English Elm collecting

[alpineart]

Today i had a long awaited visit from Meagi after organizing a dig on a local property .

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I had planned on taking 1 trunk , a raft type contorted and trampled by the stock

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alas it was almost destroyed by the cattle .

We arrived at the site and Meagi was stoked , both of us checked out the trunks walking around the 2 acre site searching for the best of the best for a good hour. A visit from Mick , the land owner and custodian of that Huge Japanese Maple i posted a while back was a god send .He pulled up and said go for it guys i'm slashing them tomorrow . A slight change of mind happened as a chance to collect this type of material a day before destruction i couldn't resist the temptation .

After a few quick spades these come out a treat ,

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the shortest is around 400mm and the tallest was well over 2 metre's .I managed to save about a dozen and Meagi collected a few as well .Arriving home it was out with the spade and into the grow bed with all but 2 . These needed my attention to see quick result ,

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yep Pot ,

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hack ,

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chop

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and wire in a couple of hours .

Due to the fact that these had the smell of cattle on them , "The Bear" rounded up all the offcuts

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and guarded them like a Grizzly bear

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not a Panda . I have put the new trainers up on a platform before he decides to round them up too.

With another day over i was a good result , thanks to Meagi for the time and effort , it's been a productive exercise ,I'll pay the penalty tomorrow.

Cheers Alpineart

[Meagi]

Hi mate
I finally found the tree I was on about I knew it went some where ..( the one on the left ) .
Right on the end of your shovel eh ...
Nah but I was totally lost there was that many to dig and see next time red ribbon for sure search mark and the view again before digging .
The one on the left is off to a great start in only 2 hrs looking forward to seeing it in a few years .
Thanks for the adventure was going to venture home but made it as far as caravan park and flopped on the bed ....
Tomorrow I'll sort out my gems .
Cheers

[alpineart]

Hi Meagi , thanks for a top day too mate , been house bound and lacking enthusiasm towards bonsai for way too long , but not any more . Hope that big wishing well takes off it will be a ripper in its own right .

Cheers Alpine

[time8theuniverse]

The "bear" gets his kicks from the day too!

My dogs are only interested in supervisor positions.

Nice work.

[Olivecrazy]

i would of said hey hey give me a week an there be nothing to slash

[alpineart]

The "bear" gets his kicks from the day too!

My dogs are only interested in supervisor positions.

Nice work.

Hi Mate , he always has a great deal of input , especially if it involves wood or tree's , his done his apprenticeship but i had to sack him , buggers rougher than me when it comes to trimming all is lost . .

Cheers Alpine

[alpineart]

i would of said hey hey give me a week an there be nothing to slash

Hi Oc , mate i'm not that fit , plus i'm supposed to be down sizing not bloody collecting more . If Meagi hadn't turned up today they would have been history .Blessed to have been able to save the ones we collected .These are some pics from back in March

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Some of these are in the Trident grow beds now . Tomorrow the rest will be slashed and smashed down to 100mm high

Cheers Alpine

[fiveoffive]

Looks like im going to have to drop by

[time8theuniverse]

I had planned on taking 1 trunk , a raft type contorted and trampled by the stock

If you can't teach the dog, you just start on the cows.

There's always more room in middle management for The Bear. He would be good at keeping an eye on everyone especially the trained cows.

[alpineart]

Hi Fiveoffive , mate its sad to know the rest will be destroyed . I can almost hear the tractor now crashing and bashing .

Hi time8' , 4 legged vegetarians do a fantastic job on wild material , but you can't teach a meat eater to chew nicely on vegies . Mate his a sheep dog /pussy cat, shari scarred of those big 4 legged creatures , yet he will round up 30 odd Roo's and bring them back to me when we're out walking .

Cheers Guys .Alpine

[Guy]

wondering if they are seedlings or suckers--and does it matter with regard to collecting technique and the end product

[alpineart]

wondering if they are seedlings or suckers--and does it matter with regard to collecting technique and the end product

Hi Guy , mate these are all suckers from the main tree's . Some have grown from minor feeder roots which allow them to grow and produce their own root mass . Others are growing from main roots which over time will produce finer feeder roots under the trunk/trunks themselves .

The suckers are usually but not always from damage done to the root system of the main tree, ie cattle hooves damaging the bark so a sucker is produced to repair the damage or a rock below ground level can do the same damage resulting in a sucker being produced .

When collecting the trunk is usually shaken to see if it is solid or not and if the ground is soft enough it will indicate the approximate position of the main root . This is then the position to dig down and sever the main root , if there is enough feeder/fine roots on the base of the trunks . Sometimes you may have to collect a 2' or 600mm piece of the main root in order to get enough roots to give it the best chance of survival . If the situation arises that i doubt i will grow i score the base and leave it there for another growth season or give up and back fill .

Being in a cow paddock continually grazed and trampled , they usually have a good root mass below the desired trunk to allow you to collect just the trunk off the main root . The more solid the tree the deeper the main root is or the better the root mass under the trunk will be in most cases .

We also went to a swamp to collect a couple but typical of water laden area's the roots aren't as good as the paddock material , very little fertilizer , stagnant water or water logged soil doesn't appear to produce the better root growth , it relies more on the host root from the main tree to keep it alive

All of these except 2-3 we collected had exceptional root masses under the trunks as the cow manure and traffic has continually disturbed the ground around the trunks . I have found the further out from the trunk they are easier to collect and usually have a better root mass although these 2 potted tree's were very close the 1 shown had excellent root mass the other is a 18" or 450mm main root with numerous feeder and will require constant root work to improve the Narebri.

I will pot up a couple of different trunk configurations soon to show the desirable bases against the not so desirable .

Cheers Alpineart

[Meagi]

Finally home after spending the morning in Seymour after the Bonsai Bus blew a fan belt Racv called towed to shop and put on 2 new belts ... back on down the high way we went me ..... and the trees .
all potted up and watered seasoled and waiting .

also noticed a strange thing while potting today look at first photo very closely.... three new shoots ? good sign maybe . don't think we are in for a very hard winter I think the trees know something we don't

[alpineart]

Hi Meagi , mate , that Mr Big /Wishing Well , had better grow after all the trouble we went through to get it out . Glad they got the Meagi Mobile going without too much effort . Nothing like being stuck in the middle of nowhere late at night or early morning that's for sure .

They forecast 20-40mm of rain today falling as snow on the hills , its 19 degree's and sunny with a hot N.E wind . Some of my Ash have began to leaf out just took a look around the yard and its not only the Ash other are budding up . Now they say a cold snap from Sunday with minus temps . As you saw here the Japanese Maples are still in Autumn leaf

Once again thanks for a top day out .

Cheers Alpine.

[GavinG]

Slashed this year, grown back next year, thicker and gnarlier... Good score for you both.

Gavin