My poor trees.

[vonklutch]

Hi everyone, new here, new in general I like what you've done with the place.

I am the owner of two very sad little trees who have suffered a mix of abuse, and I'm trying to help them pull through.

Long story short, my wife and I recently purchased a house in the country and in our first year we were given Spruce saplings (I have to assume they're Alberta spruce since . . I'm in alberta) at an agriculture show. We took far too long to plant these into pots, and when we did we potted them in pots with no holes. (I now know all about how bad this is)

Begining of the winter, I made sure they were watered well before everything froze, and I was under the impression that during the winter, they should be just fine.

Fast forward to the end of winter, I'm getting lots of dead needles on my trees. I put my finger into the soil and it was bone dry down to the bottom, so I panicked, brought them inside watered them and kept them inside at the window.
I've since transplanted them into a new pot, bigger(roots seemed bound up in the last one), massaged the roots to fluff em up, and put some rocks in the bottom of the pot to help drainage, and watered them good.

This is where I am now.
I'm wondering at this point, will my trees survive? one of them has a nice bend in its growth that i'd like to accentuate and play with over the years and see what I can make it do. Its obviously not an ideal species for this, but I thought these are the trees my wife and I got with the house, it would be nice for them to live nice long lives.

I've enclosed some pictures of the plants, the grass behind it is where i park my truck in the winter so its pretty ugly. Dont judge me lol im new.

 

[bonsaichile]

They seem to be dead

 

[vonklutch]

They seem to be dead

I can still bend them without them snapping, so I was holding out hope.

 

[bonsaichile]

Spruces are incredibly flexible. The green needles you have look a bit grayish to be alive. Do 2 things: If the needles are crispy and fall, they are dead. Scratch the bark a bit and see if you find a vibrant green layer underneath. Then maybe you have a chance. But I see no buds opening in your trees, that is a bad indicator. Of al the trees you posted, I think only the first one has a chance of still being alive, but on its last legs.

 

[JudyB]

I think that you'll just have to wait and hope. Nothing you can do more for them, but water properly. If you try anything else at this point, I think it would be the end for sure. They may be dead already, some things die from the bottom up basically so it may still have some bend, but no good roots to keep it alive. If these do make it, I think that you might want to put them in your landscape at your new house. They are notorious for not holding their shape even after repeated wiring, (I can tell you that from experience) although at one time or another, I think the majority of bonsai folks have tried them early on, lol. Good luck and welcome.

 

[Eckhoffw]

Don’t feel too bad. I think I killed around 6-8 of these lil bastards this winter/spring.
I purchased around 20 little Christmas trees this winter and may have a dozen holding on.
Up side is that they are cheap and abundant.
If you want to try to revive, you can throw them in the ground and know you’ve done all you can to save them.

I’ve seen much improvement after planting some of mine.

 

[sorce]

Welcome to Crazy!

They all seem underwatered.

All 'em.

Sorce

 

[Lazylightningny]

Don't feel too bad. I've killed a forest of trees. Just keep at it until you get it right. You'll kill lots more before you get good.

 

[HENDO]

Welcome to the nut house fellow Albertan! I am in TX for a year now but from AB.

I would just go ahead and stick these in the ground for sure, with very minimal root disturbance, and see if they survive. It looks like you have the real-estate to do so.

It would be fun to source some new material in the meantime, perhaps some yamadori juniper or larger AB Spruce material. I've done some research on bonsai material suitable for the AB climate and quite frankly I can't find too much outside of these.

Looking back at numerous camping/hiking trips across the province, there just seems to be so much potential for wild material, as long as it is harvested legally of course. If I were back in AB right now I would be doing some hardcore tree hunting.

 

[vonklutch]

Welcome to the nut house fellow Albertan! I am in TX for a year now but from AB.

I would just go ahead and stick these in the ground for sure, with very minimal root disturbance, and see if they survive. It looks like you have the real-estate to do so.

It would be fun to source some new material in the meantime, perhaps some yamadori juniper or larger AB Spruce material. I've done some research on bonsai material suitable for the AB climate and quite frankly I can't find too much outside of these.

Looking back at numerous camping/hiking trips across the province, there just seems to be so much potential for wild material, as long as it is harvested legally of course. If I were back in AB right now I would be doing some hardcore tree hunting.

I've never harvested trees from the wild, but I've thought about it, driving along the country you see some interesting growth in the treelines. I often wonder what I'd find.

As for my trees, my intent was to try and keep them not much bigger than they are, but get them to fill out. We never really had the intent on planting them into the ground. We may just end up doing that anyways but we were hoping to keep them as potted trees. I do fear the worst for them though.