grouper52
Masterpiece
I got this old collected Alpine fir from a garden nursery in 2006. I had noitced it there in 2004 in a pot, it didn't sell, tehy put it in the ground and I then got it cheaper.
First photo. I thought I would air layer it just below that crook in trunk at the halfway point in the first photo. That didn't work.![Frown :( :(](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png)
Second photo. I then just worked with the base, believing there was still a tree in there somewhere, and noticed that all the sapwood had rotted almost all the way up!
Well, what the heck. More grist for the mill. ![Smile :) :)](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png)
Third photo. Today I found a bunch more sap wood near the top turning to beautiful honeycomb under the tutelage of a bunch of termites. As I dug it out, I went down the sap wood further with a root hook, and found all the base that was not alive had rotted completely, leaving only an almost complete ring of still living tissue. The foliage was going like gangbusters still, despite that and the fact that this is another fir that will likely succumb soon to the terminal bud blight, so I did some further pruning to define the future direction a bit better. These trees respond with copious back budding, so it should be even tighter next year.
Meanwhile, I plan to use a die grinder to uro the heart wood further, and dig the old rotten wood out a bit more - then lime sulfur and perhaps follow that with epoxy resin wood hardener. Next spring it will go in a more proper pot and the base will be refined a bit better. A fun tree. Enjoy.![Smile :) :)](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png)
First photo. I thought I would air layer it just below that crook in trunk at the halfway point in the first photo. That didn't work.
![Frown :( :(](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png)
Second photo. I then just worked with the base, believing there was still a tree in there somewhere, and noticed that all the sapwood had rotted almost all the way up!
![Eek! :eek: :eek:](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f631.png)
![Smile :) :)](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png)
Third photo. Today I found a bunch more sap wood near the top turning to beautiful honeycomb under the tutelage of a bunch of termites. As I dug it out, I went down the sap wood further with a root hook, and found all the base that was not alive had rotted completely, leaving only an almost complete ring of still living tissue. The foliage was going like gangbusters still, despite that and the fact that this is another fir that will likely succumb soon to the terminal bud blight, so I did some further pruning to define the future direction a bit better. These trees respond with copious back budding, so it should be even tighter next year.
Meanwhile, I plan to use a die grinder to uro the heart wood further, and dig the old rotten wood out a bit more - then lime sulfur and perhaps follow that with epoxy resin wood hardener. Next spring it will go in a more proper pot and the base will be refined a bit better. A fun tree. Enjoy.
![Smile :) :)](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png)