Root work on Taxus urbanadori

Jaberwky17

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I've got a collected yew that's been in my care for almost 2 years. It's in a large 24"x36" box with its rootball in "native" soil from the collection site (urban restaurant landscape). It has had a couple of tough winters and about half its foliage has been lost. I'd like to reduce the root mass, any advice on timing for this?

Image is after collection. I will add a current photo when its better lighting. yew-front-sm.jpg
 

GrimLore

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Collected Yew can appear to be alive for a few years while they are actually living on reserves. I have been taught not to work them at all for at least 2-3 years and if possible to wait even longer at 3-5. My large one will not be worked for a minimum of 4-5 years and just receive water 2 times daily during growth kept in a shaded area. Unfortunately there is not a lot of information on collected Yews and I obtained some of my information here and the remainder via E-mail to a few out there that actually work them. If it were mine I would put it in a shaded spot and just water it for at least another season or two... Also in contradiction to what several told me I took all except two or three tiny branches off at collection as I was told by others if left it would die off anyways. It turned out now after 7 weeks I have a LOT of new budding on old wood and 2 of the 3 small pieces I left are browning off... No clue why - just telling you what I see here. ;)

Grimmy
 

mcpesq817

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I'd be very cautious about doing any work on your yew, and frankly, I would bet that it is a goner. I had a couple of yews I collected 2-3 years ago that seemed to plod along ok during that time, then died. I think it's like Grimmy said - the trees appear to be stronger than they are, but are actually running on stored reserves. Once those reserves empty at around the 2 or 3 year mark, the trees will decline quickly. The two of mine that died looked exactly like yours foliage wise before dying.
 

Jaberwky17

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Good to know. I will watch and wait. The good thing is I haven't touched the roots since collection.
 

mcpesq817

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I didn't touch the roots either - it didn't matter though :(
 

GrimLore

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Good to know. I will watch and wait. The good thing is I haven't touched the roots since collection.

I suspect by now the old growth has yellowed/browned and there is new growth... or?

Grimmy
 

lordy

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I just this weekend took a workshop with Martin Schmalenberg with yews dug from a defunct nursery 18 to 24 months ago. They were in turface, shallow grow pots about 18" in diameter. The foliage looked great on all 15 of the workshop trees in terms of visual health and being nice dark green. Martin said that yews are very happy with heavy feeds while in pots, and make sure that they are getting moisture to the root zone. Turface, as many of us know, may well have areas of either no water or too much water that never gets to the roots. I would suggest making sure your tree is fully hydrated by submerging the pot for 15-30 minutes, then being sure to adequately soak the soil, and feeding well and often.
I collected one from the same nursery about 4 years ago. I bare-rooted it and put it in pure turface. It basically just survived. 2 years later (spring 2014) I repotted (into the same wooden box) in a pumice/akadama mix, and this year has produced copious amounts of new growth and it has also shown new growth closer to the trunk. I also feed with holly tone in tea bags on the advice of Jack Sustic, who uses that fert on conifers in the National Arb. Bonsai Museum. Between the soil change last year and the fert this year, my yew looks like it is in the picture of health.
 
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lordy

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regarding root work, it may not be the best time of year, but John Kirby, in a soil dynamics class, said he recommends the Boon style of repotting by bare rooting half the rootball one year into "Boon mix" and doing the same 2 years later to the remaining half. Timing would likely be in the spring just after breaking dormancy.
 

Jaberwky17

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The new growth is growing and greening. Only some off the old growth is browning and dying; there is plenty of old growth that is green still. This is a big sucker, in a 24x36 grow box so there is no pot soaking gonna happen. I stand there and look at it and can't help but thinking that it seems to need better soil.
 
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GrimLore

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The new growth is growing and greening. Only some off the old growth is browning and dying; there is plenty of old growth that is green still. This is a big sucker, in a 24x36 grow box so there is no pot soaking gonna happen. I stand there and look at it and can't help but thinking that it seems to need better soil.

I have an over 100 pound collected stump in a 17 gallon galvanized water container. It is in over a 100 pounds of Dry Stall mixed with Straight topsoil where it will remain for a few years. Since collection several weeks ago any of the little foliage I left has browned off and died, It is spouting new foliage everyday and it is rich and healthy. It gets soaked down 2 times a day and filtered/little sun. Honest if it where mine I would clip of the old browning stuff and water it well 2 times a day. The new stuff should multiply... If not it is going down the shoot.

Grimmy
 

lordy

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The new growth is growing and greening. Only some off the old growth is browning and dying; there is plenty of old growth that is green still. This is a big sucker, in a 24x36 grow box so there is no pot soaking gonna happen. I stand there and look at it and can't help but thinking that it seems to need better soil.
Yeah, I kinda went brain dead and forgot how big your grow box is. So, that tree has been in that box for 2 years? It seems to be sliding down a bit of a slippery slope. I would think either it isnt getting fully watered, or it needs ferts. Regarding the watering, if the soil is still the landscape variety, maybe you need to think seriously about repotting, reducing the rootball (or at least half, a la Boon) and put it in some bonsai soil mix. If not, at least carefully push a chopstick in to the bottom in multiple spots to insure water is getting to the roots, not just running off the sides and down. And feed the tree heavily with something meant for conifers, such as Holly Tone. Heck, at this point, even Miracid would probably be fine. Full sun is what they like. Those three things should snap that tree back to health IF it still has it in it to come back.
 

ghues

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Hi Jaberwky17, Not trying to hijack your thread- just sharing info.
Here is a photo of my Pacific Yew -Taxus brevifolia - collected in the spring of 2013 with almost the entire root ball. It grew so well in 2014, I wired the main branches and put some guy wires on it. . This spring I checked the root ball and was happy to see some great root growth, its flushed well again this year and has back budded along old wood. It has some funky base roots and due to its location on the side of a logging road it grew with some natural curved trunks and it was kept small and somewhat rounded by Elk grazing (as they seem to love this species).
As others have spoken about - keeping it well watered and fertilized seemed to help the transplanting shock.
Cheers GrahamCBranch Main -Pacific Yew(Taxus brevifolia).jpg
 

Jaberwky17

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Recent pic - July 9, 2015
I think it looks light years better than the May 17 pic above. All dead foliage has been removed or been replaced by green, and new growth continues. Lots of back budding all up and down branches. I have been watering a lot, this has great sun exposure and using rapeseed cakes. I haven't tried any other ferts yet. For those who asked about soil, it is in native soil (organic "dirt" from next to a building) only on the rootball, but 2/3 of the grow box is my soil mix of granite chicken grit, DE, and 1/4" landscape lava rock. It seems very happy right now.

July-9-2015-web.jpg
 

mcpesq817

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Nice - glad your tree rebounded. For some reason, mine wasn't able to turn the corner when it started looking like your May 17 picture.
 

GrimLore

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It seems very happy right now.

Sure does and I am happy to see it. Mine seems good as well. For a few weeks now since this thread I have been experimenting with two others that received a severe cut back but did not get pulled as well. It is very clear that the one pulled and one that got cutback that both receive ample water twice a day are doing very good. The other one I cut back gets water only twice a week and is ok but no were near as good as the other two. They are all from the same location, age, etc... so it would "seem" that a good amount of water is the ticket for us here during growing season. Seeing your update reminded me to water them all the same :rolleyes:

Grimmy
 
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