field growing atlas cedar?

[cutejai]

Hi All,

could anyone please share some information regarding field developing/growing blue atlas cedar, I've spent several hours searching the net and ausbonsai without any solid article.
so far I've got some bits and pieces and would like more advice from experienced growers.
I think field growing cedar is slightly different from decidious in that, lower branch plancement should first be determined before growing in the field.
but what about creating trunk taper? do you use the same trunk chop method like decidious? as I understand scar healing can be very slow on cedar.
and what about root training and nebari?

Regards

[craigw60]

Hi Cutejai, while I have never field grown cedar I have a friend who grew lots of them in the ground and I watched them every step of the way. The thing with field growing (and I believe this goes for all trees) is to do the preparation first. Young cedars are very flexible so you should wire the trunks and set the curves first, you also need to sort out which branches (roughly) you want to keep and which will be sacrifice branches. Make sure you have done some root work before you plant them out, if it were me I would do at least one year prep before they go in the ground. Keep the sacrifice branches low on the tree and you can use them to create taper. Strip all the foliage off the sac. branches close to the trunk and try to wire or pin them down so they don't shade the keepers then allow them to run. The keepers need to be kept pruned while the tree is growing and try to keep as much foliage as possible close to the trunk, do not allow them to get too heavy. Feed them heavily with dynamic or blood and bone while they are in the ground.
Hope that is of some use
Craigw

[cutejai]

Thanks craig for your quick response.

the root work is what confuse me. I read somewhere that says cedars hate root disturbed, so how do I go about root work?
do I just cut off 1/3 of the root ball and tease out some root then plant it on a piece of tile to force horizontal root? because most of the large cedar on display doesn't have any impressive nebari, only a massive root ball, so I guess perfect nebari is very hard to achieve on cedar?

Cheers

[craigw60]

There are plenty of cedar bonsai around so they do root prune easily, atlas cedar make the best trees and are the most touchy. I do all the root work at this time of year ie during the warm months and keep them in the shade for recovery.
You need to cut all the roots heading down under the tree as you would with any bonsai and remove about 1/3 of the remaining roots. I have found the nebari on cedar dramatically improves with age, a couple of my trees are now approaching the 40 year mark and their root system is getting really good, these are not trees to be hurried they take their time and will never really develop thick trunks.
Craigw

[cutejai]

Thanks Craig, I've now teased out the root to make it more spread out and planted it on a tile, will see it in a few years.

Cheers

[rawhide]

howdy
i have this cedar in the ground, Atlas I think ?
I am keen to put it in a pot this year it is about 3 foot tall and a trunk diameter of 3 to 4 inches
it has plenty of branches but just need to make some pads ,intend to do that when it is in a pot .
big question is when should i do this always thought early spring but after reading some of craigs posts maybe mid summer is the go ?
must admit this sounds very risky ,just goes against all i know about repotting and lifting trees
any feed back would be very much appreciated
cheers jason