Black Hills Spruce

Hi all,

I just purchased a small old collected Black Hills Spruce at the 3rd National Bonsai Exhibition. It has the tiniest green needles and flaky bark. It's the first spruce I've cared for. It's healthy looking, but since it was only collected in 2010 I'm in the process of bringing it back to full vigor. I live on an 11th floor apt in NYC and it's sitting on my balcony which gets lots sun from early morning to noon. I'm trying to get it to back-bud as much as I can. Does anyone have any care recommendations and/or know what kind of fertilizer would be best for it?

Theo

Same situation here. I think mine is root-bound. I haven't had time to inspect it but I think I'll probably slip pot it and give it some soluble fertilizer and plant tone. Hopefully next year it will have improved vigor and I can start to work on it.

I have never worked with that type of spruce, much less a collected one, so I can't help, but I would love to see a picture of it!

I bought a collected Engelmann Spruce this spring - I imagine the growth habits are somewhat similar, but with good air, soil, sunshine and weekly fertilization, I am getting lots of backbudding already. In early spring most of the buds were at the tip, and now, I seem to have new buds forming up and down the branches.

mcpesq817 said:

I bought a collected Engelmann Spruce this spring - I imagine the growth habits are somewhat similar, but with good air, soil, sunshine and weekly fertilization, I am getting lots of backbudding already. In early spring most of the buds were at the tip, and now, I seem to have new buds forming up and down the branches.

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in essence the treatment of englemann (as I have been told it... and how i treat mine) is to cut back growth to an extension (this years new growth) and use that extension to create new design ... if you pinch much like people do with other spruces you will find that you usually pinch out the new buds as they always seem to form on the last half of the new growth.... as growth slows and extensions get shorter i presume you can pinch back to a bud in that second half etc ... they do back bud really well also so that can be a useful tool

as for blackhills honestly i couldn't tell you but it does seem that many of our spruces function differently than others around the world (ezo having buds all down the new growth, and englemann not, etc.) .... I would observe the growth habits of the tree and look for things like location of bud formation and observe any back budding etc... Andy smith or Larry Jackel or any of the other artists from those areas might be able to provide some advice as well .... I know it is often used but I haven't had the pleasure yet of using it as bonsai...

Ang3lfir3 said:

in essence the treatment of englemann (as I have been told it... and how i treat mine) is to cut back growth to an extension (this years new growth) and use that extension to create new design ... if you pinch much like people do with other spruces you will find that you usually pinch out the new buds as they always seem to form on the last half of the new growth.... as growth slows and extensions get shorter i presume you can pinch back to a bud in that second half etc ... they do back bud really well also so that can be a useful tool

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Thanks very much for that tip - I'm in my first season with it, so that's really good to know. Looking forward to working with it - the needles are incredibly small and the clusters compact.

Tanlu, it was nice to meet you at the show. Good luck with your new tree. Don't be afraid to let it get real healthy for the next couple years.

Dave

Tanlu-
If you get a chance, please post some pics of your tree. I will hopefully get to do the same this evening.

I'm glad people have posted on this thread. I was hoping to get some perspective on spruce care, but as Ang3lfir3 mentioned, they can differ according to region. I purchased this old spruce from Andrew Smith (GoldenArrowBonsai.com) at the 3rd National Bonsai Exhibition in Rochester, NY. Although it's quite small and doesn't look like much, it's estimated to be 40 years old and was collected at above 6400 feet. I LOVE collected trees, and thought it would make a nice shohin bonsai. I haven't decided on a front, so I took photos from several angles.



Dave, I'm we were able to connect at the exhibition. I enjoyed talking with you and other fellow enthusiasts. What was your overall impression of the event? Did you but any trees?

And some more.



It's not much of a tree yet, but I think with lots of back-budding in the right places and a bit of detailed jin would make this a neat shohin tree. Supposedly Black Hills Spruce are one of the easiest spruces to work with for bonsai. With my current track record of tree mortality I certainly hope this is the case!

Theo

More views of the trunk and bark

Here are a few shots of mine. The tree was in the back of a lathe house and a bit neglected. It appears to be chlorotic, but it pushed out new growth this year so it might turn out ok. Hopefully a little tlc will restore some health and vigor and it can go into a training box next spring.

Hi bougie nights,

If you haven't already, you may want to decide on which branches you will keep and which to sacrifice. Do you know how old it is?

tanlu said:

Hi bougie nights,

If you haven't already, you may want to decide on which branches you will keep and which to sacrifice. Do you know how old it is?

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As it is now, it does present a few opportunities, but some of the existing branches may die back yet this year, so I don't want to get attached to any particular style. The two main possibilities are single leader with some angular movement or the "dead-central-leader" option.
What are your plans for your tree?

Leaving it alone until you're confident that branches are all healthy is probably the best idea.

I'm looking to get some kind of naturalistic shohin literati or informal upright with my spruce. It's under 12" and I don't see a real leader yet. Unfortunately, I haven't seen lots of exemplary spruce shohin bonsai to work from.