Well…it’s a start

[jeanluc83]

So far I have four collected stumps, three American hornbeams and one red maple. I know red maple is not the best bonsai material but I liked it and figured why not. I think it has some potential and is large enough that leaf size will not be an issue.

What I’ve learned from my limited experence:

Make sure to sift out the fines from the substrate. I was a bit rushed to get the red maple potted up so I didn’t sift the substrate. It shows. The first watering was fine but after a week when everything had settled water pools on the surface. I’m not too concerned red maples are tough trees. I will just need to be careful about how I water it. For the other trees I sifted using a piece window screen. It much better draining but still not as course as it should be. I’ll need to get a proper set of sieves soon.

For my substrate I used mostly Oil Dri and sifted pine bard mulch in about an 80% - 20% mix. For one batch I tried the Moltan oil absorbent sold by AutoZone. I don’t recommend it. There are a lot of fines after sifting. I wasted probably 40% of the bag compared to about 20% for Oil Dri. It looks like there is a source for Turface close by that I need to look into.

Digging was not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. But I understand why a trenching spade is recommended. I’ll need to pick one up and weld on a good steel handle. The wood handle on the shovel I was using complained a few times when I was prying but held.

I was surprised by the amount of root mass I was able to collect. The only other trees I’ve dug have been seedlings with very few roots. Based on the roots I was able to collect I have a lot of confidence that the trees will survive.

The boxes that I built appear to be slightly large for the trees. I was not sure how far I could safely reduce the roots. I figured at this point a little extra volume is not going to hurt.

The next step: getting some material that I can start working on now.

 

[jeanluc83]

For some reason I couldn't get the pictures to attach to the original message. Lets try this again.

 

[berobinson82]

The last stump you posted is fantastic! Hope they push a ton of buds for you.

 

[greenman63]

Beautiful!

I hope you post pics after they've grown out a bit, they look great!

 

[jeanluc83]

The last stump you posted is fantastic! Hope they push a ton of buds for you.

The last one is the red maple. I like it and hope it survives. The back side has some great dead wood that seems fairly sound.

To give you an idea of the size, the growing box is approx. 18” by 18”. At that size I don’t think leaf size will be a problem. The hard part will be figuring out what to do with the two branch stumps on the left side but there is lots of time to figure that out.

They are starting to show some signs of life but only time will tell if any survive.

 

[Zach Smith]

The last one is the red maple. I like it and hope it survives. The back side has some great dead wood that seems fairly sound.

To give you an idea of the size, the growing box is approx. 18” by 18”. At that size I don’t think leaf size will be a problem. The hard part will be figuring out what to do with the two branch stumps on the left side but there is lots of time to figure that out.

They are starting to show some signs of life but only time will tell if any survive.

You will likely find that after a couple of seasons the red maple rots out, no matter what you do to stop it. You may even see dieback down one side. Not to discourage you, but they just don't collect well in larger sizes. It's a beauty of a stump, though! The best looking stump I ever collected was a huge swamp maple, and I babied it for four years until the chop started rotting away.

The hornbeams are generally tough as nails (or ironwood, which is their nickname).

Good luck with your material!

Zach

 

[Paulpash]

If the red maple is a bit coarse (and survives) why not consider grafting palmatum or trident onto it?

 

[october]

Nice material. This is definitley more than a start. The trees themselves are being started. However, most people do not work with material like this until they are into bonsai for quite a few years. Good luck with all of them. Please post plenty of updates as they grow.

Rob

 

[NewWorldBonsai]

A fine start indeed! That Red Maple is really cool.

I might recommend allowing the maple to grow essentially unchecked for the whole first year. As others stated they tend to die back just where you don't want them too. Once it is well established and you've got lots of sap running through all the live veins then you can start hacking away.

You've found much better stuff than I ever did for my first few years of collecting. Congrats and goodluck keep posting the progress. I look forward into pressuring you to make your trees the way I think they should be

 

[jeanluc83]

A fine start indeed! That Red Maple is really cool.

I might recommend allowing the maple to grow essentially unchecked for the whole first year. As others stated they tend to die back just where you don't want them too. Once it is well established and you've got lots of sap running through all the live veins then you can start hacking away.

You've found much better stuff than I ever did for my first few years of collecting. Congrats and goodluck keep posting the progress. I look forward into pressuring you to make your trees the way I think they should be

I had planned on letting all the trees grow freely for the next year.

It seems that every one laments that they had not started with better material. While this isn’t great it is certainly better than the typical starter material. And it’s not too bad considering everything was collected in my back yard. Next year I hope to have access to some better collecting sites.

 

[jeanluc83]

The trees are coming along.

The red maple is sprouting every ware. I plan on letting it grow free this year. I’ll cut back hard and repot in the spring. The substrate has very poor drainage, my mistake for not sifting.

One of the hornbeams is doing great, one is just barely showing life and the third I’m sure is dead. I’ll see what happens. I hope the one that’s just hanging on makes it. Of the three that was the best.

The second picture is the maple. The first is the (living) hornbeam. There is also another red maple in the picture. It was scheduled for execution so I thought that it was worth a shot. It was fully leafed out and only had two fine roots but is doing great.

 

[Dave Leppo]

Bump:

everything still alive?

 

[jeanluc83]

I did lose one of the hornbeams. I’m not sure if it was the collection, the tree or the long cold spring that did it in. Everything else is doing well. I’ve managed to resist the urge to start cutting. I’m sticking to the plan to let everything is growing free this year.

I’ll post some new pics in the next few days.

 

[jeanluc83]

Here's an updated picture, as promised.

Everything is doing great for the most part. I did get a little overzealous with the fertilizer. I started to get a little bit of leaf burn so I back off on the fertilizer before any damage was done.

You can see the hornbeam under the bench that didn't make it. It has a couple of red maple and birch that seeded themselves so all might not be lost.

You can also see the bench that I built for about $40.

 

[GrimLore]

Nice outcome and your success rate is VERY good - 80 pct is bragging rights in my book

 

[jeanluc83]

Nice outcome and your success rate is VERY good - 80 pct is bragging rights in my book

I’m very happy with the results. The real test will be if I can get them through winter.

 

[LanceMac10]

Update with these collections @jeanluc83 ?

 

[jeanluc83]

Wow! Talk about a blast from the past.

Let's see, the maple didn't wake up the following spring. I think it dried out too much in the fall and was gone before it even went into it's first winter after collection. One of the hornbeams never even made it into summer. One made it through two seasons but then gave up the ghost.

The third and biggest hornbeam I actually still have. It only sent up suckers from the roots after collection but it kept growing. Since it was one of the first trees I collected I couldn't get rid of it. I just kept potting it into smaller pots. It is now one of my entries in the mame contest.

This is what it looks like now.


Vs. what it looked like at collection.
View attachment 34084

The original grow box was about 18" square.

 

[Hyn Patty]

So sorry you lost that maple! Drat. I love red maples too. But your hornbeam has a great start!