Eric Group
Masterpiece
So, this is an air layer from a cutting from a cutting.... I have a bunch of Maples and most of them came from a parent stock I purchased about ten years ago at a local garden center. It was a little cutting that was nothing more than a foot tall pencil thin whip at the time of purchase. I eventually planted it in my yard, that house is still one that I own as a rental property, and the tree has turned into a beautiful specimen landscape tree that I just don't think I could ever dig up and put in a pot at this point... But she has yielded numerous cuttings and air layers over the years... This little guy is one of those. It sustained some damage a couple years back (animal attack i believe) but after being ignored for a couple years and just allowed to grow, it regained some vitality and had a sacrifice branch removed this spring that was probably two feet tall.. So, I had this little umbrella shape left with little potential for improvement and advancement. I took it by my buddy Ken's house a couple weeks ago, he immediately looked it over, assessed the poorly healing damaged areas and after about 30 seconds said "oh, you should make that little branch the new leader and remove this bad area..." It was one of those palm to the forehead "why didn't I think of that" kind of moments... I guess after spending two years letting a sacrifice branch grow to try to fix a problem you don't want to start all over, but his advice made too much sense NOT to do it. So, this was basically what the tree looked like before I started...
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/6195/9a2.jpg
And, after the chop:
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/959/sqs1.jpg
http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/5114/wh92.jpg
Then the root work- there were some heavy roots going straight down that just didn't provide the type of nebari I wanted... It had been growing in basically a regular old nursery potting soil, heavy, organic... But the roots were heathy. These heavy organic soils I have found are just fine for young trees when you are just trying to grow them out in a nursery pot.. You just have to be careful how you water, don't let the roots stay too soggy... So, it was healthy but to get his roots in the shape I wanted I knew it was time for a serious bare root and hack job... Now, the Spring is probably best for this, but when reducing the top by as much as I did, I think early Fall is a fine time to give the roots a good whack. I took off about 60% of the root mass from another Maple about 3-4 weeks again (WAY too early... But he was pot bound, not growing any longer and I was just ready to give it a try) and he is THRIVING now because of it... Perhaps that is one for another thread... I had some big plans in mind for this little guy today. Like I said, I decided I needed to go hard on that thick root, hoping to generate some more radial root production where I cut him. Here is what I did:
http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/6871/jx86.jpg
Pretty extreme, I know- but there were lot of healthy roots left... I soaked some sphagnum moss in water, doused it with rooting hormone, applied it to the areas I wanted to stimulate new roots, slapped this guy down on a flat tile to encourage roots to grow outward not downward, dug a hole in my garden, then filled in around the roots with a gritty bonsai mix of turface, pumice and pine bark and watered it. The spot i put him in gets sun maybe 30% of the time (a somewhat shady spot for my garden) but the afternoon is when it is in pretty much full sun. This should give it enough sun to generate tons of growth, keep the leaves pretty small and still moderate it enough to keep from frying it. The last thing I did was topped it with some "erth food"- a type of compost/ fertilizer that is coarse chopped composted peanut shells basically. This is something I have found recently that adds small amounts of nutrients in even distribution slowly and peanut shells hold TONS of moisture... I am really just using it as a top dressing for this guy to keep his roots somewhat moist while also slowly providing some nutrients. I will try to update this with a pic of this guy in the ground, and then add some as he gets bigger.
This is pretty extreme work for me, I am usually a little more timid when I re-work a tree... I usually try not to cut the roots so hard or chop the top so hard the same time I am repotting/ bare rooting it... So, this is a bit of an experiment for me. If it was a tree I Had paid a lot of money for, maybe I would have been a little less aggressive, but a tree like this that was a layer from a cutting of a cutting.., that had been all but killed a couple years back by a dog attack... Hey, this tree is a survivor, it was free and one that I am willing to experiment with! I feel pretty confident this will produce some good results in the long run and I am really just using this thread for my own monitoring of it's progress... But please feel free to tell me what I did wrong or what I did well... I am always trying to learn as I go. Pretty much been self taught from reading books and articles. I have been lucky enough to talk a little with some locals who are way more advanced than myself lately, so hopefully I can start to advance at a little faster pace in the coming years.
Any comments or advice would be appreciated, thanks!
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/6195/9a2.jpg
And, after the chop:
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/959/sqs1.jpg
http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/5114/wh92.jpg
Then the root work- there were some heavy roots going straight down that just didn't provide the type of nebari I wanted... It had been growing in basically a regular old nursery potting soil, heavy, organic... But the roots were heathy. These heavy organic soils I have found are just fine for young trees when you are just trying to grow them out in a nursery pot.. You just have to be careful how you water, don't let the roots stay too soggy... So, it was healthy but to get his roots in the shape I wanted I knew it was time for a serious bare root and hack job... Now, the Spring is probably best for this, but when reducing the top by as much as I did, I think early Fall is a fine time to give the roots a good whack. I took off about 60% of the root mass from another Maple about 3-4 weeks again (WAY too early... But he was pot bound, not growing any longer and I was just ready to give it a try) and he is THRIVING now because of it... Perhaps that is one for another thread... I had some big plans in mind for this little guy today. Like I said, I decided I needed to go hard on that thick root, hoping to generate some more radial root production where I cut him. Here is what I did:
http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/6871/jx86.jpg
Pretty extreme, I know- but there were lot of healthy roots left... I soaked some sphagnum moss in water, doused it with rooting hormone, applied it to the areas I wanted to stimulate new roots, slapped this guy down on a flat tile to encourage roots to grow outward not downward, dug a hole in my garden, then filled in around the roots with a gritty bonsai mix of turface, pumice and pine bark and watered it. The spot i put him in gets sun maybe 30% of the time (a somewhat shady spot for my garden) but the afternoon is when it is in pretty much full sun. This should give it enough sun to generate tons of growth, keep the leaves pretty small and still moderate it enough to keep from frying it. The last thing I did was topped it with some "erth food"- a type of compost/ fertilizer that is coarse chopped composted peanut shells basically. This is something I have found recently that adds small amounts of nutrients in even distribution slowly and peanut shells hold TONS of moisture... I am really just using it as a top dressing for this guy to keep his roots somewhat moist while also slowly providing some nutrients. I will try to update this with a pic of this guy in the ground, and then add some as he gets bigger.
This is pretty extreme work for me, I am usually a little more timid when I re-work a tree... I usually try not to cut the roots so hard or chop the top so hard the same time I am repotting/ bare rooting it... So, this is a bit of an experiment for me. If it was a tree I Had paid a lot of money for, maybe I would have been a little less aggressive, but a tree like this that was a layer from a cutting of a cutting.., that had been all but killed a couple years back by a dog attack... Hey, this tree is a survivor, it was free and one that I am willing to experiment with! I feel pretty confident this will produce some good results in the long run and I am really just using this thread for my own monitoring of it's progress... But please feel free to tell me what I did wrong or what I did well... I am always trying to learn as I go. Pretty much been self taught from reading books and articles. I have been lucky enough to talk a little with some locals who are way more advanced than myself lately, so hopefully I can start to advance at a little faster pace in the coming years.
Any comments or advice would be appreciated, thanks!
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