Native Juniper - Location Pennsylvania

[B.uneasy]

I will post a picture later, but there is a double trunk juniper out in my field. How do I go about digging out a juniper, and transplanting it? Also, is this a good time of year?

 

[B.uneasy]

Eastern red Cedar

 

[B.uneasy]

Took these two pictures yesterday, may just be two trees, but there may be a possibility that its a double trunk?

 

[B.uneasy]

May be a decent project, is it worth the 40 minutes Id spend collecting it?

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Double trunk, maybe. Both trunks are dead arrow straight. Your bonsai is in the first 12 inches of the tree. All I see is bolt upright, dead arrow straight trunks. No bends, no twists, nothing really interesting. If you were to harvest these, you would have to spend 20 years carving, bending and twisting movement and interest into these trees.

Second problem, it is an eastern red cedar, Juniperus virginiana. This is a fairly poor species for bonsai use in general. Foliage will always be loose and floppy. The tree will be very prone to developing cedar-apple rust. Once it gets the rust, the tree will be a chronic problem, usually one branch or another will become disfigured and need to be removed. It will spread the infection to any bonsai you have that are in the apple family. In general, ERC are "shunned" for bonsai because they take a lot of work and make mediocre at best bonsai. There are a small handful of exceptions, but the small number proves the point.

If you have not put a shovel in the ground yet, I say walk away. Find something else. Maybe an elm?, or maybe a Scots pine?, Or even a blue rug juniper from your neighbors landscape, (Juniperus horizontalis) all would be better choices for bonsai. Oh, also walk away from Eastern white Pine - Pinus strobus, another common native pine that usually proves to be a disappointment. I have 3 in my back yard right now disappointing me as bonsai.

Not all trees make good bonsai. Why handicap your experience by starting with an inferior species.

Now if you have already dug it up, I & others will help you make it the best bonsai you can make it. And if you stay with the hobby, 5 years from now you will probably put it on the compost pile. But we will help you work with it. There are the rare exceptions where it has made a good bonsai. Oh and if others point out that Juniperus virginiana 'Grey Owl' is good for bonsai, the reason is it is not Juniperus virginiana, it is a unknown hybrid an at most is only 50% J. virginiana.

 

[B.uneasy]

Double trunk, maybe. Both trunks are dead arrow straight. Your bonsai is in the first 12 inches of the tree. All I see is bolt upright, dead arrow straight trunks. No bends, no twists, nothing really interesting. If you were to harvest these, you would have to spend 20 years carving, bending and twisting movement and interest into these trees.

Second problem, it is an eastern red cedar, Juniperus virginiana. This is a fairly poor species for bonsai use in general. Foliage will always be loose and floppy. The tree will be very prone to developing cedar-apple rust. Once it gets the rust, the tree will be a chronic problem, usually one branch or another will become disfigured and need to be removed. It will spread the infection to any bonsai you have that are in the apple family. In general, ERC are "shunned" for bonsai because they take a lot of work and make mediocre at best bonsai. There are a small handful of exceptions, but the small number proves the point.

If you have not put a shovel in the ground yet, I say walk away. Find something else. Maybe an elm?, or maybe a Scots pine?, Or even a blue rug juniper from your neighbors landscape, (Juniperus horizontalis) all would be better choices for bonsai. Oh, also walk away from Eastern white Pine - Pinus strobus, another common native pine that usually proves to be a disappointment. I have 3 in my back yard right now disappointing me as bonsai.

Not all trees make good bonsai. Why handicap your experience by starting with an inferior species.

Now if you have already dug it up, I & others will help you make it the best bonsai you can make it. And if you stay with the hobby, 5 years from now you will probably put it on the compost pile. But we will help you work with it. There are the rare exceptions where it has made a good bonsai. Oh and if others point out that Juniperus virginiana 'Grey Owl' is good for bonsai, the reason is it is not Juniperus virginiana, it is a unknown hybrid an at most is only 50% J. virginiana.

I realized that the trunks were horrible at the get go, but the only thing that made me think twice on this tree was the thought of a huge Jin! I've got a huge Erc in the woods with a huge upper trunk made of deadwood. My property is not to diverse other than the ornamental trees and maples around the house. Just weeds, vines, ERC's, and looks like there is some honey suckle growing inbetween all of it! Your right, I shouldn't restrict myself. Plus I am growing apple seedlings right now, and plan to get some Crabapples. Cedar Apple Rust is not something I want to deal with.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

If you have apples and ERC within 1.5 miles of each other, depending on which direction the wind blows, the two will trade cedar-apple rust spores back and forth. For the apples, the main symptom is leaf spotting. That can be cleaned up by defoliation and or possibly a fungicide. The ERC will get distorted branches, ugly spore bearing jelly like blobs erupting out of the bark of twigs and other such horrors.

If you have a vision for your ERC, by all means, knock yourself out. But the track record is not great. Say for a hypothetical, one out 50 Japanese maples that various beginner and intermediate bonsai growers start as pre-bonsai, maybe one out of 50 becomes a true exhibition quality tree. 25 of the 50 will become okay for the local club show. The rest will probably eventually make their way to the compost pile. With ERC the success rate is more like 1 out of 5000 will become exhibition quality, Maybe 25 or 50 will become "good enough for a local club show", and the remaining 4949 will be best served by being put on the compost heap.

There is a seasoned bonsai artist in Milwaukee, a good 20 years younger than me, who can turn out a decent pine, and a great Shimpaku. He has decided he is going to figure out what the "problem" is with ERC, and make a decent looking tree from one. He already has some serious experience under his belt. So while I am pessimistic, I did encourage him by placing a $20 bet that he could not do it by a date that is 10 years from when we set the bet. Maybe in 8 years he will pull a rabbit out of a hat. Or in 8 years, I'll be $20 richer.

Definitely look to the elms on your property, all species of elm make decent bonsai. Honeysuckle is so, so. If you have Acer rubrum, it is a better choice than ERC. As to vines, Parthenocissus (Virginia creeper) makes a beautiful display in autumn, it is slow to trunk up, but it is used more as an accent than as a main tree. Poison ivy is beautiful in autumn, if you are one of the lucky few immune to its resin. Privet is good. If you look, odds are fair you have Elaeagnus - autumn olive, it is an invasive that often shows up in fields, makes excellent bonsai. So yes, scout your property. Identify every tree and shrub, you might have some good ones.

 

[B.uneasy]

If you have apples and ERC within 1.5 miles of each other, depending on which direction the wind blows, the two will trade cedar-apple rust spores back and forth. For the apples, the main symptom is leaf spotting. That can be cleaned up by defoliation and or possibly a fungicide. The ERC will get distorted branches, ugly spore bearing jelly like blobs erupting out of the bark of twigs and other such horrors.

If you have a vision for your ERC, by all means, knock yourself out. But the track record is not great. Say for a hypothetical, one out 50 Japanese maples that various beginner and intermediate bonsai growers start as pre-bonsai, maybe one out of 50 becomes a true exhibition quality tree. 25 of the 50 will become okay for the local club show. The rest will probably eventually make their way to the compost pile. With ERC the success rate is more like 1 out of 5000 will become exhibition quality, Maybe 25 or 50 will become "good enough for a local club show", and the remaining 4949 will be best served by being put on the compost heap.

There is a seasoned bonsai artist in Milwaukee, a good 20 years younger than me, who can turn out a decent pine, and a great Shimpaku. He has decided he is going to figure out what the "problem" is with ERC, and make a decent looking tree from one. He already has some serious experience under his belt. So while I am pessimistic, I did encourage him by placing a $20 bet that he could not do it by a date that is 10 years from when we set the bet. Maybe in 8 years he will pull a rabbit out of a hat. Or in 8 years, I'll be $20 richer.

Definitely look to the elms on your property, all species of elm make decent bonsai. Honeysuckle is so, so. If you have Acer rubrum, it is a better choice than ERC. As to vines, Parthenocissus (Virginia creeper) makes a beautiful display in autumn, it is slow to trunk up, but it is used more as an accent than as a main tree. Poison ivy is beautiful in autumn, if you are one of the lucky few immune to its resin. Privet is good. If you look, odds are fair you have Elaeagnus - autumn olive, it is an invasive that often shows up in fields, makes excellent bonsai. So yes, scout your property. Identify every tree and shrub, you might have some good ones.

All can go straight into Diatomaceous earth? Also, you say honey suckle is so, so. You don't like them? Maybe its good material for me starting out.

 

[Bonds Guy]

If you have apples and ERC within 1.5 miles of each other, depending on which direction the wind blows, the two will trade cedar-apple rust spores back and forth.

This just made me sad. I have a few crabapples in the ground and one ERC not too far away. I'd hate to kill it, but I don't wanna risk infecting my crabapples. But I'm glad I know this before the infection started.

 

[B.uneasy]

This just made me sad. I have a few crabapples in the ground and one ERC not too far away. I'd hate to kill it, but I don't wanna risk infecting my crabapples. But I'm glad I know this before the infection started.

I'm on the same boat as you! The fields are infested with them, and I would love to work on one just as a meaningless little project to see what I could make of it. But Im not going to risk it just because I want to do something. Don't need that going around!

 

[sorce]

This just made me sad. I have a few crabapples in the ground and one ERC not too far away. I'd hate to kill it, but I don't wanna risk infecting my crabapples. But I'm glad I know this before the infection started.

A lot of people think themselves into cedar Apple rust.

If you believe it doesn't exist, it kinda doesn't.

Sorce

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

To some degree @sorce is right. If you decide you can live with it, you can ignore the problem. Some years it will be bad, some years non-existent. There are individual clones of ERC that are relatively immune to cedar-apple rust. Some clones are very susceptible. With the crab apples it is "merely" a leaf spotting disease. The crabs will look good through the blooming season, the issue will be bad mainly in middle and late summer. One could "get used to it". Or one could explore chemical treatment. I am not familiar with which fungicides will work. You will have to do the "google" thing. Consult your local farm Extension Office. All Land Grant Universities support Extension Agent Offices. Their purpose is to support Ag sector, ask to talk to the "apple guy" and find out what the local approved treatments are for apples. You can keep your apples clean.

So the original question was whether I'd dig an ERC. You got my answer, but I admit, I much prefer working with Shimpaku over ERC, because Shimpaku, and its cultivars 'Itoigawa' and 'Kishu' are pretty much immune to cedar-apple rust and are much, much easier to work with than ERC.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Every State in the USA has at least one Land Grant University. So every state has is USDA Extension Service offices. Usually every county in most states has an Extension Service office. You can get local help. In Cook County Illinois (which contains Chicago) the Extension office is geared with a focus on Urban Gardening. Where the farm is at, in Michigan, the orientation is primarily fruit farming.