mc4mc44
Mame
Thank you, that means a lot to me from someone with trees like yours.
I understand that very well, it was worth just more than twice that, but I'm not worried. In my thoughts I basically just gave it away to a friend, and I legitimately thought of gifting it all-together. I know it will be in a better place in the end, where people will enjoy it. It served it's purpose to me, and in the end I come out on top. If it's still alive in 10 years it won't gain much more value than it has now. That's the problem with ponderosa, they develop so slowly. While that tree won't change much at all in 10 years after styling, every cutting I bought and the trees I graft will only gain in value. The person who has it now will style it and eventually repot, and then that's pretty much it for a long time until they sell it too. I'm not worried at all, it's too late anyway, so please don't make me second guess my decision.
My plan was to graft almost all the ponderosa I have that don't have naturally shorter needles. That tree had the longest needles of all, and grafting it wasn't really worth the hassle. It would be easier/faster to grow a JBP seedling to the same shape and trunk diameter (only better) than it would be to keep that one and graft it. The only thing that tree had going for it was the bark and it's age, which every ponderosa has. The branches were all long and meandering, the deadwood was nothing special, roots were pretty bad besides from one angle, and a key branch died because I didn't put in enough sun the first year. It still could have been styled as is and still make a tree to be proud of, but to make it the best it could be it had to be grafted, or sit around 10 years to get backbudding in places it won't happen anyway. Neither were worth the hassle on a $200 tree. It was a learner for ponderosa pines, that's pretty much it. It'll serve it's purpose again now. I lost money, but i'll get over it. In the future i'll be the winner. In 10 years that tree will be worth around $400, maybe more if it's in a good pot. At the same time, my dozen cuttings will be worth atleast 4x that. And that's not including the trees I'll graft with the money I have left over too. So although they won for now, really after I graft the first tree it'll all be even. I'm young, I'll make my money back.
I know I should have asked for more, but whats done is done, and where it is now is a good place. It's under good care, and I can visit it every now and then if I want. So even though it isn't mine, I can still watch it grow and progress for awhile, which is all I care about anyway.
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