Looking good Dan.
Since we seem to be the only ones here growing the dougies maybe we can share/compare some horticultural notes?
Some of my observations.
Cooley spruce gall adelgids- absolutely rampant in my area. Soapy water in the morning and jet spray of water in the aft a couple times in spring during the crawler stage does a pretty good job of removing them.
Needle cast. (Rhabdocline pseudotsugae)- full sun and avoidance of frequent misting during may-june when spore are active I think will help reduce incidence. I've been watching young trees in the wild growing strongly year after year despite heavy infection. Obviously not good for the tree but treatable and no cause for panic. Infected needles look fine throughout the summer and symptoms show up in fall. Weak branches can be lost from infection and mottled needles will not look good in a show.
There is a species of mycohorriza common with Doug fir known to cause pale needle colour, its not thought to be harmful to the tree. Pale but uniform needle color may or may not indicate a problem.
Soil and watering, I've been treating them much the same as pondys and rmjs, you? (Edit- Armillaria root rot fungus is pretty common in Doug fir, a possible reason to avoid to many wet components in soil. Said to be untreatable? I've passed up nice collectible trees showing infection, watch for a white latex like substance showing through cracks in the bark)
Pruning, pinching, back budding response- Douglas firs in nature suffer through needle loss and defoliation quite a lot. The issues I mentioned above are very common needle loss mechanisms, the Douglas fir tussock moth every now and then totally defoliates large areas of fir forest. Browsing ungulates go for the small Doug firs in spring before the tastier greenery has a chance to grow. All this is to say that they out of necessity have evolved a pretty good ability to back bud. A healthy dougfir with reserves can actually survive total defoliation and bud removal and come out with increased density, I've seen it many times including on an old yamadori in my yard after deer browsing one time and on some small experimental trees in the ground on my property.
This gives one good reason to have faith that backbudding will occur once branch vigour is established, no need to rush or try to force back budding on a weak branch or tree section. Locations that only produce a single bud at the tip should be left alone generally IMO.
I've been mostly pruning off the central buds and removing unneeded apical growth as i try to develop the things, results are looking promising. I haven't played with pruning of extending growth much yet. I'd be interested to hear pruning schedules and methods that you've been taught and that others are using.
Feel free to refute, ignore or add to my observations on the dougs, one of my favorite species I hope to keep seeing more successful ones around.
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