Collecting old Wisteria

[rockm]

Zach Smith's blog post on big collected wisteria vines as "rot waiting to happen" --scroll down for it here:
http://bonsai-south.com/
Interesting read. His experience has been mine also with large and huge collected wisteria. The big 'uns invariably settle into a shell of their former selves when dug up. Things can be a bit different if you don't collect them all at once, but even then rot happens, A LOT of rot happens.

 

[Cadillactaste]

@GrimLore did you see this? I know your intentions are to manhandle one next season.

 

[sorce]

They only Rot in the high alpine.

Sorce

 

[M. Frary]

Unless it was collected from a high alpine area.

 

[Zach Smith]

Zach Smith's blog post on big collected wisteria vines as "rot waiting to happen" --scroll down for it here:
http://bonsai-south.com/
Interesting read. His experience has been mine also with large and huge collected wisteria. The big 'uns invariably settle into a shell of their former selves when dug up. Things can be a bit different if you don't collect them all at once, but even then rot happens, A LOT of rot happens.

Thanks, Mark. The best luck I ever had with big wisteria was a large one grown for the entirety of its life in a cut-off wine barrel. We're talking decades, meaning until the barrel was falling apart and the wisteria had rooted on through to the ground. I only had to cut some of the anchoring roots to lift and put it in a growing tub. It went to a client over 20 years ago and I have no idea its ultimate fate.

Being as how I no longer have decades to grow big wisterias from scratch, I have to settle for smaller material or stick with other vines such as trumpet, etc. that aren't rot-prone.

Zach

 

[rockm]

Zach,

What's your luck with porcelain berry, bittersweet and trumpet vine? There are some pretty nice, very old bittersweet vines around me. I dug a very nice one a couple of years ago. It began growing like a weed after I sawed it out of the ground. However, it died from some kind of fast-moving bacterial or fungal infection a month later. All the new growth died off in a day and a half.

 

[mcpesq817]

Nice blog post Zach. I had the same issue with a very large (8" trunk) wisteria I dug up back in 2010. Had a nice double helix type of split trunk, but one trunk died and completely rotted to the point I was able to pull the rotted trunk off as if I was peeling a banana. After five years of letting the tree grow out, the rot seems to have mostly stabilized, but I'm guessing that I'll have a hollowed out trunk eventually. Last pictures are from 2013 - it's filled out quite a bit since then.

 

[Stickroot]

Nice blog post Zach. I had the same issue with a very large (8" trunk) wisteria I dug up back in 2010. Had a nice double helix type of split trunk, but one trunk died and completely rotted to the point I was able to pull the rotted trunk off as if I was peeling a banana. After five years of letting the tree grow out, the rot seems to have mostly stabilized, but I'm guessing that I'll have a hollowed out trunk eventually. Last pictures are from 2013 - it's filled out quite a bit since then.



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New pics !
New pics !
New pics !

 

[augustine]

RockM,

I have collected bittersweet and porcelainberry and both had the nasty bacterial or fungal infections. Didn't want them around my other trees.

I have not had problems with Virginia Creeper

 

[rockm]

Don't think it was the bittersweet itself. The fungus also claimed additional recently collected trees. The bittersweet I collected had a five inch nebari and a three inch twisted trunk, very nice old material. Very healthy initially. I suspect Heavy rain and leaving the pot on the ground splashed the infection into the pot.

 

[Zach Smith]

Nice blog post Zach. I had the same issue with a very large (8" trunk) wisteria I dug up back in 2010. Had a nice double helix type of split trunk, but one trunk died and completely rotted to the point I was able to pull the rotted trunk off as if I was peeling a banana. After five years of letting the tree grow out, the rot seems to have mostly stabilized, but I'm guessing that I'll have a hollowed out trunk eventually. Last pictures are from 2013 - it's filled out quite a bit since then.

Very nice material. Reminds me of the really old vines I have around here. You'll likely have better luck in Virginia than I do down here. Our high heat and humidity in summer brings about a lot of fungal problems, which I suspect is a big contributor to the rotting I always have gotten.

Zach

 

[mcpesq817]

I don't have any pictures for this year, but here are some from 2014 (spring and then fall).

It's incredibly vigorous - it tried eating my garage this summer. It's ability to grow roots is amazing as well. The last two pictures show how much root I cut off a few years ago when I had to rethink the style after losing one of the trunks. By the end of the year, the tree had filled the pot.