Repotting Large Established Conifers in Fall

[Victrinia Ensor]

When I was on Vancouver Island I was VERY tempted to want to live there... the trees are beyond amazing. I don't suppose you all would consider becoming a part of the US?

 

[sulrich]

Hi,

My thought is that it allows water in the lowest part of the pot to meet less resistance when flowing out of the pot by contacting less surface area.

That sounds intuitive - and yet science says it's exactly the other way round ;-)

From http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/~Linda ...ural Myths_files/Myths/Container drainage.pdf:

Nearly 100 years ago, soil scientists demonstrated that water does not move easily from layers of finer textured materials to layers of more coarse textured. Since then, similar studies have produced the same results. Additionally, one study found that more moisture was retained in the soil underlain by gravel than that underlain by sand. Therefore, the coarser the underlying material, the more difficult it is for water to move across the interface.

Cheers,
Stefan

 

[Tachigi]

I was talking to Jim Gremel at the GSBF convention, he said that he planted a few hundred sitka spruce seedlings for bonsai stock, but after a few years of struggling with them, he threw the whole batch away. They are too much trouble, he said. I have a few young ones in my backyard myself, here in L.A. it is the only spruce that can grow this far south (and nobody here knows that they can grow in this area).
Do you guys collect them for bonsai up there, on the Island? I don't remember seeing anything on the Internet. May be they have some undesirable characteristic that makes them less popular in bonsai circles?

Attila, Sad to hear about Jim G's experience, must be the location or some other fly in the ointment. I as well have quite a few in the field and just this spring harvested some for shohin. I love these lil buggers, wonderful to work with...so far.

Don't give up...though LA sounds threatening for a spruce I think you may not have heard to much about them on the net because they are simply under utilized, much like American Elm. The one thing of note I have gleaned from playing with these is that you can not force a style on them quickly. Reduction of the trunk should be taken slowly over a period of time.

Below is my testament to the sitka spruce:

 

[Attila Soos]

I’ve picked up a small wild seedling growing in a small hollow on a washed up log from Nootka Island .

That's amazing coincidence, I collected mine exactly the same way. I have one collected sitka spruce in my collection, and I've found it as a little 7 inch tree growing on a hollow log as well. It was practically a bonsai, growing in a natural bonsai pot (the little hollow log). Very stunted, since it was on the brink of death for many years, the pocket in the log was very small. All I had to do is lift it up with my two fingers, and it came out with a tiny rootball, the whole rootball intact. I just slip-potted into a little nursery pot. In spite being little, the bark looks very old, it could be over 50 years-old.

So, this is an easy way to look for yamadori: trees growing on logs, or even on branches on larger, live trees. I've seen many little SS growing on the low limbs of the mother tree. You can practically pick them like cherries. No digging required.

 

[Smoke]

That's amazing coincidence, I collected mine exactly the same way. I have one collected sitka spruce in my collection, and I've found it as a little 7 inch tree growing on a hollow log as well. It was practically a bonsai, growing in a natural bonsai pot (the little hollow log). Very stunted, since it was on the brink of death for many years, the pocket in the log was very small. All I had to do is lift it up with my two fingers, and it came out with a tiny rootball, the whole rootball intact. I just slip-potted into a little nursery pot. In spite being little, the bark looks very old, it could be over 50 years-old.

So, this is an easy way to look for yamadori: trees growing on logs, or even on branches on larger, live trees. I've seen many little SS growing on the low limbs of the mother tree. You can practically pick them like cherries. No digging required.

Is this where the term "cherry picking good bonsai" came from?

 

[Attila Soos]

Attila, Sad to hear about Jim G's experience, must be the location or some other fly in the ointment. I as well have quite a few in the field and just this spring harvested some for shohin. I love these lil buggers, wonderful to work with...so far.

Don't give up...though LA sounds threatening for a spruce I think you may not have heard to much about them on the net because they are simply under utilized, much like American Elm. The one thing of note I have gleaned from playing with these is that you can not force a style on them quickly. Reduction of the trunk should be taken slowly over a period of time.

Below is my testament to the sitka spruce:

Hey, thanks for the pictures and encouraging words. That's exacty what I needed, since those little buggers develop very slowly in the ground, and one needs to be very creative to make something out of them. That's because a very young spruce has no character, and they grow straight like chopsticks - practically hopeless material at first sight. But your trees shows great promise, so I keep trying.

 

[Attila Soos]

Is this where the term "cherry picking good bonsai" came from?

I think this is the term that came to my mind as well, that's why I used the example with the cherries.

 

[Smoke]

Below is my testament to the sitka spruce:


Neuport 28, 1/4 scale remote control, 96" wingspan. Built in 1985. Sold to guy in Alaska, shipped it to him in a special packing crate I built. The shipping and crate cost more than I got for the plane. This guy must have wanted it bad.

All sitka spruce and birch plywood.

 

[Attila Soos]

Below is my testament to the sitka spruce:


Neuport 28, 1/4 scale remote control, 96" wingspan. Built in 1985. Sold to guy in Alaska, shipped it to him in a special packing crate I built. The shipping and crate cost more than I got for the plane. This guy must have wanted it bad.

All sitka spruce and birch plywood.

Amazing.
I didn't know that you can build model planes (that can really fly). Hats off to you!