Cattwooduk
Shohin
So what was meant to be a really good opportunity for a nice tree larger than anything I currently have turned into a bit of a nightmare with various problems along the way.
I had a client a few months back I did some work for, and she had a fairly chunky JM in her border which had been there years. I'm not sure of the cultivar but it looks like Katsura potentially? She had been just shearing the top every year and it had some big branches taken off at some point in the past, she didn't really like it because it wanted to get far bigger than she would allow it to. I said I would be happy to remove it for her, and asked her to give me a call to come back just before it looked like the leaves started to open.
I've been keeping an eye on my JMs, most are now in leaf or are just unfolding but I do have 3 or 4 which are only just starting to swell up, so I've been awaiting the call eagerly. Today she phoned and said she had forgotten to call last week and it was now in full leaf, but she wants the space now so she can plant something else there this spring/summer - the JM HAS to go asap and unfortunately autumn collection wasn't an option.
I immediately wasn't sure of it's chances because of how leafed out it is, but unsure of what my options were I just had to go about it as I would usually collect something, all in, death or glory!
I dug it out but most of the roots were real thick and I wasn't really able to chase them far enough to try and find the finer roots at the end. I got a decent root ball and bagged it up to take home. I cleaned off as much of the soil as I could, unfortunately there wasn't all that much in the way of fine roots, and what there was is mostly underneath a massive knuckly solid wooden ball clump thing. I wasn't really sure how to proceed so I just cut off all the really thick roots and took off any medium sized ones that didn't have fine feeders coming off them.
I scraped some bark off in a circle nearer the top where I'd like roots to grow in the hope that if it does somehow survive it might root out from there. In a couple of years I can then just take the whole bottom mess off if it makes it that far.
Unfortunately I then hit another problem... I had way less soil in my shed than I thought I did! I popped the tree in a bucket and popped over to Tesco to get some sanicat or their own brand low-dust stuff. They only had 1 bag on the shelf and my fears that it wouldn't be enough for the box I'd made up were correct. I mixed up the soil I had with the kitty litter, and had to throw in a bit of regular compost as well to bulk it out. By this time it was dark and I was losing hope.
Sooooo, assuming this isn't going to pull through since it's powered all it's energy into the top growth which I cut off, and then removed probably 90% of the roots, and then stuck it in less than idea soil, my question is was there anything I should have done differently in collecting this material? Obviously having the correct soil would be a good start but I was sure I had more in the bag!
I'm going to nurse this thing and feed it well, if it by some miracle survives it'll be the biggest material I currently have - I would like to have cut the trunks down the the next node down but figured I might as well leave at least 6 leaves on there for it to work with
I will post another picture with scale when it's daylight.
Is there anything else I can do to improve it's chances or is it now simply in the hands of the Gods?
I had a client a few months back I did some work for, and she had a fairly chunky JM in her border which had been there years. I'm not sure of the cultivar but it looks like Katsura potentially? She had been just shearing the top every year and it had some big branches taken off at some point in the past, she didn't really like it because it wanted to get far bigger than she would allow it to. I said I would be happy to remove it for her, and asked her to give me a call to come back just before it looked like the leaves started to open.
I've been keeping an eye on my JMs, most are now in leaf or are just unfolding but I do have 3 or 4 which are only just starting to swell up, so I've been awaiting the call eagerly. Today she phoned and said she had forgotten to call last week and it was now in full leaf, but she wants the space now so she can plant something else there this spring/summer - the JM HAS to go asap and unfortunately autumn collection wasn't an option.
I immediately wasn't sure of it's chances because of how leafed out it is, but unsure of what my options were I just had to go about it as I would usually collect something, all in, death or glory!
I dug it out but most of the roots were real thick and I wasn't really able to chase them far enough to try and find the finer roots at the end. I got a decent root ball and bagged it up to take home. I cleaned off as much of the soil as I could, unfortunately there wasn't all that much in the way of fine roots, and what there was is mostly underneath a massive knuckly solid wooden ball clump thing. I wasn't really sure how to proceed so I just cut off all the really thick roots and took off any medium sized ones that didn't have fine feeders coming off them.
I scraped some bark off in a circle nearer the top where I'd like roots to grow in the hope that if it does somehow survive it might root out from there. In a couple of years I can then just take the whole bottom mess off if it makes it that far.
Unfortunately I then hit another problem... I had way less soil in my shed than I thought I did! I popped the tree in a bucket and popped over to Tesco to get some sanicat or their own brand low-dust stuff. They only had 1 bag on the shelf and my fears that it wouldn't be enough for the box I'd made up were correct. I mixed up the soil I had with the kitty litter, and had to throw in a bit of regular compost as well to bulk it out. By this time it was dark and I was losing hope.
Sooooo, assuming this isn't going to pull through since it's powered all it's energy into the top growth which I cut off, and then removed probably 90% of the roots, and then stuck it in less than idea soil, my question is was there anything I should have done differently in collecting this material? Obviously having the correct soil would be a good start but I was sure I had more in the bag!
I'm going to nurse this thing and feed it well, if it by some miracle survives it'll be the biggest material I currently have - I would like to have cut the trunks down the the next node down but figured I might as well leave at least 6 leaves on there for it to work with
I will post another picture with scale when it's daylight.Is there anything else I can do to improve it's chances or is it now simply in the hands of the Gods?
