Collecting up North - Larch & Thuja

[GreatLakesBrad]

Beyond thrilled with my recent collecting trip in northern Michigan. (Upper LP)
A close friend’s family owns 5-10 acres adjacent to an inland lake, mostly a bog leading to the beach. Incredible setting. Thousands of Tamarack, thuja Occidentalis, and hemlock.

everything seems ancient there. What blew my mind is the naturally occurring and prevalent sphagnum moss. the stuff I pay for from new zealand or Canada. I didn’t take any for fear of impacting the ecosystem but golly. Long fibered beauty.

I’ll be posting a collecting video at some point on my humble beginner channel (Great Lakes bonsai on YouTube) but wanted to share the two biggest pieces.

First, a larch (tamarack here in the mitten, Larix laricina) that had the most ancient looking bark I saw there - a bit of inverse taper, lacking a thick root system (how all of my larches I collected were... so concerned for survival) but unique and with many healthy branches. Thinking I need to prune a fair amount off considering the root reduction.

Second, a thuja that is even better below the now soil line. Large with plenty of natural deadwood. Love the root base character. Solid root system and left most of core root ball and soil intact.

 

[GreatLakesBrad]

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Wow Brad, those are nice. Great finds, you have a good eye, for being only a few years into bonsai, you are finding trunks with good age and taper to them.

I realize it is probably "too late", but in the future, you do not have to "balance" the top with the root system for the collected larch. As long as they are dormant, they will only open the buds they have the ability to supply water to. The rest of the buds will stay dormant until the new root system catches up.

With the Thuja, for them also I would not cut back to severely, even if you don't end up with much of a root system.

Do cut off foliage you are certain you won't need in the future, but you can leave the foliage and the root mass pretty unbalanced.

How many did you collect all together? Hope you got half a dozen more.

The sphagnum, from North America is a nice species of sphagnum. Collect some live moss to grow in a tray or two for use at home. Living sphagnum is great for growing carnivorous plants, as kusamono of course, a few of the native orchids, such as Goodyera, rattlesnake plantain, makes good kusamono. Also when used in making air layers has some benefit, where you get better rooting than with dead sphagnum. This species of sphagnum, when dead does not have the long use life span that Chilean or New Zealand sphagnum has, because it has a very low phenolic content, but it is a great thing to have around a little living sphagnum. As a wild harvest forest product it is self renewing on a limited basis. If you take only a square foot or two, within a year you won't be able to find the spot you harvested. It is not a sustainable industry on a full blown commercial level, but a little here or there is not a big deal.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Nice finds!
I'm a big fan of growing sphagnum. Once it gets going, you'll have a lifetime supply.
With a 1x1 foot bog at home, you can harvest roughly three to ten teacups a year. Fun thing about live sphagnum is that it keeps growing when you use it for air layering.

 

[GreatLakesBrad]

Thanks @Wires_Guy_wires and @Leo in N E Illinois for the sphagnum information. I normally visit the property in the summer (for more 'normal' activities like drinking beer and boating) and will plan to harvest a little bit to grow. That, and to flag another tree or two for next spring... or maybe this fall...

Leo, thanks for the info on balancing foliage for the larch. I did not remove much at all thus far. I know that the 'busy' section below the largest branch (which actually is in front of/separate from the main trunk, weird bulge there) is creating some inverse taper (though in part, the trunk section lowest was underground/surrounded by heavy grasses with no roots, which contributes to it being more slim) - but my priority is survival first and foremost, so if the guidance is that leaving many branches will not impact the chance of success, I will leave it alone. Still very nervous as these two are instant favorites of mine. Can't get too attached...

I will try to follow up on this thread with a shot of the bark when dry (my pics were just after watering) - the larch, in particular has scaly, white looking, ancient bark. So cool. Also have noticed that the bud sites on many branches for the larch in that bog are more lengthened than on my other young larch in my raised beds - they "shoot up and lengthen" in advance of setting - very odd.

To your question - I grabbed these two big pieces, a larch that looks younger but is just as thick that needed to be significantly trunk chopped to get out, plus 3 other young larches. One had some rodent damage low on the trunk but I am hopefully of survival. So that's 1 thuja, 5 larches in total.

Next trip I'm going to need some type of a reinforced backpack to carry material out - even though it was just a quarter mile walk, my back was killing me. There are some more absolutely epic Thuja in that bog that I didn't have the stamina to get out.

 

[A. Gorilla]

Larch beast mode.

Love it.

 

[BonsaiDawg]

Beauty trees, well done!

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Make a sled man! Way easier on the back than any backpack.

As for the sphagnum: I got good results by shredding it on top of some garden peat soil (the dark stuff with a low pH) in a container without holes. Sphagnum survives flooding with ease, an inch below the water level it still functions.
You can use the excess water for your trees if needed, it beats rain water from a barrel.
Just don't leave the moss submerged for too long.
After a month or so, it'll take hold and start growing. Expect some brownish and purple colors in the fall, I know the new zealand stuff does that, so does the scottish.

I had a mini bog like that for over 10 years with some drosera varieties and dionaea muscipula. Stay away from sarracenia though, they spread like wildfire.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

For the larch with a knot of branches and inverse taper. Don't worry about it right now. As you said, first task is to get a healthy root system going. It took many years for inverse taper to form, it will not get appreciably worse in the year or two you should wait before addressing the issue. Inverse taper issues can be "cured" by controlling growth. Eventually you thin out the number of branches at the particular location. Then. by allowing more vigorous growth below the zone of inverse taper, thickening the trunk below will eventually even out and obscure the zone on inverse taper. It can be done, and usually in less than 10 years, 5 years might be a reasonable guess.

While "inverse taper" is viewed as a "Fatal Flaw" in exhibition quality trees, it is a relatively easy issue to fix in any tree that one plans to allow the trunk to increase in diameter.

 

[GreatLakesBrad]

Ancient buds waking up... I read elsewhere on Bnut that these buds with the wavy/stacked look are from multiple years of growth? Is that possible? Also read this article about how old and slow larches in bogs grow...

How old is it?

How old are some of our collected trees?

bonsaivl.wordpress.com

Not out of the woods yet. I have the large larch, whose buds are really popping, now in 5-6 hours of direct sun and am very nervous about it getting baked. The thuja is also in direct sun. Both as of this afternoon. Will have to monitor closely.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I read elsewhere on Bnut that these buds with the wavy/stacked look are from multiple years of growth? Is that possible?

I think the ones on the ringed branches have only terminal growth, and have had so since the branch was formed. Every ring seems to equal 1 season of growth.
If you keep them in good health, those branches should elongate more in a single season than they have done for the past decade (at least!).

Fun thing to see up close, thanks for sharing!

 

[GreatLakesBrad]

I think the ones on the ringed branches have only terminal growth, and have had so since the branch was formed. Every ring seems to equal 1 season of growth.
If you keep them in good health, those branches should elongate more in a single season than they have done for the past decade (at least!).

Fun thing to see up close, thanks for sharing!

Pretty wild, thanks for the confirmation.

I am still nervous about putting this tree in particular out in full sun, as it will likely becomes the best in my collection if it survives.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

But it will continue getting better and better, so with that logic you'll never be able to put it in the sun!
I'd put it in full sun for a day and then put it back where it was for a couple of days, see how it responds. If the needles go floppy or turn white, it's sunburn. If nothing happens, put it back in the sun for two days.
Continue that path and in the end it can stay in full sun.

 

[M. Frary]

Just bag that moss up.
Don't bother trying to grow it.
You won't hurt the ecosystem either.
I pick all of mine fresh out back of my house.
Also, watch putting the tamarack into too large of a pot.
If it can stretch its roots it will start growing fast and lose the aged bark.
Because it will now be unrestrained it can continue trying to be big and act young.

 

[GreatLakesBrad]

Just bag that moss up.
Don't bother trying to grow it.
You won't hurt the ecosystem either.
I pick all of mine fresh out back of my house.
Also, watch putting the tamarack into too large of a pot.
If it can stretch its roots it will start growing fast and lose the aged bark.
Because it will now be unrestrained it can continue trying to be big and act young.

Thanks Mike - I boxed it up for recovery but will look to reduce it in a couple years quickly. The bark is very flaky/old looking on this one.

I think I’ve seen you say previously that you put your collected larch into full sun - trying that route as well.

 

[mattspinniken]

cool @B-rad in GR You will have some nice ones there. Larch I collect out of bogs come out with some really really black soil. Call it the black death, hopefully you got most of that out. Larch are tough but if they have too much of the black stuff things don't go well.

 

[GreatLakesBrad]

cool @B-rad in GR You will have some nice ones there. Larch I collect out of bogs come out with some really really black soil. Call it the black death, hopefully you got most of that out. Larch are tough but if they have too much of the black stuff things don't go well.

Got most of it out for the larch and left more for the thuja as I was having a tough time removing without tearing fine roots.
Thanks for the input - and your advice recently as well! (I’m the tindallism guy bugging you on Instagram )

 

[GreatLakesBrad]

Another few close up shots of these “ringed” buds. So neat.

 

[GreatLakesBrad]

This larch did not survive, sadly. 29 years old this one, based on rings.

There are learnings, especially after reading (getting my hands on it was tough!) Nick Lentz’ book:

- bog larch are best collected in early fall
- sphagnum layer is where the fine roots are, do NOT disturb this
- the Black Death bog soil should be squeezed out and reduced as much as possible
- larch throw adventitious roots as the bog grows in altitude over years- so most have roots growing down, but those roots are kaput/no longer active/useful, so be sure to cut around the water level, taking just a few inches max of black soil
- peat soil in a pot becomes acidic, and larch optimal ph is around 6-6.5. No more than 1/3 peat.
- larger particle size is beneficial, get those particles wedged into the empty spaces in the sphagnum.

Went back up north and took off work, to the same property. I will note my thuja occidentalis from earlier in this thread DID survive and is doing well extending growth. Was sad to lose the larch though - they are just lovely in their natural habitat - I grabbed a couple more. Early fall, here we go!

 

[GreatLakesBrad]

After some staring at one of the larch collected this fall sitting in my egress window well for protection... (the one in the previous post), I have some design ideas. Curious what your minds might see that I don’t. Cheers.