

Also, I moved to Connecticut. These are still native to the area. Now I get to have the joys of a “real” winter unlike VA Beach where I moved from. But on the plus, better fall colors 🤷‍♂️
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Forrestford

Shohin
Messages
377
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Location
Western CT
USDA Zone
6b
Well my plans went were halted a bit due to a pesky deer that keeps coming through. Ate the tops of about a dozen trees, mainly the maples. This resulted in Massive backbudding, so I readdressed the wound and left it to grow again…
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few weeks later…

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Here’s one of the culprits…
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Thought I would also share an owl that frequents my property, doesn’t mess with the trees, just a beauty to look at.
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Forrestford

Shohin
Messages
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Location
Western CT
USDA Zone
6b
Tree pretty much left alone this year.
I cut back some of the branches so the apex would grow taller.
Apex still weak.
Wound needs to callous.
Going in the ground next year…
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cishepard

Shohin
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Location
Nanaimo, BC, Canada
USDA Zone
8
This contest is still on with 1 year, 9 months to go. Are you still in?
If so, please post an update on your tree.
Thanks!
 
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