Yamadori Glory!

[HotAction]

Went up to the woods yesterday to do some spring collecting. Unfortunately, I left my camera in the truck. So all the pics we took "in the field" are gonna have to wait until I can get them from my buddy's camera. I think we had a good haul. I got three spruce with 2-4" trunks and a bigger larch trunks. Also, we dug a bunch of smaller larch to grow on for future forest plantings. Here a the few pictures I snapped when we got back into town. I'll post some of the shots of the dig just as soon as i get them. The tools of choice were a single pronged weed puller, and a maddock pick axe. The garden pruners proved to be quite handy as well.

For anyone who has collected spruce, just wondering if I should thin out some of the folliage now, or just let the tree do its thing? Thanks for looking.

Dave

 

[HotAction]

here is a close-up shot of the base on the twin trunk spruce. I know there are some that will say the split is too high, but I can live with it

The other pic is an Eastern White Pine, One of my favorite trees at camp.

 

[Si Nguyen]

Glory Hallelujah! That's a good haul! I'd love to see some of them larches too!

 

[HotAction]

No prob Si. I'm charging the camera right now. Unexpectedly, my parents were at camp repairing their rotting porch. When we returned to base camp following a long day of playing in the dirt, my mom had just finished preparing a roast turkey dinner w/ mashed potatoes, green beans, and stuffing. What a bonus to a great day!!!

Dave

 

[mholt]

Looks like plenty of beer to go around too after a fine day's work!

 

[HotAction]

Looks like plenty of beer to go around too after a fine day's work!

Sorry, already drank all the beer, but there might be a granola bar or 2 left.

dave

 

[HotAction]

Glory Hallelujah! That's a good haul! I'd love to see some of them larches too!

As requested...and another spruce for good measure.

Dave

 

[HotAction]

and a few more. Most of the larch in the pond baskets were selected for nothing more than their varying trunk diameters. The plan is to make a couple of forest/group plantings with them in the future. Two of them will be donated to my club over the next couple years. I offered to donate two collected trees/along with demonstrations in exchange for tuition expenses for Woodstock III at Nature's Way Nursery in April. I will also give a lecture at the club about the experience and what was learned at the workshop.

Thanks for looking,

Dave

 

[HotAction]

This is what it's all about!

My buddy and I got together today and constructed custom boxes for the 4 trees with the largest root systems. We ran out of daylight (again) and had to pull the car on the lawn with headlights on to finish potting the last two. I did, however, get all the photos he took during the trip. There are a lot of good ones, and I'm excited, so I am going to post a bunch of them in the next few posts. I hope you NUTS enjoy them as much as I do.

Dave

 

[HotAction]

now some of the digging...

The first three are digging a spruce I spotted last year. I had waited eagerly for spring so it could be retrieved. The last is the twin trunk spruce.

 

[ianb]

Fingers crossed on the larch, I've had bad luck collecting them once the buds have broken.

 

[irene_b]

Fantastic Yamadori!!!!!
The area pics are beautiful!!
Irene

 

[HotAction]

Ian thanks for the lookout. I had about 95% success last year and collected some in July. I was suprised the buds had begun to break this early. Lets hope everything goes well.

Irene, glad you enjoyed the pics and trees.

Here are some of my friend and the larch he spotted.

 

[HotAction]

A few more for your viewing pleasure...

 

[HotAction]

and last a couple shots of the car packed with the haul.

Dave

 

[plant_dr]

Glorious!!!

 

[pauldogx]

Looks like a great time. Unfortunately the collecting season is over already here in Eastern PA. Everything has budded out due to the warm spring. Also a second on holding your breath on the larches--collecting or repotting after bud break is a crap shoot at best.

 

[mcpesq817]

Very nice trees, and looks like you had a lot of fun.

Just out of curiosity, how easy was it to get permission up there to collect?

 

[HotAction]

Very nice trees, and looks like you had a lot of fun.

Just out of curiosity, how easy was it to get permission up there to collect?

We sure did have fun! My family owns all the land, so I guess it was pretty easy to get permission. I'm not sure what you would have to go through otherwise.

Man, now I'm kinda nervous about those larch. Last week was warm, and just the week before easter there was snow on the ground up there. The good news is that we left a bunch more there, and pruned some of the larger ones to leave for the future.

The spruce haven't begun to bud yet, but I'm still wondering if I should remove some of the foliage. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Dave

 

[Greg Brenden]

Dave--I can't tell you how many times I've asked myself, "why did I remove that branch?" after a tree I've collected has made it through the acclimation process. All because I thought it would help the tree. My advice would be to keep everything you can and study your trees carefully before removing any branches. If there are blatant offenders like bar branches that are creating bulges and knobs and reverse taper, then cut them off. But leave a stub 2 or 3" long. If you cut a branch flush with the trunk on a spruce, you'll have sap all over the trunk and bark and the wound will heal with a big ugly callous blob. You can use the stubs for anchor points for wiring and guy wires and later carve them into jins.

Your best bet is to mist the foliage of the spruce to reduce the stress of collecting in the acclimation period. An unheated greenhouse would be ideal but I don't know how into equipment like that you are. Find a sheltered place (from wind) that gets good morning sun and afternoon shade and mist the foliage several times a day if you can without unintentionally overwatering the tree; you won't get into too much trouble if you use a hand sprayer for that. Hope it goes well for you