Ernie the (collected) Larch

GreatLakesBrad

Chumono
Messages
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Location
West Michigan
USDA Zone
6a
Hopefully not jinxing this yamadori/collected larch by dedicating a thread.
Collected ‘up north’ from a bog (northern lower peninsula) in fall of 2020, in line with the late, great Nick Lenz’ guidance via Bonsai from the Wild.

Naming him “Ernie.”

Left in a window well for winter 2020 (10 degrees warmer for root recovery) and left mostly untouched to grow in 2021.

Put on a lot of growth last year so I felt comfortable doing an initial styling. Happy with the progress and sharing a drawing of what I have in mind.

Left myself two remaining apex options (still reduced them, but left in case I change my mind) - behind the wired apex off to the right, and upper left. I will likely favor two lower buds for the transition of the wired apex and reduce it back to those shoots, for a more compressed change of direction like the drawing shows. Still probably will play with the planting angle as well.

Need to graft a branch into the lower left hand side at minimum to balance out the image. The roots support this design from what I can tell, but I’m sure I’ll need future root grafts.

All of that said, I treasure the ancient look and feel of this tree. I spent many hours debating these cuts and am not devastated by the result which is a win for me, still learning, working on very intimidating material. B135F1C3-AA19-4C29-8B25-1F3378DD1EC9.jpeg


Thoughts (and prayers haha) welcome. D050A68A-69B1-4D38-AC1C-EA7F5CC12169.jpeg04D18521-E585-43FC-84BD-FDBC2AD36265.jpegA8684E28-6FEB-41BA-9AB2-D60F2CDCE323.jpeg01E6379A-C1A7-4901-B4E0-DCEA690B80CB.jpeg3D9AE938-49DE-45DB-8C4B-8B9D356D98DB.jpegD37C63BD-AB9C-44F1-9961-3CAF19299C1B.jpeg80ED037C-7EA0-45B5-81F8-B04AFF07D6DA.jpeg
 
Major transition for this larch. Removed the lower old bog roots 6 inches down, got it out of the massive heavy grow box and removed most of the Black Death bog soil. Remaining roots were form fitting enough to only require trimming ~20% of roots around the edge of the root pad and get into this Seizan pot.

Very rare for me to place a tree into a nice container given the immaturity of my collection - immensely satisfying!

More pics to come once I can grab them off my DSLR, plus a repotting and styling video on the YouTube this spring. Lot of work left to do on this one - grafting and sacrifices and future deadwood work. 979BB808-8FB2-4594-AFA1-9AC6434442E0.jpeg
 
Major transition for this larch. Removed the lower old bog roots 6 inches down, got it out of the massive heavy grow box and removed most of the Black Death bog soil. Remaining roots were form fitting enough to only require trimming ~20% of roots around the edge of the root pad and get into this Seizan pot.

Very rare for me to place a tree into a nice container given the immaturity of my collection - immensely satisfying!

More pics to come once I can grab them off my DSLR, plus a repotting and styling video on the YouTube this spring. Lot of work left to do on this one - grafting and sacrifices and future deadwood work. View attachment 478806
What did the base of the tree look like ? Or are you burying it deeper to develop roots and then gradually uncovering it? And is that the front of the tree? I liked the tall feel of the new growth and could have kept it longer to develop more taper. Also you’ll have to decide if that’s the front because of that vertical Jin .. maybe turn the tree to the left so you can see that verticals Jin but not have it block your new apex
 
What did the base of the tree look like ? Or are you burying it deeper to develop roots and then gradually uncovering it? And is that the front of the tree? I liked the tall feel of the new growth and could have kept it longer to develop more taper. Also you’ll have to decide if that’s the front because of that vertical Jin .. maybe turn the tree to the left so you can see that verticals Jin but not have it block your new apex
The base has roots on either side of the trunk (left and right) that I spread out to develop. I also root grafted a seedling onto the front of the trunk where there are few if no roots. It’s a flat layer of roots so definitely keeping buried for a few more years before exposing - these big larch shoot out adventitious roots so they are somewhat immature.

I hear you regarding the front Jin, but it is natural so I will likely try to work with it. There’s a gnarly twist to the deadwood to the left as well that I will apply some lime sulfur to this year.

Yes I do think this is my best front, and I’ll likely be jinning the top left section and favoring a line upwards. Will explain in my video and post a sketch soon! Thanks for the feedback!
 
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