This one grew very well this season. I chose to cut it back pretty hard to take advantage of the rest of the growing season to heal the cuts.
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Plan was to leave it alone for the season but... it felt like it was ready. Plan to wire this fall. The other in the ground is lagging behind a bit.
Looking good. I like the Mother Daughter twin trunk thing you have going on.
Again apologies for crashing your thread earlier, if admin (
@Bonsai Nut) could remove my earlier posts.
What kind of mix did you use when you boxed it up? Yours looks healthy, but I have really been pushing development using a Boonish mix plus some extra organics and some high nitrogen agriform fert tabs. You have a great start, by starting with good material and impressive equipment for collecting.
One other tip for developing Eastern Hemlock that I have figured out is: to stimulate back budding, let it grow all growing season with minimal cutting. Then trim back vigorously over the winter. You can’t expect back-buds on old wood, but you can get some back to where the needles were recently.
If I were in the 5 yr contest I would first address roots and design as you have, then I would do Winter trimming for a couple years as described, and then for the last year or two before the deadline, I would “pinch” or continuously cut through the growing season, in order to develop some density before the deadline. Not too dense though, your boxed tree is too elegant to go poodle style.