Taking trees from the wild

[jI-tx]

Hi guys, first post!

I'm just getting into bonsai and I'm curious about taking trees from the wild. I live in east texas where it is really humid and we've got tons of pines. Do you have any recommendations on how to start? What size pine should I look for and do you have any recommendations on what resources I should look into for training the pines?

Also, what threads or resources should I be looking at on this site or elsewhere?

Thanks guys!

 

[Vance Wood]

Hi guys, first post!

I'm just getting into bonsai and I'm curious about taking trees from the wild. I live in east texas where it is really humid and we've got tons of pines. Do you have any recommendations on how to start? What size pine should I look for and do you have any recommendations on what resources I should look into for training the pines?

Also, what threads or resources should I be looking at on this site or elsewhere?

Thanks guys!

The best thing you can do is to find a local club and get together with someone in that club with experience harvesting natural dwarf conifers and such. It's not like digging up a tree from the back yard. Lacking that option wait till someone else replies that knows your area and its problems.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

First, try to identify your pines. Go on a few hikes with someone who knows the area, or with a solid plant ID book. Make sure you have the right permissions for collection and the right tools. Some areas are protected. I don't know the US but I've heard that people could shoot you if you tresspass on their property.
Also make sure that you can give the right after care. Get that stuff together in advance.
Then, it's a matter of being in the right season: fall or spring are best, if you're just starting this hobby, you want to stay in those seasons.

Fun fact: lots of collected pines will not survive at all. Especially when you're new to the game. Leave the prettiest ones out there. They'll be there for years to come! If you kill them now, there's no way of getting them back. Inexperience and being overly enthusiastic (not careful enough) is what ruined my spring collections in 2016. I don't want others to make the same mistakes. There's a learning curve in this, and it would be a shame to lose wonderful specimens.
Read up on mycorrhizae and their function, pines heavily rely on those. If you kill them, you kill the tree. That's why we try to leave all/most the original soil for a year at least, and that's the hardest part.

Maybe even get a pine of the same species/strain from a store to train with in the mean time, just to develop a feeling for them. Pines to me are the hardest bonsai to work with, simply because they can take months to respond. Bonsai Mirai has some youtube videos about picking good nursery stock. It might be useful to watch those, there's a lot of hidden info in those vids. I can recommend all of their free youtube videos by the way.

Look for threads containing the words 'collecting', 'yamadori' or similar terms and you'll find various threads about the process.

Just don't make the same mistakes I did. Take your time, take your time, take your time.
I'm at a 9/10 survival rate now. But I started at 0/20. Which is a shame, because those were pretty pines.

 

[queenofsheba52]

Hi jl, glad you found this site. If you fill in your location and USDA zone, we can help you more easily.

Wires has a lot of good advice. Collecting, even though very tempting, really isn't a good idea until one gets some experience. I've killed some nice stuff by not knowing enough.

Go to your local nursery or big box store and pick out a few things that have interesting trunks. Since you have your eye on collecting some pines someday, try a small evergreen lkke a juniper. Think about all the things you should have ready for work on your stock: pot, proper well-draining soil, clippers, wire to keep the tree where you want it in the pot.

Watch enough YouTube videos to be able to discern good advice.

Above all, enjoy your bonsai journey! It's not a sprint, it's a lifelong walk.

 

[jI-tx]

Thank you guys for the advice! I'll definitely check out the videos and slow my intentions on the pines. Good to know that they are a bit more temperamental, and that collecting is a more advanced technique. I do have a Chinese Elm that I keep indoors. I live in a pretty small community so unfortunately I don't have a lot of hope when it comes to finding others with like interests. I'll see if I can get a juniper or another conifer that is in a controlled environment as a starting place. I have a feeling that I know your thoughts on this one too, but I have a Wax Myrtle as well thats in a pot, but it sounds like that might be a bit too ambitious as well.

 

[BrianBay9]

If you use the search function here and look for "collecting" and "yamadori" you'll find lots of old threads discussing various aspects of collecting. Read up learn. You might find it easier to make your first try with deciduous trees. They're generally more likely to survive the collecting process. I've heard much about Texas elms (cedar elm?). Might be a better first shot than pines.

 

[Saddler]

This is a good read.

http://bonsai4me.com/AdvTech/ATcollectring trees from the wild W Pall.htm

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Just.. Don't talk about keeping plants indoors. And don't keep them indoors ;-)
As for ambition: you're going to kill a gnarly amount of trees, like we all did, like I still do. It's part of the learning process. Just make sure you save your money for the nice ones. And, maybe, try not to kill them. But it's going to happen no matter what.
Assume that every single one of them is going to heaven, do your best to prevent that, and learn to get better at everything in the future. That's what I taught every plant biologist in the past, and what I will teach them in the future. Maybe the phrasing isn't that correct, but then again, I teach in my native language, not in English.

 

[jI-tx]

Thanks guys, I'll check out all the resources mentioned and thank you for the feedback, I accept it all! Just watched some of Bonsai Mirai, which was fantastic. I'm excited about the journey and the lessons that each tree will teach. There is some comfort knowing that everyone messes up, but also that because trees grow, there is always the opportunity to fix bad decisions.

 

[sorce]

Welcome to Crazy!

Try Cedar Elm!

Sorce

 

[Anthony]

We usually start with seedlings.
Allows you to learn.
Also will satisfy that - I collected it bit - as well as I grew it from
this high.
Good Day
Anthony

* practically everything here is seed/seedling and cutting.
However started at 17 or so ------------ now in the 50's
Had time to adjust.
_______________________________________________________________

Caribbean Pine from seed - Gift of a kind Forestry Officer.
More time spent, learning how to keep it healthy.

Next stage getting the trunk to thicken to 3 or 4 inches.
Response is similar to J.B.pine. Maybe 10 to 12 years old.

 

[rockm]

Hi guys, first post!

I'm just getting into bonsai and I'm curious about taking trees from the wild. I live in east texas where it is really humid and we've got tons of pines. Do you have any recommendations on how to start? What size pine should I look for and do you have any recommendations on what resources I should look into for training the pines?

Also, what threads or resources should I be looking at on this site or elsewhere?

Thanks guys!

Skip the damn pines for now . Pines, especially native species, are NOT for beginners, especially beginner collectors. They are slower developing as bonsai--and beginners don't have the expertise to get them out of the ground alive, for the most part. Also care for native pines in the U.S. is mostly in its infancy, with people mostly focusing on high altitude, more western species, such as Ponderosa. Not many southern pines, like loblolly or yellow pine, is being used. Care for those is a frontier of hit and miss, even if you find one worth collecting and can get it out of the ground alive...

Sorry to be so blunt, but you are in the bullseye of one of the absolute best native bonsai species mostly on the planet--cedar elm. It is bulletproof in collection and takes to a pot easily. It's more easily collected and not as initially finicky as any pine. It's also extremely common. Larger trees can be taken so you don't have to fool around with seeds, seedlings and that kind of crap.

Join a local club. Go on collecting trips in the spring with them. They ain't digging pines for the most part...

 

[Vance Wood]

Skip the damn pines for now . Pines, especially native species, are NOT for beginners, especially beginner collectors. They are slower developing as bonsai--and beginners don't have the expertise to get them out of the ground alive, for the most part. Also care for native pines in the U.S. is mostly in its infancy, with people mostly focusing on high altitude, more western species, such as Ponderosa. Not many southern pines, like loblolly or yellow pine, is being used. Care for those is a frontier of hit and miss, even if you find one worth collecting and can get it out of the ground alive...

Sorry to be so blunt, but you are in the bullseye of one of the absolute best native bonsai species mostly on the planet--cedar elm. It is bulletproof in collection and takes to a pot easily. It's more easily collected and not as initially finicky as any pine. It's also extremely common. Larger trees can be taken so you don't have to fool around with seeds, seedlings and that kind of crap.

Join a local club. Go on collecting trips in the spring with them. They ain't digging pines for the most part...

Hell---we want you to lie and obfuscate.

 

[Vance Wood]

Collecting from the wild is made up of two principles: One is the idea of how difficult this is going to be and how easy a good tree will be to find. This will be the guiding factor for your quest. Two is what happens when you attempt to put the shovel into the ground and discover you did not bring enough high explosives or people to help, and every idea you had about collecting was absolutely fanciful, convoluted and wrong.

 

[rockm]

Collecting from the wild is made up of two principles: One is the idea of how difficult this is going to be and how easy a good tree will be to find. This will be the guiding factor for your quest. Two is what happens when you attempt to put the shovel into the ground and discover you did not bring enough high explosives or people to help, and every idea you had about collecting was absolutely fanciful, convoluted and wrong.

Shovels and neat root masses that come up in a neat little ball are only in books. That is NEVER the case. Shovel? Can be useful, but not as much as an battery powered reciprocating saw, or a six foot long iron pry bar...