Today I started in earnest the start of collecting for the 2008 season. Most all trees have been dormant long enough here that we can consider selecting a few for collection. We returned to a spot that had been scouted about a year a go and had some really good material for collection. This material has been cut back religiously for years and the material was basically containerized as most of it sat on rock slabs, making for relatively easy collection this time of year versus cutting ice blocks from the ground.
What we found when we arrived was devastating. Instead of cutting back as had been done years before. This past spring they decides to spray, killing any and all things that were in range of the chemical used, truly depressing to see hundreds of candidates brittle to the touch. My wife snapped a picture of one that may have been a contender. With some spring pruning this might have made a decent shohin over a relatively short period of time.
So knowing that ground level trees in this area were lost, I went up. Here we found some really decent pitch pine, some prime stuff ready for the plucking, growing from the rocks. Most of it was beaten back in so it was small and compact. Hard to see from ground level, so a lot of climbing was involved to peer over rock ledges to evaluate them. To give you an idea of scale. The pitch in the third picture near the top of this bluff was about 4.5 feet tall. While today was very enjoyable and really got my blood pumping. All that climbing took a toll on this poor old bod. So pass the Tiger Balm and I hope you enjoy these couple of pictures, spring is getting closer.
What we found when we arrived was devastating. Instead of cutting back as had been done years before. This past spring they decides to spray, killing any and all things that were in range of the chemical used, truly depressing to see hundreds of candidates brittle to the touch. My wife snapped a picture of one that may have been a contender. With some spring pruning this might have made a decent shohin over a relatively short period of time.
So knowing that ground level trees in this area were lost, I went up. Here we found some really decent pitch pine, some prime stuff ready for the plucking, growing from the rocks. Most of it was beaten back in so it was small and compact. Hard to see from ground level, so a lot of climbing was involved to peer over rock ledges to evaluate them. To give you an idea of scale. The pitch in the third picture near the top of this bluff was about 4.5 feet tall. While today was very enjoyable and really got my blood pumping. All that climbing took a toll on this poor old bod. So pass the Tiger Balm and I hope you enjoy these couple of pictures, spring is getting closer.