What is this? Juniper sapling? Hope to collect!

[swatchpost]

Hi everyone! Looking for a species ID here. Is this just a juniper sapling just with new spikey growth? Or something else?
You can imagine my delight when I brushed away the soil a little bit to reveal that curved trunk!

If I was to collect it, what kind of soil medium do you recommend I plant it in? It's about 3-4" tall.

Many thanks,
Yusef

 

[QuantumSparky]

Looks like the ERC saplings I see all the time on the side of the road. I collected a few of them but I don't have much hope for them ever having potential

 

[BrightsideB]

It’s a juniper. But Texas doesn’t just have ERC. There are several others. You have to check the surroundings and see what there are.

 

[swatchpost]

Thanks, yeah don't think they would be eastern red cedar down in Austin (had to look that up
We just know them down here as junipers. No idea what kind. Comes from an area that has many full-size juniper trees mixed in with elm and live oak.

Any suggestion for soil medium after collecting? Pure perlite? A conifer mix?

 

[BrightsideB]

Thanks, yeah don't think they would be eastern red cedar down in Austin (had to look that up
We just know them down here as junipers. No idea what kind. Comes from an area that has many full-size juniper trees mixed in with elm and live oak.

Any suggestion for soil medium after collecting? Pure perlite? A conifer mix?

Perlite isn’t good to use with junipers and most trees. You need a mixture of media that has decent drainage. Junipers don’t like constant wet soil. Just experiment with what you have. Make sure to dig up and keep roots intact with native soil. It’ll probably grow ok in that alone.

 

[HoneyHornet]

Cheap means of bulk inorganic is turface btw..check with ur local landscape suppliers..usully like 40 lb for like 12 buck i believe..thst mixed with some fir bark n pinch of organic work for me.. Can get the bark easily in the form of orchid mix at any home depot or lowes

I even keep a 40 lb bag of oil dry (safe t sorb) for little guys like this that are not necessarily the best specimen but that you still want to collect so I always have something to throw it in.. I mix that with some real nice garden soil by the name of Bumper Crop it's really nice it's a rich compost and manure blend with worm casings and some other stuff but ..when I have a tree but I don't necessarily want to use better medium on i end up mixing oil dry with a little of that and some busted up fir bark n they last.. I pool little stuff like bees out of compulsion but don't expect much out of them

With the bigger picture idea to just have them on standby for filler in a larger group arrangement something along those lines

Anyone would suggest higher grade medium like akadama and pumice and lava rock..nd they would be right..id just save that for better tree..
The examples I gave are just cheap convenient easily accessible at any time

 

[HoneyHornet]

Looks like the ERC saplings I see all the time on the side of the road. I collected a few of them but I don't have much hope for them ever having potential

My guess as well regardless of location lol

 

[Paradox]

lol all juvenile junipers look very similar.
Its probably not ERC

 

[HoneyHornet]

lol all juvenile junipers look very similar.
Its probably not ERC

Without a doubt I just for some reason found it mildly amusing lol

 

[ukamikazu]

If you found it in Austin and you don't think it's J. virginiana, of which we have plenty here in Oak Hill, then it could be J. ashei. Look at your surroundings and see which of these applies:

ERC has a typical, columnar to Christmas tree shape and lots of narrow limbs, brighter but duller green leaves, lighter almost cinnamon colored bark that's not quite so shaggy and female cones that are a deeply saturated matte violet. Only suitable for fence-posts & firewood.

Mountain cedars (Ashe's Juniper) have darker, shinier leaves, more subdued gray colored ripe female cones and tend to grow multiple large trunks that can be quite close to the ground and very shaggy, loose deep dark brown bark and are perfect for making furniture. Another interesting feature of J. ashei is very old specimens, or ones that are quite well taken care of, will have white smokey looking rings appearing on the bark. Like someone painted a small white letter O on them.

I hope that helps.

Oh! And hello! I'm new to the board and pleased to meet you all!

 

[Colorado]

The gold standard of post-collection soil medium for conifers is pumice.

Other soils will work too. And for a small seedlings it probably matters less. But I prefer to use sound technique regardless of whether the tree is 2 years old or 200 years old.

I would recommend just ordering a bag of pumice and then you will have it on hand in the future.

Good luck!

 

[Paradox]

Just looked up the natural distribution of ERC.
It actually is possible to find them in Eastern Texas and possibly around Austin.

I didn't think they occurred that far south

 

[Maiden69]

I don't know if I would be worried about soil for collected specimens at this early stage of that seedling... any substrate for a conifer should do.