SandSquid
Yamadori
I've seen others make a sort of docu-blog on a specific project they're working on, so figured I'd try it out.
So, I have this copper beech. I got the tree from a small Bonsai supply and nursery in Seattle a little over a month ago. I went there looking for a deciduous tree to work on and saw this one. When I asked about the tree, I was told that it's sort of a rescue. The tree had been neglected for the most part of twenty years, and not much came of it when it was given to the owner of the nursery. After receiving it, she put it into an Anderson flat with 100% inorganic soil and nursed it back to life. The tree came back to life, but is pretty bare even through its first major growing season since being rescued. I couldn't take my eyes off it. Not sure why, but even while looking at all the other trees available I kept coming back to it. To me that means something, so I took it home.
Here it is as from the nursery (mesh added to protect from squirrels) the day I brought it home:
The idea was to remove it from the Anderson flat and put it into a large grow bag, then bury the grow bag in a half-barrel, to sort of trick the tree into thinking it's in the ground. I don't really have a good place to put this tree in the actual ground and keep it safe, so that's why I chose to go this direction. I carefully removed the tree from the Anderson flat, and was a bit surprised by what came out. What you see left in the flat is just some very fine, tiny roots and the thick wire that was holding the tree in place. 99% of the "root ball" came out in one piece:
At this point I didn't want to cut any of the roots, even the huge ones that make the root ball such an odd shape. I wanted to wait until there were more healthy fine roots - maybe a year or two down the road. So, I placed the tree into a five-gallon grow bag with Happy Frog organic soil, which is on the finer side of things, and added some pumice to help control water retention. I also added an inoculant to the soil just below where the root would sit. Then, I placed the bag in the barrel and surrounded it with organic soil. For good measure I tossed a little of the inoculant on top. Why not?
I let it rest, and then a couple weeks later hit it with a good dose of liquid fertilizer. I'll get a couple pics this afternoon of how it's been doing, but so far so good. The idea is to prune back this winter but continue to let it grow for a couple years before doing anything else with it. I'm hoping that the tree continues to flourish and ramify now that it's stabilized. Fingers crossed.
So, I have this copper beech. I got the tree from a small Bonsai supply and nursery in Seattle a little over a month ago. I went there looking for a deciduous tree to work on and saw this one. When I asked about the tree, I was told that it's sort of a rescue. The tree had been neglected for the most part of twenty years, and not much came of it when it was given to the owner of the nursery. After receiving it, she put it into an Anderson flat with 100% inorganic soil and nursed it back to life. The tree came back to life, but is pretty bare even through its first major growing season since being rescued. I couldn't take my eyes off it. Not sure why, but even while looking at all the other trees available I kept coming back to it. To me that means something, so I took it home.
Here it is as from the nursery (mesh added to protect from squirrels) the day I brought it home:
The idea was to remove it from the Anderson flat and put it into a large grow bag, then bury the grow bag in a half-barrel, to sort of trick the tree into thinking it's in the ground. I don't really have a good place to put this tree in the actual ground and keep it safe, so that's why I chose to go this direction. I carefully removed the tree from the Anderson flat, and was a bit surprised by what came out. What you see left in the flat is just some very fine, tiny roots and the thick wire that was holding the tree in place. 99% of the "root ball" came out in one piece:
At this point I didn't want to cut any of the roots, even the huge ones that make the root ball such an odd shape. I wanted to wait until there were more healthy fine roots - maybe a year or two down the road. So, I placed the tree into a five-gallon grow bag with Happy Frog organic soil, which is on the finer side of things, and added some pumice to help control water retention. I also added an inoculant to the soil just below where the root would sit. Then, I placed the bag in the barrel and surrounded it with organic soil. For good measure I tossed a little of the inoculant on top. Why not?
I let it rest, and then a couple weeks later hit it with a good dose of liquid fertilizer. I'll get a couple pics this afternoon of how it's been doing, but so far so good. The idea is to prune back this winter but continue to let it grow for a couple years before doing anything else with it. I'm hoping that the tree continues to flourish and ramify now that it's stabilized. Fingers crossed.
