Western larches

Ryan Huston said:

Pictures!!

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Here is my sub-alpine larch. 12 years old, 3 years in a pot.

sdavis said:

Here is my sub-alpine larch. 12 years old, 3 years in a pot.View attachment 163859

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Wow, it looks great. Did you grow it from seed or collect it as a young sapling? If I ever attempt to grow larch from seed it will definitely be alpine or western.

Ryan Huston said:

Wow, it looks great. Did you grow it from seed or collect it as a young sapling? If I ever attempt to grow larch from seed it will definitely be alpine or western.

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I don't know how fast them fancy western larchs grow but a tamarack is a rocket.

Ryan Huston said:

Wow, it looks great. Did you grow it from seed or collect it as a young sapling? If I ever attempt to grow larch from seed it will definitely be alpine or western.

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I purchased it as a seedling from Forestfarm Nursery in Oregon.

M. Frary said:

I don't know how fast them fancy western larchs grow but a tamarack is a rocket.

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Tamarack is a fast grower. I have some 2+inch trunks and chopped about 10-12 inches up and,only counted 6 or 7 rings at the chop. Then I have some less than an inch with mature bark. Those were bog collected where ive read they have been nitrogen starved so they grow way slow, hence the older bark usually found on bog collected material

Soldano666 said:

Tamarack is a fast grower. I have some 2+inch trunks and chopped about 10-12 inches up and,only counted 6 or 7 rings at the chop. Then I have some less than an inch with mature bark. Those were bog collected where ive read they have been nitrogen starved so they grow way slow, hence the older bark usually found on bog collected material

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I have one that's under 3/4" in diameter I collected with mature bark and a cone.
I had it for sale at our show but nobody wanted to spend $20.00 for it.
It goes into a nice little drum pot I have and will be $60.00 next year. Odd thing is it will sell then.

This is pretty classic form for ancient western larch nearing the end of life.

Like big hairy carrots with little scruffy branches hanging off tall straight trunks with little taper. Usually the tops are broken off by this time...

Some great examples for inspiration, very old, ancient even......basal scars with perhaps some fire history?

ghues said:

Some great examples for inspiration, very old, ancient even......basal scars with perhaps some fire history?

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That third photo? Bigfoot could rip me limb from limb, but if I had that view, I'd be ok with it......


But he probably wouldn't.....I'm pretty amiable, hell, get enough Guinness in me, I speak a little "Yeti"!!!

Hella' cool spot!!! Absolutely enrapturing!!

Great shots! Even though I am living in the land of a million fall colours, I miss the sweeping yellow mountainsides.

ghues said:

Some great examples for inspiration, very old, ancient even......basal scars with perhaps some fire history?

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Yep, they have seen a fire or two for sure.

LanceMac10 said:

But he probably wouldn't

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You never know.
Lots of people go missing out in the wild with out a trace.
I do hear he likes weed and Pringles though.

Awesome old growth there. Thanks for sharing.

Makes me feel like I'm back out backpacking in a few places I know with mature larch out in western US. The first time I saw them I was shocked to see how much the old ones resemble Ponderosas.
Thank you for the pictures, it's gorgeous.

Good hunting. #1 tree excellent prospect. #2 good Literati prospect. #3 good trunk ? style. Only larch had was about 3 year old pulled up by uncle fall 1959. Kept in yard dirt in pot and did fine until 1990 when "neighbor" did not water while on vacation.

Good hunting. #1 tree excellent prospect. #2 good Literati prospect. #3 good trunk ? style. Only larch had was about 3 year old pulled up by uncle fall of 1959. Kept in yard dirt in pot and did fine until 1990 when "neighbor" did not water while on vacation.

Here is the thin one today.
I repotted last year, when collected it went into a tall nursery container as the roots collected with it were vertically long. When I cleaned away the soil I found a long tapering taproot with many roots down low but only one root high where the usable base of the tree was. I cut there, it felt quite risky but had to be done at some point. Luckily the tree didn’t mind, it will be easy to put into or onto something of a suitable size and shape next time around.

So yesterday evening I worked on it a little bit. This is the first time I’ve touched the foliage or branches in any way at all actually. Two spiral wires, two guy wires and some trimming and snipping. I never try to work out all the fine details with a first styling, hard to even call it styling. My first moves on a tree are usually just coarse moves to kind of open the view into the predicted final style, get main branches close, rough outline maybe.. The whole point is just to make the final hoped for image easier to see. Then I sit on it, take time to make decisions that aren’t obvious, look for more things that can be pruned away, things that should be grown out and developed maybe..just look for ways to make it better before going all in.
Depending on many things that could be next month or 10 years later.

Anyways, that’s just me, often enough the result looks terrible like a kindergartener just tried to style a tree but it’s only a first step. This one was pretty satisfying, a couple very simple easy moves and it came out looking surprisingly sharp I thought. So, I think it will stay much the same but get better. I could see jinning that first branch someday down the road but not before trying to use it well first.