Betula pendula/Silver Birch

BobbyLane

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over two year period from tiny sapling, to flower pot, to the ground again

was given to me as a tiny collected sapling,
i planted it in the flowerpot on top of a piece of flat plastic, it appears to be emedded in the rootball now, so basically just dropped entire root ball in ground, the roots are splaying nicely
 

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Paulpash

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Good documentation - wish I had done that with mine but I hadn't joined any forums then!

They grow quickly so this will speed up the process a lot. Just make sure you prep a branch with lots of foliage to take over at chop time. Keep us posted - they make nice, if unpredictable, Bonsai :)
 
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BobbyLane

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Good documentation - wish I had done that with mine but I hadn't joined any forums then!

They grow quickly so this will speed up the process a lot. Just make sure you prep a branch with lots of foliage to take over at chop time. Keep us posted - they make nice, if unpredictable, Bonsai :)

Hi Paul, yeh for sure. im not really certain which way im going just yet....two options, grow it in a true birch form, tall slender trunk, no great emphasis on taper or grow it as more of a broom form with lots of branches to choose from, in that case it could be chopped a little lower, but i would keep the part where the trunk splits in two. will see how it adjusts.
 

Wilson

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I am always interested to see different birch grown for bonsai. Harry Harrington seems to really have them mastered, a nice thing to see. I have some white birch, and one weeping river birch(nigra). I look forward to seeing how it trunks up for you, I know your plot yields nice results!
 

Warpig

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@BobbyLane do you get many days over 70°F where you are, and if so do you take any precautions to protect this from the heat? I've read that silver/white/paper birch dont really like it getting over 70 and i got some coming in next spring. Any advice would be appreciated.
 

parhamr

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@BobbyLane do you get many days over 70°F where you are, and if so do you take any precautions to protect this from the heat? I've read that silver/white/paper birch dont really like it getting over 70 and i got some coming in next spring. Any advice would be appreciated.
I have had three European White Birch since 2013. In 2018 they survived a summer of record heat (14 days above 90ºF in July and 30+ days above 90ºF for the whole year). The trees have small pots and carried quite a bit of foliage during the heat.

Mitigating factors: they got afternoon shade, they have decent moss on top of the soil, their roots are colonized by symbiotic mycorrhizae (which retain moisture), and I watered twice a day.
 

BobbyLane

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@BobbyLane do you get many days over 70°F where you are, and if so do you take any precautions to protect this from the heat? I've read that silver/white/paper birch dont really like it getting over 70 and i got some coming in next spring. Any advice would be appreciated.

ive never taken any precautions to protect trees from heat unless they were visibly wilting.
 

BobbyLane

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The base is getting thicker.
Over the summer I chopped it to encourage back budding, not a whole lot happened, there are a couple buds here n there.
I think at some point ill chop to that low branch and let it carry on in the ground...
need to top the soil back up too
 

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BobbyLane

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The nursery owner who gave me the Birch in this thread has this one in the field and a beech beside it, I might get them in the next week or so, but he'll use a mechanical extracter to get them up with good rootballs, the birch would only cost me like £20 quid so definitely worth it, with a substantial, characterful trunk and options to taper off, the beech is on left only the branches are visible
20221122_150331.jpg
 
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