I’m afraid that’s not the caseI'm afraid the top is dead. But no worries, you can grow a new leader, and even keep a tiny jin if you like...
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So much the better thenI’m afraid that’s not the case
Photo 4 in post 1 shows the larch put on a ton of growth in 2015 with the colander. The recommendation from Ryan Neil is to prefer pumice over than akadama for development because the akadama leads to really fine roots (which is good for refinement) but can be a little limiting to development growth. That said, larches love moisture and the akadama might be just right for your climate — few things have hard rules!wow amazing!! I got a japanese larch from Bill Valavanis, seeing this progression gives me a lot of hope and excitement for its potential. I repotted it this year into a colander in pure akadama, how did you find the colander worked for your larch?
thanks for the info, I chose akadama + colander because I wanted to develop as much feeder roots as I could within a year. The pot the larch came in was rather small and I was ultimately unsure about the overall quality of the rootball. I figure that if I can increase the ability to take in more nutrients for the tree it would allow me to transition to a grow box with some hopefully better results in the future. I'm experimenting with 60/40 coarse perlite and akadama mix on my trident seedlings tooPhoto 4 in post 1 shows the larch put on a ton of growth in 2015 with the colander. The recommendation from Ryan Neil is to prefer pumice over than akadama for development because the akadama leads to really fine roots (which is good for refinement) but can be a little limiting to development growth. That said, larches love moisture and the akadama might be just right for your climate — few things have hard rules!
If you do I hope you are up in the highlands and not down in the sweltering flats. I am at about 2200’ elevation here in the mountains so larch seem to be able to take it. I still would suggest you get Japanese larch as they seem a little more hardy than their American cousins. However they are very aggressive growers and will shoot up 3’ in 2 years and can be bean pole straight if you don’t wire or chop them early on.well, i guess my little zone 8 winters should be enough to keep a larch alive. a little trepiditious, though.
Now that’s just a really awasome bit of research!@AlainK this old paper from 1973 is a decent guide: https://www.scionresearch.com/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/30973/NZJFS421974WUNDER161_166.pdf