Winter Huckleberry Collecting - 2017

ml_work

Chumono
Messages
588
Reaction score
461
Location
Alabama
USDA Zone
8
Well I think it is a Winter Huckleberry, the last time I was collecting trees my day told me the one I got was a huckleberry, then I posted it as a hackberry. Later he told me there are two kinds a winter huckleberry and a summer huckleberry and what I got was a summer huckleberry. He said it was some winter huckleberry there also. Now with understanding he grew up in these woods and his dad told him the names of the trees, so some could be what they called them in this area. From the way all the trees around here have been budding and blooming I figured this was about the last weekend to do any collecting so we headed to the country this morning. This was the first one we saw and I needed to get back to do some repotting this afternoon. I started to dig around it and there were really no lateral roots. So I figured maybe deeper and then I could tell it was a large maybe tap root going down. Since I did not borrow the power saw this time I really did not want to saw it by hand. I pushed on the tree and it moved, this is sandy ground, I could tell it did not have any fine roots and would most likely die. I was going to leave it and as I push in the other direction I heard the wood snap and it was up. So I brought it home and potted it. I am really not sure what it is, have not looked in my book yet, it did not have any leaves yet, my dad said they are small when the do and it did have some thorns.
So how would you get something like this to get / have small fine roots, I know with the Hawthorn you cut around the larger roots going out and then it will push new small root ( or I think that is it) but how could I do this kind. The ones I got a couple weeks about, summer huckleberry were the same, no small roots.

WinterHuckelBerry1.jpg
WinterHuckelBerry2.jpg




Now the next one is just Wish Full Thinking... (I think it is one of the Summer Huckleberry) It was 2 trees coming up from where a tree had fallen or broken but I really like the way it looked. I got both but just posting one of the. It is the same situation, no small root to work with, a few at the end of the root so I did not want to cut it to fit in a pot, not time to build a grow box and would probably be a waste of time as I know it is slim chance to make it. But their was a small root coming off the end with the trunk and I did some rigging, I used the soil that it was growing in for this end and them put a layer of the soil over the bonsai soil. So here goes, laugh as you may, but it was fun.
WishfulThinking1.jpg
This is what was above ground and the root is going back behind it.

WishfulThinking2.jpg
WishfulThinking3.jpg



Found this Hawthorn as I was about to leave, it already had some leaves so I was not going to chance digging it up, plus it had a big root going down. I cut around it getting all the smaller ones, with my understanding it will push small one now. I know I have read to cut the V to induce Broom Style ... and I saw BVF when re-reading his article on his Hawthorn. I think the V should have been deeper but My Armstrong Battery was getting low. So this will grow till next year see what happens.

Hawthorn1.jpg
Hawthorn2.jpg

I could have stayed all day but had things to do at home, our winter has been so mild it just did not seem the trees had time to go dormant and I did not go collecting (now we are having winter ) . I will start earlier next year, but it was fun. My dad was happy his game camera had 380 pictures on it, he yepped and called turkey ( I was supposed to be listening for them... I was digging did not hear any) and he got in a good walk.

It Was A Good Day!:cool:
 

Leo in N E Illinois

The Professor
Messages
11,337
Reaction score
23,254
Location
on the IL-WI border, a mile from ''da Lake''
USDA Zone
5b
Huckleberries are relatives of the blueberry. They should have white, urn shaped flowers in early spring, and a blueberry like fruit. Fruit is usually not as large or as tasty as a blueberry, but definitely edible. Of coarse, you don't have any of the fine twigs that would flower. Eventually you will, and the bell or urn shaped flowers are key to put it in the huckleberry-blueberry family. There are some other trees that might get the ''huckleberry name'' but I'm not sure. Leaves should be alternate, and not overly large. Nice finds.

I don't know huckleberry, but I do know blueberry, and they like acidic soils. More acidic than what azalea really like. If your municipal water has a lot of dissolved calcium, you might want to try as much as possible to use mostly rain water to water the huckleberry, as hard water will make the soil alkaline over time. I would avoid using Turface, and other calcined clays, as they tend to accumulate calcium, and will not do your roots favors.

My mix for blueberries is pumice, maybe 10% Canadian peat moss, and fir bark. This will stay somewhat acidic, which will keep the roots happy. You can add Kanuma if you have it, but Kanuma alone is not acidic enough, the peat is needed to bring the pH down further. I have high calcium municipal water, so I do try to use rain water when possible. In emergencies, and no rain, an occasional watering with hard water won't kill them outright, but it is best to use rain water if your well or municipal water is high calcium (over 120 ppm dissolved solids as Calcium Carbonate).

Nice stumps, the last of the huckleberries especially. Hopefully that one will bud back lower than the point where the stump goes vertical. I would just chop that one lower right away, loose the straight vertical boring part.
 

ml_work

Chumono
Messages
588
Reaction score
461
Location
Alabama
USDA Zone
8
Leo, thanks for the detailed information! The soil I used is mix of left over Brussels and others (old soil) since I really didn't think these have a chance. Nice to hear you think they may make it. I don't think it would be good to bother them now after a week....? And I don't have the pumice or Kanuma to swap them to... I will be using rain water, our well has a slight salt taste to it and I have figured it was killing some of my trees... or maybe just trying to point the finger at the water instead of taking all the blame myself... so I will do the rain water and fertilize with something acidic.
As my Dad has been going with me when I collect I had told him that small leaves were one of the things that I would be looking for. He said these have small leaves (as you did) and the berries are like blue berry but not good taste. So sounds like we are talking about the same thing ....

Nice stumps, the last of the huckleberries especially. Hopefully that one will bud back lower than the point where the stump goes vertical. I would just chop that one lower right away, loose the straight vertical boring part.

Not sure where you are talking about cutting this (if it is the one ) the Red Line or the Blue line?CutWhere.jpg
The Red line is where I was planning to cut off in the future, but it had a few small roots at the end, that is why I keep it. At the Blue line it would leave just the small root that is hanging down and I rigged a pot to the side in hopes of that small root producing more roots and then cut off at the Red line. If I cut at the Blue line, the trunk is too straight, no tapper, no nebari ... what got my attention was the dead part that the trunk had grown from, it appears the first tree had fallen and this trunk came from the downed tree.

Thanks for you Help!
 
Top Bottom