I'm back at the Boothe farm and I want to let you know how I got access to this property.
I used to work with the lady up on the hill, who owns this, as well as her
daughter-in-law, who lives over here in this next house. And all I did was simply
ask them, and they said "Yeah, absolutely! come on out and take a peek.
Just make sure you close the gate so that the animals don't get out."
Pretty easy.
Important Lesson #1: Goats cannot be trusted.
Well, the goats got through, because goats are jerks.
You! You're a jerk!
Hi.
So, I've got barberry here and here that I have to get rid of.
Oh yeah. Hi.
Alright, now that most of the barberry is out of the way,
we can see what some of this tree looks like from the inside.
I have these three trunks and I'm looking at whether I want to keep them
all or if I want to cut a couple off. What I'm seeing though, is that this has
the most interest with this line right here. This trunk has lots of interesting
features coming down this way. I really, actually, kind of like that little elbow there.
and it has kind of a chunky naturally grown form.
There's some taper here, going from wide to a little bit smaller that way.
These other two... you can see
this one's straight as an arrow for a solid six to eight inches.
It's about eight inches. Again, you can see this guy is just straight, straight, straight.
There's no curve. There's nothing very interesting about this guy.
From the bottom coming back up, there's nothing here that's really exciting.
The excitement comes with this funky, sort of gnarly guy here.
Especially the way that bends down and comes to the little elbow that I was
talking about. This is going to be a pretty cool piece, I think.
This is what I've done. I went ahead and cleaned that up as I said I was going to.
I love the way this guy comes up and then down here. You've got this little "strong-arm"
branch right here that I might end up cutting off.
It's almost like an elephant face. It's pretty neat!
This will all end up getting carved into a little deadwood feature.
I think that'll be really beautiful especially since this has
kind of a gnarled movement and the image of an older tree. Having some dead wood
here just shows that this guy potentially had something that has broken
off and it's regrown and it's just lived a strong life. And that's what this is.
I'm going to dig up the root ball about five or six times larger than the base
of the tree is in diameter. Don't use the shovel to hack away at
large roots. Use a pruning saw or a pair of pruning shears in order to cut them.
Thankfully, this field soil is nice and soft. When you've made it all the way
around, come back one shovel width and do it again. This will allow you to create a
trench around the tree. When you create a trench like this, it
gives you access to the roots that you would not normally have. The more access
you had to the roots the easier your job will be. You will have more room to maneuver a saw
or a pair of pruning shears.
Here's the tree and just below here we have a very large tap root.
It's probably looking at about it's about three and a half inches in diameter at this point.
It's probably a bit larger there. You know that curves up. This is
probably the biggest one that's keeping this tree in the ground. We've had a few
smaller roots like this guy right here, which I was able to cut. There's a few
more on the other side. And I think that once this is cut most of this is gonna
be cake getting out of here.
Important Lesson #2: Always check video card memory before filming.
Well, it's a shame.
It looks like my other camera decided to crap out on me. I'm sorry.
Important Lesson #3: Always wrap the root ball before transporting it.
Well, good. All right. Let's get this home pretty quick.
I'm making cuts to this root system. It's going to allow the tree to sit lower into the pot.
And that will also promote growth at those cuts.
Next, I add it to a bath of rooting hormone and nutrients while I prepare the pot.
You don't need a fancy bonsai container to start with.
This is simply a plastic storage container that I'm
drilling some holes into. The holes are for drainage as well as for wire.
I have the wires already in place and next I'm going to add some soil.
This is a mixture of Turface, diatomaceous earth, pine bark, and sifted sand.
You can find the mixture ratio in the description below.
Position the tree into the pot and then use the wires to retain the root system.
Pull in twist the wires to keep the tree secure.
Add some of your soil mixture into the pot and work it into the root system
with the chopstick. This newly collected root system does not have a lot of fine
roots, so it's very easy to work it in. Work your chopstick up and down, wiggle
it side to side, and start from the trunk and work your way outward.
Whenever you're finished, tap the sides of the pot to get that soil worked in nice and tight.
Make sure you water the tree thoroughly when you're finished.
I even add some of the rooting hormone and nutrient mix back into the soil.
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