GreatLakesBrad
Chumono
Collected this American larch in fall 2020 from a bog up north.
It’s ‘out of the woods’ safely now I believe, and showing a beautiful 2nd flush of growth.
All except for 1-2 shoots are located on one side of the tree, which intrigues me.
I would love opinions on style:
1) obviously bean pole to an extent, but I quite like the slim trunk, which does have some taper - and there is a gradual movement back and forth. I would reduce by about 20% for a final height and there are one or two branches I could wire to the right side - or, go for a difficult windswept style, which mirrors how this tree was growing in the wild
OR
2) a viewer on my YouTube channel said this tree was “crying out to become a raft.” I do see the potential - however, difficult process and not one I have tackled yet. based on what I have seen from rafts, most have a solid based tied to the ground at the “beginning” of the raft. Because of the absence of any low shoots, I feel I would need to root graft further up the trunk to avoid a large space with no shoots, in order to create the “anchoring” main root base. I suppose I could graft additional branches (trunks) on as well to fill that space.
The other piece that’s bothering me is a lack of knowledge on grafting on new roots higher up (further down) - would I risk cutting at the newly grafted on roots, to then lose the entire tree due to lack of support cutting off the original root ball? Seems it could be hard to judge when to do this. And I have grafted roots on other trees, but not larch… yet.
seems like a crazy idea, but I’ve been obsessing over it for weeks. Any thoughts are appreciated as always
the trunk really does have some nice undulation to it when laid down… just tilt your phone sideways perhaps? No sideways pic for now.
Collected 2020 fall
today
It’s ‘out of the woods’ safely now I believe, and showing a beautiful 2nd flush of growth.
All except for 1-2 shoots are located on one side of the tree, which intrigues me.
I would love opinions on style:
1) obviously bean pole to an extent, but I quite like the slim trunk, which does have some taper - and there is a gradual movement back and forth. I would reduce by about 20% for a final height and there are one or two branches I could wire to the right side - or, go for a difficult windswept style, which mirrors how this tree was growing in the wild
OR
2) a viewer on my YouTube channel said this tree was “crying out to become a raft.” I do see the potential - however, difficult process and not one I have tackled yet. based on what I have seen from rafts, most have a solid based tied to the ground at the “beginning” of the raft. Because of the absence of any low shoots, I feel I would need to root graft further up the trunk to avoid a large space with no shoots, in order to create the “anchoring” main root base. I suppose I could graft additional branches (trunks) on as well to fill that space.
The other piece that’s bothering me is a lack of knowledge on grafting on new roots higher up (further down) - would I risk cutting at the newly grafted on roots, to then lose the entire tree due to lack of support cutting off the original root ball? Seems it could be hard to judge when to do this. And I have grafted roots on other trees, but not larch… yet.
seems like a crazy idea, but I’ve been obsessing over it for weeks. Any thoughts are appreciated as always
the trunk really does have some nice undulation to it when laid down… just tilt your phone sideways perhaps? No sideways pic for now.
Collected 2020 fall
today
