Woocash’s Little Christmas Tree Entry

[Woocash]

Hoots mon! Theres a spruce loose aboot this hoose! A Picea Omorika or Serbian Spruce to be precise. Purchased for the princely sum of £29.99 from a local garden centre. It currently stands 110cm/43” tall and has been pot grown in the ground, root bound and in need of a repot.

I bought it mainly for the slight movement at the base, the short needles which have a nice blue tint and the attempted growth of a second trunk. As far as I can feel there is a slight flare to the roots but there is slight inverse taper where the second ‘trunk’ leaves the main one, that will have to be dealt with somehow, maybe just the potting angle or chosen front.

And just for fun here is the second trunk in a bag to get a feel of foliage of the main trunk.


I am keen to get it out of the current pot and allow the roots to breathe a bit, but I know it is the wrong season. However, I have built a wooden box to put it in with the intention of slip potting it. Is this madness just now or is it a worthwhile idea? If not, I’ll still put it in the box with soil around it’s current pot to protect the roots a bit and give some stability.


The base of the box is a hard wire mesh/grill thing wrapped in fibreglass mesh tape

 

[B.uneasy]

I really like that double trunk on it

 

[Warpig]

Nice tree. Not sure about the weather you get over there as far as potting but the tree does look nice and healthy. Good luck

 

[Woocash]

I really like that double trunk on it

Me too ta. I did wonder about making it the main one and jinning a lot of the main trunk as if it had taken over as the leader, but it has been trimmed back to keep the christmas tree shape so we’ll see. I’d quite like to do something other than a standard formal or informal upright, with a bit of a deadwood feature. I’m not sure yet, but that’s why I wanted a larger tree to begin with.

 

[Woocash]

Nice tree. Not sure about the weather you get over there as far as potting but the tree does look nice and healthy. Good luck

Thanks. The weather isn’t too bad really. Think we’ve maybe had max -8c (18f) once or twice at night over the last few years here. It just feels so flipping cold because of the moisture in the air. -18 in Canada was nothing in comparison, and that’s saying something!

I’m going to do a slip pot anyway because otherwise it wont stay stood up! Too much wind so I need to anchor it down, that’s my excuse anyway.

 

[Woocash]

Trees livin’ in a box. Trees livin’ in a wood-en box.

 

[Woocash]

Contestant number 2. Picea Glauca ‘Albertiana Conica’, I think. 1ft tall, £6. Not expecting much from it but there‘s a decent movement and bit of flare at the base. Will make a fun little shohin any way.

 

[B.uneasy]

That is a really nice one

 

[Orion_metalhead]

Cool trees but this!!!



Is one of the coolest things ive seen.

 

[Woocash]

Cheers man. Just some things I had lying around but seems to work well enough.

 

[Orion_metalhead]

Cheers man. Just some things I had lying around but seems to work well enough.

I like it, you can lay it in the bottom of the grow box and because of the metal grid, you can wire a tree in from anywhere. Seems very very practical. To remove tree, you can just lift the tree out no issue.

 

[PABonsai]

Cheers man. Just some things I had lying around but seems to work well enough.

What is the mesh?

 

[Woocash]

I like it, you can lay it in the bottom of the grow box and because of the metal grid, you can wire a tree in from anywhere. Seems very very practical. To remove tree, you can just lift the tree out no issue.

Yea that was my first thought as well, but I was worried that it may be a bit loose so I screwed it down in the end because I’ll end up doing a proper repot next year some time so the tree should come out with too much difficulty. It was definitely handy for wiring though.

 

[Woocash]

What is the mesh?

Just 2”x 2” galvanised mesh. 4mm or so, I don't know what gauge that is for you guys. It was part of a rabbit run but I doubt it’s difficult to get hold of. It has a little bit of flex but it’s solid enough. Then taped over in both directions with fibre glass jointing tape.

 

[PABonsai]

Just 2”x 2” galvanised mesh. 4mm or so, I don't know what gauge that is for you guys. It was part of a rabbit run but I doubt it’s difficult to get hold of. It has a little bit of flex but it’s solid enough. Then taped over in both directions with fibre glass jointing tape.

Oh....that's what I was talking about. The smaller mesh. So that's just drywall tape. Got it. I want to hear how this holds up over a few years! That looks great!

 

[Woocash]

Oh....that's what I was talking about. The smaller mesh. So that's just drywall tape. Got it. I want to hear how this holds up over a few years! That looks great!

Cheers, Yep just drywall tape. Should hold up as it’s fibreglass and non degradable, but worst comes to worst it’s easy enough to replace. Can’t take credit for it because some BNut gave me the idea (cant remember who now), but various folks seem to use it to cover drainage holes in pots and the rest.

 

[Woocash]

Contestant number 3. Picea Pungens ‘Super Blue’, 18” ish , £15 (50% off)

Got it back home and tried to slip it out of the pot to remove the layer of soil that had been piled up over the bottom branches and what do you know? The whole ball of soil fell away and looks like it had only been potted up last week! Anyway, the roots looked healthy so all I did was cut the end away from one overly large root on the side with no fine roots attached and pot it up in a reasonably organic heavy bonsai mix I had lying around. I also removed the bottom three branches that were on the soil line and blocking the nebari. Fingers crossed.

 

[Woocash]

Happy new year all! Been messing around with this little fella (#2) ‘cause I got itchy fingers. My first foray into spruce work and was pretty fun! I removed the top layer of soil and realised the tree was pretty wobbly so I wired it in somewhat. Note the tree testes in picture 4.

 

[Woocash]

Little update on the wee spruce above. I slip potted it a few weeks ago into something a little nicer and its growing really nicely all over. Might have to cut back one or two of the extensions soon to try and instigate some back budding. Any thoughts from the old hats?

 

[Forsoothe!]

I don't think Santa is going to recognize this critter. Coals for you, Mr. Scrooge...