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My last opportunity to collect in the area I was in was yesterday so I got after it. All three of these had a nice base of fine roots which I was able to keep in tact upon collection. All potted up in a mix of 1:1:1 - perlite, turface, pine bark. Started to...

I collected these three trees a few weeks back. They've been in the shade since. I'm curious as to how soon I can start putting these into morning sun? They'd be exposed from ~8am til noon or so. Appreciate any input. somegeek

When looking at images of foliage pads on Shimpaku, I've noticed that some trees have the foliage in large pads anywhere from 1/2" above the branch(exposing it) to a point where the foliage is arranged low enough to conceal the branch. What is the desired position for the foliage on the branch...

I have a tree I am currently let grow without any pruning to develop the trunk. There are about a half dozen branches which are pretty bare and leaning towards yellowish(hanging on to a little green in color). I'm curious if branches like this do much for the tree to grow the trunk or if they...

I had the opportunity today to collect a few small Hemlocks (corrected - thanks Ianb/JasonG). The root system on this tree was insane. It had a patch of roots roughly 1ft sq (like a moist mat of canvas) under a rock it was next to. This tree was removed from a ditch. Pruning by snowplow...

I've not seen many Shimpaku root over rock plantings. Are these less common? I have a nice rock that I think would accommodate a root over rock planting nicely and I'm pondering a Shimpaku on this. There is a groove in the top about 1.5" deep that runs from the upper left to the lower right...

I read a bit about how heat can affect roots in black nursery pots which get heated by the sun and I'm curious how folks deal with this? I've put some of my nursery pots into the ground while in the pot but I'm curiouf if folks have other solutions? somegeek

I created an air-layer on a ~3ft Shimpaku whip roughly 8" up the trunk a few months ago. The moss is roughly a 3" ball around the layer wrapped in foil. Today I took a peak and spotted a half dozen large roots (1/8" diameter) running inside the plastic(roots are roughly 4" long I'm thinking...

I'm working to wire the pads on this tree now and it looks like these branches need to come down a bit. Should these branches be wired such that they mostly follow the downward angle of these green lines? Thanks, somegeek

So I was at a friends place a noted a few branches on their mugo tree would make for nice bonsai starts and I was curious if mugos layer well and how long they take in the summer if so? Thanks, somegeek

I've come across a few trees which were very nice but leaned towards the large size with regards to the nebari/trunk and it got me to thinking, what is considered the max size for bonsai to pot up? somegeek

Came across an interesting thread regarding pots to stimulate root development and it got me to thinking of putting a layer of bubble wrap - bubble side in - on the inside vertical surface of a 1-gallon pot which I put smaller starters into to help with root development. Would this make a...

I'm going to mix up a batch of these this weekend and I'm curious - what's the yeast for in this mix? - 4 cups Cottonseed Meal - 4 cups Bone Meal - 3 cup Fish Emulsion (deodorized!) - 1 cup baking flour - 1 packet of yeast somegeek

I picked up this Pinus Contorta (Murrayana) this last weekend, re-potted and trimmed back the last few year's worth of needles to about 1/4-3/8". It's native location, above 4k ft is special to me as I spent a good portion of my summers up on Mt Hood. Most of the trunk curve is natural(this...

When I paint the main trunk deadwood with lime sulfur, what concentrate should I use? Full strength out of the bottle? Also, will this harm the growing tissue if I accidentally get the full strength lime sulfur on it? somegeek P.S. - opened this one as my other was hijacked for lime...

I live just outside the Portland, OR area and I'm curious if anyone can suggest a local nursery that offers bonsai starter material/stock? I'd noted that Portland Nursery carries some. One thing I noticed when I found starter material was that it was worked on a bit / cut back vs more rough...

I've read that Shimpakus will backbud on newer wood however, I don't understand what that means in regards to clearing out for new growth. Does this mean I can cutback as far as the red lines in the image below on thin inner growth and new shoots will come out of the side of the green marked...

I have a Japanese maple (red dragon) which has a tall trunk with about one foot of root stock at it's base. I'd like to layer off this extra foot of trunk. My question is, can I layer above the graft or should I layer just below the graft to keep this as rootstock? I thought I recalled...

I'm looking to collect a few trees this coming year and I'm curious if the the collected trees would benefit from being put into the ground in amended soil? Do people amend their ground space with soil/bark/turface mixes vs just digging a hole for the tree to be placed into with native soil?

I pruned this tree back a bit but I've read that you should leave 1/2" stub or so to die back to be cleaned up flush later, but then I've read to remove it and concave it a bit so it heals over more or less flush. Did I do this wrong? I need to cut this one back to a single trunk but...

Hey folks - I've picked up a few $5 Mugos at my local big box store to cut my teeth on. I've lurked for a bit and checked out the archived Mugo threads. Looking for some advice regarding pruning at this point for the trunk line on this tree. After pulling back the soil, I found nice base to...

I this collected this small vine maple today. The area circled in red has some soft wood in it. At this point, are there any issues with me cleaning up this area with a dremel to remove the softened wood down to the good wood and then treating it to prevent further deterioration? Edit - I...

I collected a 4' ponderosa(I think) and didn't notice when collecting that it had some of these places on the bark and branches with crumb-like deposits with holes. Any idea what kinda borers did this and what I can do to repel them from this tree? Bit of a buzzkill to note this when I...

I found a few cones broken open on a trail up by Mt St Helens and took a chunk of one of the cones home. It was densely packet(no openings) but the layers of cone were easily pulled apart to drop these seeds. Any way to know what these are? I did toss them in a bed w/ bark in my back yard...

Found this little guy in on the side of the road in a ditch when I stopped to, uh, answer nature's call. Can someone please tell me what kind of tree this is? The root system was pretty solid... if I had a yard feature to hang a tree off the side, this would fit the bill I think. Appreciate...