Note sure I'm on the same page on what you are asking (see last paragraph)
Re the guests did they come with the tree?.......With many of the yamadori trees I've collected the root ball comes with many native grasses, herbs and shrubs etc that I don't see as "guests" or "weeds" as in
@my nellie 's post.....they are often removed and discarded, however with many of them I leave them alone with the tree or use them as accents.
Alexander, you mentioned the volunteering Wild plants and then put them into the category of a weed? I think that these native plants might affect the trees growth but I'm not sure it would be very detrimental. Could PW's comment regarding removing weeds be focused on unwanted evasive "weeds" in the pot? Coming from the area you live?
@wireme - on the soil mix front- As you know our coastal forest floors (duff, humus matt) can the very thick.......even when it's not, I do use some of this humus (sifted) in the initial repotting process, as part of my organic proportion.
I believe that it can (often does) contain mycorrhiza which is beneficial?
G
Thanks G, I was interested in the mix you have mentioned that includes some seasoil. Maybe you just use that with hemlocks? The product is available here and you had mentioned the deep green of your (islanders) hemlocks compared to others.
I also use sifted duff or similar as a small organic proportion, that's where the volunteers come from, imported seed or maybe live roots, they are native. In the foreground is also a little clump of garden chives, I probably stuck that in on purpose for fun, or hoping for pest control, can't remember.
Here's a little more history, hopefully haven't already said it all in the thread but it's kind of interesting I think.
As I have mentioned among the first trees I ever collected, quite possibly the first. So that would be around 2002 or 2003 I think. So something like 10 yrs into it prior to the first pic, chopped, new leader regrown and branches forming from what were single buds near the trunk that had formed since collection.
I believe it was fall of 2010 when temps dropped below -20 suddenly and killed most of my collection, decimated nurseries stocks and many landscape plants in the area. I had started repotting a few trees in spring not yet knowing how bad it was and finding nothing but dead roots on everything.
This one I pulled from the pot and it was just like a block of styrofoam, all myc, not a root to be seen. I slipped it into a hole in the ground and it stayed there for a couple years. Suffered a little bit that first year then looked good by the end of the next. The next spring is the first photo in this thread. I lifted it and it looked exactly the same as when it was slipped into the ground, not a single root growing out of the white block into the soil. At that point I scratched into it looking, I knew there was still some original collection soil that I wanted to clean out. So I got right into the sandy core near the trunk in a couple spots and a fair ways in all around the perimeter. Not one single root to be found anywhere, still! Apparently just kept alive by the mycorrhizae.
Last spring I lifted it from the pot and had a look, finally a few healthy looking Doug fir roots running along the bottom there. The myc, yellowing, no longer healthy white so I refreshed the outer perimeter of substrate, (still didn't find roots there) I left the bottom alone. I'm really curious what I may find for roots in there next time I do dig around