The big stick in a pot, Doing Taxus

Hey nuts. Been awhile since I posted anything but I'm gonna start updating my threads soon since them buggers woke up (except the Vitex). But before I do, I need to get off my ass and start a thread on this little guy. Believe it or not, I found this Yew on Craigslist in the free section ! The best part was when I read the guy said it was planted in a half barrel and that roots might have escaped to the ground. No real digging for me yippee! And of course that same ole story; couple just moved in and wanted to change the landscape lol.

As it stood at their front driveway. The fence from behind is 6' so the bush with pot is almost that. This thing is pretty dang wide though! I can only imagine how far it can reach if left untouched.


And look what I found ! The tag it came with!!! Saw it when I was hacking at the Yew. After years exposed to the elements it has become quite brittle. Poke at it a little too hard and it becomes dust. Notice the back side bottom right it says "Printed in USA, 97". I would assume the Yew is around 21 years old. But I don't care about age on any of my trees though...


Luckily the guy had a reciprocating saw which made separating the Yew from the ground a lot faster than trimming it to fit my SUV. Hauling the little guys up the car was an adventure in itself . Took 3 guys (well, 2 + 1/2, I'm not a big dude), and a ramp to muscle it in there. Getting it out was easier. Check out he bottom of the barrel. It's a ceramic plate! Sweet! One big root in the middle drainage hole and one more busted through the side of the wooden pot.
Got rid of the limbs next day at work. They filled up my entire cargo area to near the top! Good news is this Yew was healthy. Lots of spent flowers and lot and lots of buds.

As collected(?) 4/8/18


At home I didn't have enough soil and building materials to make a box for it so I used one of the steel band to hold a blanket I wrapped around the rootball for the time being. The rootball was kept moist by spraying the blanket with a hose morning and evening.


4/19/18, 11 whole days later. Got off my lazy ass and got some 2x6's to build a simple box. Also got 2 bags of soil conditioner. Cut off the metal band with an angle grinder and scraped about an inch of original soil off the sides with a fork. I learned not to use a fork next time and instead use a chop stick. The fork was catching some of the finer roots. Ended up using one and a quarter bag of the coil conditioner.

2 shots of the base and a bottle shot. The second pic is of the back but to the side. The buds on this one is moving at almost the same pace as my "bonsai" Yew.


Tag says it's hardy. We'll see about that.

To be continue.....

Nice find Nim!
I've had a terrible time with yew. There always seems to be 2 levels of roots, and they can be a bitch to dig. This seems like the perfect collection condition.
CW

Part of the previous post is not there for some reason. For record keeping, soil mix was 60/40 soil conditioner/reclaimed 8822. This has worked well for me for all my other up-potted trees so I'll give this one a shot figuring the mix is light and airy.

This is the image I see

I’m just quite surprised you drink Heineken!!! Lol

CWTurner said:

There always seems to be 2 levels of roots, and they can be a bitch to dig

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Thanks Craig

I think you're right. The pics shows small roots at and close to the surface, little in the middle, and more roots at the bottom. I'm not sure whats worse, compacted old potting soil or this heavy clay-like stuff. But I'm kinda worried about the original soil though. It gets watered almost everyday around the perimeter of the root ball to keep the new soil moist. They feel on the dry side every morning when I put my entire finger in there...

Danielm said:

I’m just quite surprised you drink Heineken!!! Lol

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Don't be, I don't drink . And if I do it socially, it's mostly stuff like wine coolers lol. The sweet stuff. But I like me some dark beers like Guinness once a while.

That Heineken must of been in the fridge for century !

Nice one! I'll be watching this one. I am surprised that you removed so much wood on the first go with it. Is this standard for retrieval of landscape Yew? I have only collected wild growing Yew here in the GPNW, smaller ones that need no reduction at the time of collection. I have several large trees to be collected and I will reduce them in situ and then collect after.
I know that Yew back bud like crazy, but this is not in of itself able to support the tree and some of the older more mature foliage, especially the leading tips of branches should be left to support the tree until the back budding is sufficient to do the job. That's my own opinion there for what it's worth. And I will venture another that is formulating in my mind after much observation. I'm beginning to think that Yew is very much akin to Juniper, I'll let you know how that develops.

When did you collect it???

Did you remove more old soil???

It looks like the last picture shows it in a wooden box, or something....how much root and old soil did you remove???

Bare rooted???

Also, was it swelling buds or beginning to shoot at time of collection???

That's a hell of a find!
I'm certainly green with envy!

RKatzin said:

I'll let you know how that develops

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Definitely keep us posted! I would have love to keep more foliage but I need for it to fit in my car and those are what's left unfortunately. It's about 3 feet in diameter. I read Graham Potter's article where he collected a pretty large one and had practically no foliage and small rootball. But his aftercare was different though. The buds on this one are moving so at least there's hope!

It was collected early this month on the 8th.

I scraped about an inch of old soil to expose smaller roots, hoping it will adapt to the new soil. This has worked on all my other up-potted trees that was too late to bare root but this one is massive and foliage was reduced like 99% .

The only roots removed was when chopping the escaped from the center drainage hole and some on the sides. But who knows how far it went?

This one was not bare rooted. If all is well next year, how should I approach the dense old soil? HBR or FBR ( full bare root)?

just.wing.it said:

Also, was it swelling buds or beginning to shoot at time of collection???

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A ton of spent flowers where still on the Yew at the time. And a ton of buds where just swelling too. Right now, the buds are moving at around the same pace as my Yew in a pot.

This shopping mall at my neighborhood has some Yews with really good deadwood characters. They're actually waaaay better than this one. Shopping cart styled with the side lean too lol. I think I'll do some midnight collecting in a ninja outfit

Just went out to take a quick pick before I head out. This one is the bonsai Yew.


The collected one 19 days after. Most of these where under or inside all the foliage I had to take off to fit my SUV. A bit behind but moving around same pace as potted Yew.

It's almost a month from collection and I have a true concern maybe a Taxus master can help decipher. The potted Yew is obviously growing faster and more healthy, but I'm a bit worried the big one is declining. The needle tips are a bit brownish compared to the healthy looking green tips of the potted one. Am I watering too much? Last week I water morning and evening on hot days. Or at least once a day in the morning. I also gave it some fish emulsion once. Is that a no no? I figure I better ask now and take appropriate steps to correct whatever I'm doing wrong in time to save it!

Potted one on the left elongated a bit more before opening up. Look how green it is compared to the brownish tips of the big Yew on the right.


And for now this is the only one with this curly very off color needles. Is curling inward over watering? The brownish-yellowish color is more pronounce in person. Or is there something I need to change to make this better?
YEW NEED HELP!

I haven't seen that kind of curling on new shoots.
Could be a sign of over-watering, if you considered that yourself...
Do you think it's generally on the wet side???
Or do you struggle to keep it moist????

Thanks for chiming in @just.wing.it ! I thought I did my research but I guest not lol.

I think I been wayyyy over watering. I did some more research on Yews and apparently was thinking the opposite. Yew prefers to be on the drier side instead of moist since they are drought tolerant. And when I checked the perimeter of the rootball, it was quite moist. On a side note, I think I see white tips on roots! Emphasis on I THINK.

And all this time I've been watering at least once in the morning thinking they prefer soil on the wet side. Only the outside of the rootball was watered though. I did however watered the entire rootball two weeks age. I stopped watering for 2 days already and think it will not get watered till I see the 2x6 grow box drying up.

At this point the surrounding new soil is really airy and feel dryish to the touch in one day on a warm day. But still moist. It's that transition zone that stays wet. The old clay like soil is just so crappy and retains moisture too long.

Maybe I should change my regimen and water every couple days if it's not raining. Around the rootball perimeter.

Microscopic said:

Thanks for chiming in @just.wing.it ! I thought I did my research but I guest not lol.

I think I been wayyyy over watering. I did some more research on Yews and apparently was thinking the opposite. Yew prefers to be on the drier side instead of moist since they are drought tolerant. And when I checked the perimeter of the rootball, it was quite moist. On a side note, I think I see white tips on roots! Emphasis on I THINK.

And all this time I've been watering at least once in the morning thinking they prefer soil on the wet side. Only the outside of the rootball was watered though. I did however watered the entire rootball two weeks age. I stopped watering for 2 days already and think it will not get watered till I see the 2x6 grow box drying up.

At this point the surrounding new soil is really airy and feel dryish to the touch in one day on a warm day. But still moist. It's that transition zone that stays wet. The old clay like soil is just so crappy and retains moisture too long.

Maybe I should change my regimen and water every couple days if it's not raining. Around the rootball perimeter.

Click to expand...

I had the exact same issue with this one...
https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/yew-2.23892/
The rootball was compacted in the clay much ball.
I decided to risk it, and bare root it.
It survived fine, and it's doing ok now.
I am still hoping for more backbudding on it at this point.

But more than anything, I'm glad I washed all that junk soil out.
I expect and accept that after bare rooting a yew, the following year's growth may be relatively weak.
But many backbuds develop and they thank you for the new substrate in 2 years.

Dude, I totally forgotten about your post! I've even commented on it lol. Thanks for the link. Yeah this Yew is in the same crap clay soil. The big difference is I couldn't take enough foliage with me. One side got a good amount but the other side got very little. Backside (was facing fence previously) has none.

Just gotta wait and see what happens...

One month update.

Moving along pretty good. New growths extended between two to four inches. And within those new growths are more new growths. Man I think these Yews can grow really dense in a short time if healthy. Second pic shows a little branch at the very edge of a cut and I thought it would surely die, but it's callousing over and is growing strong. Even putting out a bunch of buds. Not out of the woods but cautiously optimistic.


This side I haven't shown in the beginning but it's starting to shade itself out.

Shade won't be a problem on a newly collected Yew - they are extremely good growers in low light conditions, even in full shade.

It looks just to be a balance issue left & right - just leave the weak side alone for longer to catch up.

Luckily I had room along north wall of the yard. It gets direct sun till mod morning. But it probly don't need it.

If this little guy is actually recovering and not expending it's last energy, the foliage won't be messed with for a long while. Left side is playing catch up pretty well so far...