200 desert ash

anttal63

hey blood missed me buddy today.

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Antonio . . .
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anttal63

Last month I took a drive to my favourite nurseries and look what I found. I instantly fell in love with the basal movement. At a closer look there were two distinct faults. Reverse taper and a wire poking out at the base and top that the tree had grown over long ago. Apparently when young the trees were wrapped with wire and then field grown, allowing the wire to stay. I believe this enhances the movement we are seeing. I will try this on one of my young tridents and follow it closely over the next few years. Now the question is can we fix it, yes we can, cause I love this trunk and I’m not gonna give it up! So off I go to the counter prepared to spend a decent dollar, now because I’m constantly spending money here I’m very well looked after and my man was happy to take a mere $25 only, pot and all. YOU RIPPA.

As soon as I got it home off came the wire ends and in a couple of years say bye bye to them. The trident is another very vigorous grower that wire won’t bother him, he will just swallow it. Next the reverse taper needs to be attended to, a little trickier but easy.

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Antonio . . .
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anttal63

Once bare rooting this trident i found that once I achieve the new roots where I want them not only am I going to create a big ass nebari, but as well when I cut it off I will have another big ass cutting with roots, left over. Yep two for one, gotta love that.

So I drilled small holes, 1cm. apart all the way around the widest section of the base. Using a small crafts paint brush I dusted root hormone powder into the holes and planted the tree into a grow box. The top inch of soil around the holes is a courser mix ( more probogating sand).

Here is also an example of a thick root incorrectly cut and the result it yields. Then the correction.

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Antonio . . .
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stonewala

Here's another little forest that anttal and I did the other day. The same process applied as above where we cut the lower slab of excess roots and replanted into styrene and then wired and tweaked. Really looking forward to how this little planting progresses.

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Always learning and lovin' it

anttal63

cool stone well done until next years work.

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Antonio . . .
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anttal63

Here is last week’s forest wired. I’m happy with the new composition however what I am divided on is the wire. Might have to do the next couple of groups as clip and grow experiments and draw comparison with the wired. Until then





Thanks to all who checked out this post and stay tuned for the next episode of

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Antonio . . .
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anttal63

Same day I got my chunky trident, I also bought a swamp cypress, cedar deodara and this larch. Now unlike the trident at $25, the cedar at $40 and the cypress at $17 this larch cost me $135, which I was happy to pay. Expecting big things from this tree today I commenced the work.



Re potting was first on the list because I want to use guy wires to pull these branches down into shape. What I have in the way of roots above the soil is ugly, hoping I would get lucky under the soil so I could cut this one off. Nope that aint gonna happen, Under the soil was more crapp. One sided, grotesque and just butt ugly. This is what you get when you bung a tree in the ground and leave it there for a few years and then lift it and force it into a tub that’s too small. Yep this is the reality of commercial growing. So that all that time gaining girth is now going to be wasted fixing the last guys mess under the soil level.



Me I don’t accept this and that is one of the reasons I enjoy growing my own and when the time comes I know they will be value for money. So why do I buy these trees? Simply for the passion to work on species I haven’t grown yet and advanced stock I haven’t quiet got yet. At the mercy. Anyway enough whinging back to work. Check it out.

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Antonio . . .
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anttal63

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Antonio . . .
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anttal63

Photo’s 84 & 85 are what I eventually got the roots down to. This process took 2.5 hours meticulously hosing and picking at it. I have now, re potted into the right size pot (3 size’s bigger). I have changed the planting angle to lean the big root on top down into the soil. This angle actually puts the mess more in line and hopefully with some new roots growing from the trunk things can only get better.



The tree itself as you can see is in the bottom 40% of the tree yet at the top I have an opportunity for a decent air layer. I have pruned the top 60% to accommodate this. The bottom I have made some selections and will address it at my clubs workshop next week. Even though the tree has nice taper to a certain point, half way up the prospective tree there is some swelling because there are too many branches growing in the same area. By elimination of some, growing out the bottom branches and keeping the upper section in check this should be resolved within a couple of years. Or I could find a new leader to take over under the swelling. That’s drastic considering there is an extra few inches of good taper and movement above it.





This is all called multi tasking your tree. It can do it as long as you get your priorities right and help it along.



Now being a slightly more mature than the previous material featured on this thread the pruning of the top and roots has been less aggressive. Although by the time I’m done here next week the tree as a whole has under gone a lot of work and that will be it until next year.



Here are photos showing the tree’s many faces. I would really appreciate it if you guys out there could give me your thoughts on what front and branches you would choose to style this tree with.




Thanks to all who checked out this post and stay tuned for the next episode of

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Antonio . . .
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