Welcome to Appalachian Bonsai!
Today, I'm going to give you a couple of tips about collecting that,
that I've been asked frequently over the last three years of doing this channel.
And I'm going to be throwing a lot of information out.
So, just bear with me, and we'll get through this together!
The best time of year to collect trees is in the springtime or maybe late autumn.
Spring is a great opportunity to collect trees.
1: It's cool outside, so you can sit there and work,
2: The trees are still in dormancy, but are just starting to wake up.
And that's a really opportune time to collect these trees.
The nutrition that is stored in the roots is being filled into the trunk
and it starts to push those buds out.
Once that happens, the trunk is filled with energy, with nutrition, with sap.
Whenever you cut the roots, whenever you cut the top,
you are basically creating a battery of stored energy.
That stored energy will help sustain the tree until it produces new roots and new leaves.
So, spring is the best time to collect for me.
With other trees, you can collect in the autumn time.
That would be late fall, because again, the tree is
going into dormancy, so it is filled with nutrition and energy. It's not in a growing phase.
It's a slowing down process.
You can cut the roots, cut the top, and the tree will store its energies
Put them into a poly tunnel with some good humidity until the springtime when it wakes up.
For me personally, I collect in the spring.
Bad thing about collecting in the summertime or the wintertime,
I hope it would be obvious, but to let you know,
But in the wintertime the tree is not growing.
So it may not have the opportunity to callous over, to quarantine off those cut areas
During a time when it's supposed to be asleep.
It has to expend energy in a time when it shouldn't be expending energy.
It needs that energy to survive the wintertime.
In the summertime, which we are entering right now,
it's really hot! There is a lot of sunshine, which means dehydration.
You have a lot of growth, which means the foliage is out and vibrant, and using up the energy.
That foliage is expiring moisture, and that'a reason why we're having to feed so much water into these things during the summertime.
It's not a good time to collect.
You have a really high chance of killing a tree if you're collecting it in the summertime.
If you want to have an understanding of when I'm collecting,
Just look at the bottom of the video, at the very beginning when I do the splash screen.
It should say 'Spring' or it should say 'February,' 'March,' sometimes even 'April.'
That should give you a good indication of what time of year I am doing a certain task.
You'll see this in the Arthur Joura video coming up. That took place back in March.
It's going to make a big difference about how you do your own
pruning, clipping, collecting, growing processes.
It's very important for plants.
When you're collecting, know what you're collecting.
Are you collecting a hornbeam? Are you collecting a maple?
Are you collecting a juniper or a pine?
That should give you a good indication of what you should for aftercare.
Most deciduous broad leaf trees I deal with definitely have a similar reaction when it comes to collecting.
They will callous over. They will push out new leaves in four to six weeks.
As long as the conditions are right.
And generally that's correct if you're collecting at the correct time.
as mentioned earlier.
One thing you need to be aware of is, you can, in many cases,
remove most if not all of the soil of a deciduous tree here in the eastern United States.
These are not small rootballs.
These are not found in tiny cracks
Most of the deciduous trees you've seen me collect are in fields or loose coarse soil.
That's different whenever you're in a self-sustained small crack like a mountain pine.
The mountain pines need that small ball of soil.
Those junipers really require that small ball of soil to sustain themselves.
That's how they've lived for one hundred plus years.
And if you suddenly extract all of that old soil, you're going to cause them to go into shock.
They're going to put out juvenile foliage. They're going to suffer. They're going to die.
There's a lot of things that can go wrong.
So, it's important to understand what you're collecting, where you're collecting,
and some of the things about the tree when you're collecting.
If you're out collecting a tree and it has a lot of good roots around the outside,
You can probably go ahead and dig that out and take it with you.
But before you dig, give the tree a wiggle or a shake.
That can help you determine if that tree is solidly in the ground with a big fat taproot.
If you have a big fat taproot, it's probably a good idea to just leave that tree alone.
Or, if you can, leave the younger roots on the sides out,
If you can get that taproot and cut it from underneath
leaving those other roots
then I would do that, leave it for at least a year, come back and check on it, then collect it.
Again, make sure it's the correct season.
People always ask me about the soil.
Soil mix is in the description below
But for now I'll tell you.
Turface MVP is a soil amendment used on baseball diamonds. That's what it's made for.
It's an expanded clay. A fired clay. (LECA.)
It doesn't break down very easily
It retains moisture well enough. It makes a good coarse aggregate.
The second part is pine bark.
I use pine bark soil conditioner, which I purchase at any large store or nursery.
It's chunky and I have to sift it.
All of these components need to be sifted between 2 - 6 mm, or 1/16" to 1/4" in diameter.
I use diatomaceous earth.
It does get down to mush after a couple of seasons.
But it retains great moisture. My trees love it, especially for that first year after collecting.
It drains well. It holds good moisture. Roots just fill the pot.
Lastly, I use coarse sand.
You can use play sand from the store as long as you sift it out.
Mason sand works very well because it's already coarse for going into mortar mixes.
I use 3 parts Turface, to 3 parts Pine Bark, to 2 parts Diatomaceous earth, to 1/2 or 1 parts Sand.
Again that's 3 parts Turface, to 3 parts Pine Bark, to 2 parts Diatomaceous earth,
1 part, sometimes only 1/2 of coarse sand.
Sift it all between 2 - 6 mm, or 1/16" to 1/4" in diameter.
That's it.
It requires you to pay attention to your watering schedule, which means more water
But it's really hard to overwater
It just does a good job. I really like it. My trees do really well with it.
And I know other people who use a similar style coarse mixture. It works well.
Give that a shot
What is a Bonsai?
This here is a Sewara Cypress.
It's a gorgeous tree I've for seven years or so.
This is closer to a bonsai than any other tree I have at the moment.
It does have a lot of guy wires right now.
It has some beautiful limbs, and I think it's going to be a really great tree
This is really close to being a proper bonsai,
which brings me to my last tip.
Bonsai are not the trees I am digging out of the ground.
Those are just pieces of plant material. They're stumps, right?
Even when they put out their leaves and start to take on a little bit shape,
It's still not bonsai.
It might be considered pre-bonsai.
It's not bonsai until it's reached a really strong finished shape of 'tree'
It must be the essence of a tree.
I think you can imagine walking under this, climbing into the branches, and watching 'the birds fly through.'
Thank you, John Naka.
This beautiful dogwood here we've collected
not a bonsai.
If you notice in all of my collecting videos, I say collecting FOR bonsai, not collecting A bonsai.
Because this is not a bonsai. This is just a piece of plant material.
But, it's on its way to becoming a bonsai.
I would consider this pre-bonsai, because it still has a ways to go, but
it has a more refined shape than something that's just been cut and collected out of the ground.
Anyway, I hope this video has been helpful
I hope it answers plenty of questions
I'm sure you'll have more, so leave them in the comments below.
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Thanks for watching!
Early spring is the jam.
Primo!