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4-Nov-2005
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#1 | |||||||||||
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Collecting Basics
What follows is a combination of many of the smaller articles I have written on collecting, compiled for convenience. Some material has been rewrote, most remains the same.
Collecting From The Wild All who collect should observe the ethical considerations of collecting because the way in which we collect affects collectors worldwide. Unethical collecting can give a bad name to bonsaists everywhere and can make it very difficult for others to acquire permission to collect in the future. The following are some considerations that I personally abide by.
The Three-Year Plan Most of the bigger and older Jack Pines and other species that I have marked in my GPS are on what I call a three-year plan. The first spring after I find the tree I dig a two-foot trench just outside of the drip line, half way around the tree. I use my saw to severe any roots that I encounter and also to lightly prune the tree to remove any branches that will not be needed or to start to encourage back budding. I fill the hole in being sure to mix in some fertilizer and chopped sphagnum moss. I use the granular type fertilizer for this and find that the tree will not put roots out pass this enhanced feed area. The sphagnum moss greatly helps with new root development where I cut the roots. The second spring I repeat the process except I dig my trench on the other half of the circle. By now the roots have recovered on the other side and are now closer to the trunk. I once again mix fertilizer and chopped sphagnum moss in when I fill the hole. The third spring I trench all the way round the tree and reach under to severe the taproot. I then tilt the tree one-way and slide burlap under one side. I tilt the tree the other way and pull the burlap through, completely wrapping the root ball. I tie it off with twine being sure to wrap the twine around the root ball also and then lift the whole root ball out of the hole. A word of caution here; do not lift the tree by the trunk. Doing so will damage the bark and loosen or tear the roots. Collecting On The Spot For trees that are not as old or for trips where for reasons the tree must be collected when variations of the above three-year plan can be used. I have collected older trees in two years or less by making one trench in spring and the other in the fall of the same year and collecting the following spring. Collecting on the spot requires that you get as much as the root ball as possible to assure survival. The soil conditions in the spot you collect will dictate if spot collecting can be done. Some places you will find create naturally tight root balls close to the trunk, others the roots may go on for yards with no feeder roots close to the trunk. The latter trees should be left alone; they are not collectable on the spot and would require a longer plan such as the three-year plan outlined above.
It is always a good idea to be prepared to collect other items while you are out. I have found some nice stones and driftwood while out, save room for these in your pack. One item I always collect whenever I am out is Sphagnum Moss. I not only use this for air layering but I also use it in my soil mix for freshly collected trees and as I have mentioned, I use it to back-fill my trenches when I am spading a tree for future collection. The pictures below are of Sphagnum Moss growing in the wild and a mesh laundry bag which I find is perfect for collecting it.
After Care Once you have collected the trees you wanted be sure to keep the root ball damp, never allow it to dry out. Since I make it a habit to collect sphagnum moss while I am collecting trees, I usually pack the root ball with moss first and then wrap with plastic or burlap. I use my judgment, depending on the overall health of the tree and the root mass to determine if it will go into a training pot, growing box, or straight into the growing bed. I never style a collected tree until one or two full seasons has passed and the tree shows significant signs of healthy growth. I will however prune back to encourage back budding if the health of the tree will allow it. OOPS So you collected that tree you found and to your great dismay, the roots are not quite what you expected. For trees where the root mass is small and there are few feeder roots I treat them almost like an air-layer. I securely tied the tree into a growing box with a soil mixture of 75% sphagnum moss and 25% of free draining soil mix. I have had great success with this method once I realized that I do the same thing to “create” roots from nothing on air-layers. I use this technique only in early spring as it seems to work best then and it allows enough roots to form to allow me to transplant before the seasons end. This technique has also served me well in the past with trees that suffered from rot. Micro Environments Before you collected that tree it was living in a relationship with other plants and fungus. These relationships can be major like the Mycorrhizae in the roots system or minor like living in the shade cast by a larger nearby tree or playing host to the moss and lichen growing on its trunk. There are also Micro Enviroments created by the plants that are growing around the trunk and on top of the root ball. These plants have shaded the root ball, collected dew, held in moisture, supplied nutrients, and hosted a vast collection of micro organisms since the tree was a seedling. The plants roots are intermingled with the roots of the tree, at times sharing the same water, nutrients and beneficial Mycorrhizae with the very tree you are collecting. Removing the tree from its environment is stressful enough without also ripping out these plants that form a Micro Environment that the tree is used to. Removing the plants that make up this Micro Environment will also unnecessarily disturb the fine upper most roots of the tree. When I collect I take great care to collect the whole root ball including all the plants that are growing on it. I am very careful to leave all the plants except obvious weeds untouched as they can removed gradually as the tree strengthens and totally removed at the next repotting once the tree has become accustomed to it’s new environment. In Colin Lewis's book "The Art Of Bonsai Design" on page 115 in a side article about collecting wild pines he states, "Take as substantial a root ball as possible and wrap it very tightly in plastic sheeting and packing tape. Retain the flora growing in the root ball (apart from dandelions and other obvious weeds). This flora forms part of a ecosystem that the pine also plays a role in. They may share mycorrhiza, or some may influence the nature of the nutrient or trace element content of the local soil." He then goes on to say, "Subterranean organisms certainly do have a significant effect on the ability of plants to survive stress such as transplanting. These organisms, in turn, can depend on the local plants for their success. In simple terms, don't break the cycle until the pine is accustomed to living on it's own new root system." The pictures below are of a Jack Pine I collected recently. The first two pictures are of the intact root ball as collected; the third picture is of the root ball after I have taken a chopstick to the edges and underside. I use a wooden chopstick to loosen the soil around the edges and bottom, exposing only the slightest amount of roots. The top is left completely untouched. The only roots I remove are thick ones that protrude beyond the confines of the box it will be planted in and these only if I cannot bend them to fit. Sometimes it is feasible to wire a big root to another, bending it inwards so it fits. Cutting off a root on a freshly collected tree should only be done as a last resort.
Upon potting the collected tree into a training box I set the intact root ball onto a shallow layer of soil and then work a mix of soil and sphagnum moss around all sides, then I slightly cover all the surface plants with a thin layer of soil as I have found that they respond much better this way and will grow up through the soil in a couple of weeks. The pictures below are of the completed potted tree in a training box with the surface plants covered mostly with a soil mix consisting of 70% lava rock, 10% turface, and 20% fir bark.
Let A Tree Be A Tree It has been mentioned in many articles that one should cut back foliage after collecting in order to “balance” the foliage to the recently cut root mass. I believe that there is absolutely no way that we can guess the amount, if any, to cut back to achieve this balance. While it is true that trees have an inbuilt need for balance and that they will go to great lengths to achieve it, I have found that some of the current practices are detrimental to the survival and development of the tree. You see when we slightly cut back the roots on a collected tree we create an unbalance in the tree that the tree is genetically programmed to over come. The excess foliage (in comparison to the freshly trimmed root mass) causes a water loss in the tree by the water diffusing out of the stomata as carbon dioxide diffuses in for photosynthesis and that the smaller root mass can not supply. The solution to this problem is not cutting back the foliage because we can never know how much. Too little and you still have an unbalanced system, too much and you now have another completely different unbalance in the tree. Instead the solution is to let the tree be a tree. The tree will respond to a light trimming of the roots and the resulting unbalance by creating more roots! Yes, exactly what we want and all we have to do is leave it alone. When there are too many leaves on a tree and not enough roots, water stress will increase, leaf growth will stop and root growth will continue until balance is once again achieved. A tree has built in feedback controls hardwired between the foliage and the roots designed so that the tree stays in balance. We see examples of this all the time; in fact often we use it to our advantage, I wonder why we so often go against what we see with our own eyes? In Bonsai Today issue 75 on page 48 Walter Pall states in part two of his "Collecting Trees From The Wild" article, "Trying to balance the crown and the roots of a tree, as is often recommended, makes no sense. The tree itself knows much better what to do. Even Japanese collectors have had the same experience. After digging up a juniper, they leave the branches and needles intact. A year later, they can prune away long branches." Below are some pictures of a Jack Pine that I discovered and collected. You can see from the pictures that none of the foliage has been cut back at all. I will not cut any back until very early spring. At this point I will be using the trees natural balance again but in reverse for another reason. Once the roots have balanced themselves with the foliage, I will then cut back the foliage. The tree will once again respond to keep balance but this time it will be trying to balance the pruned foliage with the roots, forcing out new growth on branches and also new buds on old wood. This technique has allowed me to successfully obtain back budding on older pines.
Against Doctors Orders Imagine going to the doctor for a illness and learning that he recommends no medicine, no food, no vitamins, and warns against anything life giving at all. You and I would automatically label this doctor a quack and seek a second opinion, yet we take the same advice regarding our freshly collected bonsai to heart. It has often been said that you should place a freshly collected tree in the shade and withhold fertilizer for some time. I personally do not subscribe to this school of thought. I cannot see withholding life giving sun or nutrients from a tree that is in great need of repair. A tree is a very complex organism with many built in controls as I have mentioned above. Trees have evolved to deal with injuries in many ways, none of which includes changing location to a shady, sterile spot until it heals. When a tree is injured it goes into a repair mode where cells are produced to start healing wounds and to increase growth in order to replace the missing foliage and/or roots. The tree will once again seek to balance itself and by doing so will require energy in the form of sunlight and nutrients. By withholding either, we force the tree to tap reserves that are best left for uncontrollable events. I have placed freshly collected pines in direct sunlight and started feeding from the minute they are potted. In fact if you count the weakened fish emulsion solution that I often spray on the roots to prevent drying out, I actually start feeding before the tree is actually potted. To date I have had no ill effects and the trees seem to respond better than the others I tried using the "starve in darkness" method. Last edited by Will_Heath : 4-Nov-2005 at 08:21 PM. |
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4-Nov-2005
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#2 | ||||||||||||
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Collecting From The Nursery
I admit that I am a stock addict and recently had to expand my growing beds to make up for all the deals I have found. Over time I have learned a few things about looking for stock at these places and I thought I’d share them here with you. * Take your time - don’t be shy! * Relax, take your time and look at every single plant. * Lift up the pot, brush the needles and leaves away, run your fingers into the soil, feel the roots, see how far down the trunk goes. * Look at the branch placement; see if there is a tree waiting to be set free. * Tip the pot upside down and inspect the root ball, check to see that the roots are healthy and they fill the soil mass. * Beware the nursery trick of putting a 2-gallon plant into a 5-gallon pot and shoving soil in. Don’t pay the 5-gallon price for a 2-gallon plant! Sure the staff will think you’re nuts, I love that, in fact I encourage that perception, that way they leave me alone, in time they will laugh with you! In the pictures below is a Mugho Pine that looks like any ordinary nursery stock on the surface. Only by digging deep with my fingers did I discover the hidden treasure below. Once home, I removed some of the nursery pot rim and the upper surface of soil, amazing what lies hidden sometimes.
Befriend the manager and staff The manager can be your best source for quality stock.
A manager at a local box store calls me now whenever they have a new shipment in and recently has started setting aside the “thick ones” for me. She even asks if there’s any species that I would like to see ordered! Just be friendly and ask: most people love to feel important and are dying to be appreciated. Asking is the key here, explain what you do and answer questions, then ask if you could be notified when new stock comes in. A little grease never hurts either. I gave some extra Auto Show tickets to the man at a box store here and he has never failed to walk me to what he thinks are the best deals whenever I come in. Most still think I’m a little nuts, but we have fun and I fully plan on dropping off a little bonsai to each soon… Be an out-of-season buyer Look for the end of season sales, late fall or winter here is sometimes the best time to buy as the stores are looking to empty out the nursery for the winter. This is a great time to find deals but the selection usually is low and picked though. Knowing the staff sometimes helps with getting forewarning on a sale, see above. Save that trash! Nurseries will toss things that start to look wilted or mark them down considerably. I never fail to make a trip past the dumpster on my way to the store, it’s amazing how many trees and plants are tossed that simply need a little TLC. Knowing the staff will get this stuff set aside for you, see above. Don't be afraid to walk! Never settle for less. Who cares if you just molested every root system in the place? Have standards, and stick to them. On the other hand if you see something you like, buy it now! Waiting will only ensure that it ends up in someone's fence garden. Never, never ask the staff to hold something for you; this only inconveniences them and most likely is asking them to break policies. I recently had the honor of accompanying Vance Wood to a local nursery and learning stock selection his way. The results were amazing.
Collecting From Urban Environments I pass a lot of homes both in the city and up north that has overgrown landscaping and I have found that the simple act of asking a homeowner if they would like those old over grown shrubs removed free of charge usually results in permission happily given. Sometimes I will throw in the offer of replacing the old shrubs with new, fresh, young ones, an offer not refused often. There are literally millions of old over grown shrubs out there. Junipers, Yews, Boxwoods, Rose of Sharon’s, holly, etc. just waiting to be discarded or used. I am sure that most of you have seen shrubs that were fantastic but never stopped to ask, This is a incredible source of developed bonsai stock that should be taken advantage of before they end up in pieces on the curb side. The key to obtaining permission is to be polite and offer a needed service. If you are refused, thank them kindly and leave your number in case they ever decide to make a change. Trust me, they will call you back if you made a good impression. Once permission is given, remember that they will refer you if you do a good job. Always backfill the hole, I carry some grass seed so I can seed the area as well. Never drive on the grass and always leave the area looking better than it did before you came. There is a member of our club that actually advertises this service and charges very little if anything to remove old shrubs and trees. He has acquired some of the best stock you can imagine while performing a valuable service, saving trees that otherwise would have been discarded, and promoting a service that gives all bonsaists a good name. The pictures below show Vance Wood and myself putting a urban collected Cedar into a training box made out of a discarded drawer. The last picture is of a Maple that I rescued from a farmer who was attempting to yank it out of the ground with his truck.
The final word is to get out there, obtain permission and enjoy! Last edited by Will_Heath : 4-Nov-2005 at 08:22 PM. |
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4-Nov-2005
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#3 |
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Still Learning
 
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Great article Will! Thanks a lot for taking the time to compile all of that info into one article.
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8-Jun-2006
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#6 |
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The Putridifier
Join Date: Jun-2006
Location: Rockingham co. NC
Country: USA
Posts: 5
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Awesome Article
This posting is great this is some very useful info and a nice guide. I hope to find more articles like this!
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29-Jun-2006
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#7 |
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bonsaiTALK Journeyman
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The 'Let a tree be a tree' part of this thread was very interesting. It explanes why many of my collected pines don't start new top growth untill late summer the first year after collection. BTW I do the same as you in this regard. I allways leave more (as much as possible) foliage than I will use on newly collected trees.
(One pine I collected last august is just now starting to enlogate this years candles, june 29) This also explanes the reasons for starting fertilizing before there is any new top growth. The roots are probably active and can take up the nutrients even if there is no top growth. Thank you Will. Rune Last edited by Rune : 30-Jun-2006 at 03:25 AM. |
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13-Jul-2006
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#8 |
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Suiseki Mountaineer
Join Date: Jun-2006
Location: Doncaster
Country: England
Posts: 184
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Great article - the regenerative qualities of Sphagnum Moss are very well made and they echo the feelings of Peter Chan who was treating a poorly Juniper that had just been shipped over when I last visited him.
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