Made me sick

[drew33998]

Well where I work there are some incredible parsons junipers. I have looked at them many times and thought, man I would like to collect those. Baseball bat trunks, nice curves, very mature trees. So I show up to work this morning and a landscaping company has ripped out half of them with a small bucket crawler. Nooooo. What did I do in my business clothes but go out and dig through the pile to see if anything had enough roots to save. I have about 5 that are in my truck now that are "iffy". The crew is going to try and save the rest of them for me. There were some really awesome trees that just got destroyed. I was sick in thinking what awesome bonsai they would have been. My question is I do not have near enough bonsai soil or containers to try and plant them. So should I just ground plant them at my house and try again in a few years after they stabilize to dig them? I am doubtful that any will make it as they are essentially bare rooted. Should I also remove most of the foliage to match what roots are there? Thanks

 

[cascade]

Putting them in the ground is the only thing you can do if you don't have enough soil. I have used new cut up trash cans, poked holes into it and planted junis in it. I even cut, pulled and wired the upper parts of the cans down to the base to stabilize the container for better handling. I mixed lots of perlite together with regular bonsai soil and it worked just fine.
I got the trees from North Carolina, drove with the burlapped trees to S Florida ( spring time) and had to wash off the by then totally hardened of clay. I lost one tree out of 5. I had the trees for 4 years and they then became demo trees for Ryan Neil. I still have 1.

Good luck!





Best,
Dorothy

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

I'd recommend trying to wrap what you can salvage in burlap or plastic. Check out Will's "Papoose Wrap":

http://bonsainut.com/forums/showthread.php?4813-From-Nevada-Molon-Labe&highlight=papoose+wrap

We did something like this with our RMJ this spring and 13/14 are doing great. Any marginal junipers I've collected and put in the ground have died.

 

[drew33998]

I'd recommend trying to wrap what you can salvage in burlap or plastic. Check out Will's "Papoose Wrap":

http://bonsainut.com/forums/showthread.php?4813-From-Nevada-Molon-Labe&highlight=papoose+wrap

We did something like this with our RMJ this spring and 13/14 are doing great. Any marginal junipers I've collected and put in the ground have died.

Yea right now they are in the back of my truck sitting bare rooted in the 75 degree weather. I am going to go home during lunch and put them in the ground and hope for the best. Crappy thing is that most of the better ones were damaged to the point of not return. Oh well I guess that is part of the hobby and you cant always get them all. Just hoping some will make it. I will post pics when I start planting later.

 

[Poink88]

Should I also remove most of the foliage to match what roots are there? Thanks

Based on all that I've read...NO. Keep as much foliage since juni are supposed to store energy on their leaves.

Good luck and hope you saved some of them. I know how you felt...I've been in similar situations before (different tree variety though).

 

[drew33998]

Based on all that I've read...NO. Keep as much foliage since juni are supposed to store energy on their leaves.

Good luck and hope you saved some of them. I know how you felt...I've been in similar situations before (different tree variety though).

Yes that was what I was thinking about with the juni's. I will plant in a nice shady spot. My native soil is not very good, sandy with high acidity. High pine shade though. I do have enough soil to plant at least one. Prob will try to container plant the most promising one in that. Wish me luck!

 

[Si Nguyen]

I have collected many junipers in this scenario and at this time before. It's very doable. Even the stumps with very few roots can be saved. Here's what I would do:

1. Get cement mixing tubs at HomeDepot, drill many big holes in them, use them for your stumps. Tie your stumps down.
2. Use cactus mix from HomeDepot for potting soil. This is the cheapest and quickest bonsai mix you can get. Add pumice if you can get it, the more the better. 100% large pumice or lava would be best, because it is CLEAN and airy. Don't mix in any dirt from your yard. It is dirty!
3. Don't use too much soil, the lesser the better. Just enough soil to cover any roots. Too much soil will hold too much water.
4. Water the soil sparingly but mist the foliage often.
5. Put in shade.
6. Do not feed with any chemical fertilizers until 2 years. May use organic fertilizer like cottonseed meal in one year IF tree recovered well.
7. Remove any obvious ugly/straight branches now, and remove some foliage if tree was too full, but you should keep some foliage to mist.
8. Don't rush potting up the stumps. They can be out and drying for 2-3 days if they were strong and healthy and well- hydrated right before being pulled out .
9. I generally don't recommend putting the stumps into the ground unless you have a raised planter box and a lot of big stumps to deal with. A raised planter box is actually the quickest and cheapest way to go if you have a lot of stumps. You don't have to dig too much. Just some 2x8's or rail road ties above ground and 10-15 bags of cactus mix. Stake the stumps so they don't move around. A planter box is easier for covering by a poly tunnel if you need to.

Good luck!

 

[berobinson82]

I envy your ability to go collect these in suit and tie! I sat here in the office watching 20 year old junipers get ripped out across in much the same fashion. Unfortunately I had such a busy day all I could do was hold back the nausea. I feel your pain. Looking forward to the pictures and updates. Good luck!

 

[Wee]

I collected 3 junipers about 3 months ago....Not sure what kind but they were about 4 to 5 feet in dia and the limbs were right on the ground and had taken root....To make a long story short they were a major pain to get dug and I could only get one into a training box the other two went into the ground.

The one in the box is doing well, the two in the ground I don't think are gonna make it. It was impossible to get dirt around all the roots of the ones I planted in the ground. I tossed some sand on top of them and watered it in to try to fill in the gaps but I don't think that worked very well. Just my 2 cents.

Brian

 

[wireme]

If planting in the ground I would recommend amending the soil with lots of forest floor duff. The partially decayed woody debris just under the fresh litter layer and above the mineral soil. Also any used bonsai soil ingredients or perlite. Mixing in enough of this stuff until a light airy texture is achieved has worked very well for me with marginal trees collected in summer or fall. I have some raised bed with this type of mix, any trees that somehow find themselves at
My place with no time or soil ingredients for a proper potting have been heeled into the beds, good results, I would be as confident with survival rates in my beds as I would be in a box of pumice. Different watering and aftercare but reliable for me.

 

[drew33998]

I envy your ability to go collect these in suit and tie! I sat here in the office watching 20 year old junipers get ripped out across in much the same fashion. Unfortunately I had such a busy day all I could do was hold back the nausea. I feel your pain. Looking forward to the pictures and updates. Good luck!

Luckily the boss is not in for the day or it would have definitely been a no go! I did get a puzzled look from our secretary though. I just said "Hey you cant beat landscape material for free right?"

 

[drew33998]

Pictures

Well here are some pics of the trees that I collected. I am thinking that there is a very small chance of survival maybe 5-10%. I will let others look at the pics and see what they think. Between the wind driven drive home at lunch, broken branches from the excavator, and small amount of roots. But hey sometimes you have to throw the hail mary!

 

[drew33998]

More Photos

Here are some more. Some photos may be the same tree twice. 8 in all I believe

 

[drew33998]

The last one is a heart breaker. It was busted up pretty bad. I felt like I couldn't just leave it even though it will most certainly not make it. The right swept trunk, on the first photo of this page was busted in about 4 pieces so it will not make it. It does have another trunk coming from the back that had foliage. And yes all the berries will be removed on all these trees.

 

[drew33998]

P.S Yes I know the photos are bad, but I was in a hurry to put them in the ground, and get back to work. Will snap a few later tonight.

 

[drew33998]

Here are some photos of the trees in the ground. I did pick off all the berries(photos are before I did this). Painstaking. In other words of wisdom appreciated. I did use cut paste on all the areas that were badly damaged to try to help keep the sap from escaping through the wounds. Shade cloth? Prob still have a month or so of low 80s daytime and high 60's night. Maybe I will get lucky and 1 or 2 will make it. The third pic is by far the best tree of the bunch, 5 inch wide base. But it will most certainly not make it unless by some divine intervention. The main trunk was badly damaged and didn't have many roots. But it was good enough that I felt I had to at least try.

 

[drew33998]

 

[drew33998]

 

[Poink88]

Lots of nice juni you got. Hope most of them make it.

 

[drew33998]

This one had a ton of roots and the foliage was relatively untouched, except for the large trunk that was broke off at the base. Anyone think I should put cut paste on it? I cant believe I fit that whole root ball in the pot. It was a tight fit radially but there was plenty of room for the roots to grow downwards. I felt like this one had the best chance of survival so I put it into the pot with some decent bonsai soil. Only crappy thing is that stylistically it probably has the least potential. Thanks for looking!