5 -Year Native Tree/Native Pot -Thuja considerations. (HorseloverFat)

[HorseloverFat]

I have several Thuja candidates in mind.. but have only collected one for the fall... but will use this thread to document the other potential “contenders” in this specie class, as well...

Here’s this first, STUPID one... It tripped me down a ravine... so we are not exactly “on good terms” yet... but it has some reeeally interesting lines that I believe could be used to my advantage... i’m aiming for “grace”

(Pictures are crappy.. i need to “take a lil off the top” to balance the collection trauma.. but these are the images I have NOW)

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Don't take any "green off the top" to balance to the roots. That advice is a hangover from gardening pre-history. With conifers, you keep majority of the green to provide the carbohydrates and the hormones needed to get active root growth. If there is too much green and too little root, the conifers are fairly well compartmentalized, meaning one root supports one branch. If you cut off green, you might actually kill roots. Some green will die, those are the branches that did loose their connected roots.

Junipers are highly compartmentalized, Thuja, less so, but they are compartmentalized much more than a deciduous tree. Elms are not compartmentalized, so you kill one root of an elm, the other roots just take over and take care of all the branches.

So Junipers, pines, Thuja, Chamaecyparis, Picea, and other conifers are moderately to strongly compartmentalized. With these you do not "balance foliage to roots" after collection or transplanting. This is the reason you are often warned to not remove more than 20% to 25% of the roots of conifers when you transplant. Usually that amount of root removal the conifers can reroute water resources to all the branches. More removal than that and specific branches may simply die because not enough water resources can get to them after their direct root life line was broken.

 

[HorseloverFat]

Don't take any "green off the top" to balance to the roots. That advice is a hangover from gardening pre-history. With conifers, you keep majority of the green to provide the carbohydrates and the hormones needed to get active root growth. If there is too much green and too little root, the conifers are fairly well compartmentalized, meaning one root supports one branch. If you cut off green, you might actually kill roots. Some green will die, those are the branches that did loose their connected roots.

Junipers are highly compartmentalized, Thuja, less so, but they are compartmentalized much more than a deciduous tree. Elms are not compartmentalized, so you kill one root of an elm, the other roots just take over and take care of all the branches.

So Junipers, pines, Thuja, Chamaecyparis, Picea, and other conifers are moderately to strongly compartmentalized. With these you do not "balance foliage to roots" after collection or transplanting. This is the reason you are often warned to not remove more than 20% to 25% of the roots of conifers when you transplant. Usually that amount of root removal the conifers can reroute water resources to all the branches. More removal than that and specific branches may simply die because not enough water resources can get to them after their direct root life line was broken.

I will apply/catalogue this information immediately! Thank you, so much, as always.