COclimber89
Seedling
- Messages
- 15
- Reaction score
- 16
This is my second entry in the contest, but is what I wanted to use all along: no tree is more quintessentially Colorado than the State tree. I feel more confident that I can make something out of this by 2025 vs my Western Sand Cherry.
Did some cleaning, focusing on removing very weak interior pieces and dead needles, taking some 3s and 4s down to 2s, and pruning many of the longest, strongest new shoots back to a bud or two. My intention for now is to open up the tree a bit for light and air, to redistribute energy from the apical region back into lower and more interior branches, and to become more familiar with the trunk line and primary branches. It was extremely bushy and even though I took a decent amount of foliage off, it remains pretty full.
I plan to scrape a bit of the soil down to identify the base (part of which is already showing, I shouldn't have to go far) and then wait until fall to do heavier structural pruning and styling, necessitating pretty solid protection this winter, but I'm choosing to be pretty aggressive since I got on board with this contest late. As it goes with spruce, there is a massive whorl of branches about 2/3 of the way up the tree, so I will probably need to choose a lateral branch to take over the trunk line and cut most of the rest off. I might jin the existing trunk above that point if it adds to the design. 2023 will just be about growth management and pruning for ramification. 2024 I'll repot, unless I lose percolation before then in which case, I'll go lighter on the pruning and repot sooner. I'd prefer to go in this order (style first, then repot) to try to avoid increased swelling at the whorls and to get things going with ramification and back budding.
*shrug* I dunno, this is my first spruce, we'll see how it goes. BTW those needles are freaking sharp!
Pictures are pre and post cleaning/pruning, and a photo of the base that I took before even purchasing the tree.
Did some cleaning, focusing on removing very weak interior pieces and dead needles, taking some 3s and 4s down to 2s, and pruning many of the longest, strongest new shoots back to a bud or two. My intention for now is to open up the tree a bit for light and air, to redistribute energy from the apical region back into lower and more interior branches, and to become more familiar with the trunk line and primary branches. It was extremely bushy and even though I took a decent amount of foliage off, it remains pretty full.
I plan to scrape a bit of the soil down to identify the base (part of which is already showing, I shouldn't have to go far) and then wait until fall to do heavier structural pruning and styling, necessitating pretty solid protection this winter, but I'm choosing to be pretty aggressive since I got on board with this contest late. As it goes with spruce, there is a massive whorl of branches about 2/3 of the way up the tree, so I will probably need to choose a lateral branch to take over the trunk line and cut most of the rest off. I might jin the existing trunk above that point if it adds to the design. 2023 will just be about growth management and pruning for ramification. 2024 I'll repot, unless I lose percolation before then in which case, I'll go lighter on the pruning and repot sooner. I'd prefer to go in this order (style first, then repot) to try to avoid increased swelling at the whorls and to get things going with ramification and back budding.
*shrug* I dunno, this is my first spruce, we'll see how it goes. BTW those needles are freaking sharp!
Pictures are pre and post cleaning/pruning, and a photo of the base that I took before even purchasing the tree.
