Anyone interested in Chicago Yew Yamadori

[fore]

I'm laying out overwintering plans. I'm going to have at least 2/3 on the ground. Should I just place them directly on the ground or say lay 2 2x4s and lay them on the boards? I can see the former perhaps stabilizing the root zone, and I can see the latter for better drainage.

Thanks!

 

[Poink88]

Chris,

I have no experience over wintering but I think putting them on 2x4 will leave an opening for the cold air to creep up the root zone (bad). Just my thoughts but I may be mistaken.

 

[mcpesq817]

For my collected yews that had been collected that spring, I have them in either nursery containers or Anderson flats. I sat them right on the mulch bed that is against my detached garage with southern exposure, and they survived just fine without drainage issues. That being said, I did, out of an abundance of caution, move them into the garage when the temps were going to get below 25 degrees - probably unnecessary, but we don't get too many nights like that where I live. Being in Chicago, however, things are probably quite different.

 

[fore]

Thanks guys, exactly what I thought too about the ground acting as a buffer. Just wanted to be sure.

This yr btw I'm getting some 3" foamcore/insul sheets for the side walls and 1" for the curved top. I should now be able to keep the hoop house above freezing. I've been using cardboard which did help, but did allow and occ. freeze. The insul. should work much better.

 

[fore]

I've been looking at a lot of yews for design ideas. Seems most style it as a pine, or with a lot of deadwood. Since the 'natural' yews Ive seen are landscaped yews...so bushes. But what is a 'natural yew' supposed to be styled as? (It's one critique I've heard over and over at the Midwest show by the guest judge...styling a tree in a form that's not seen in nature.)

Here are two of the deadwood style that I have pics on this hd.

 

[tmmason10]

You bring up an interesting point. I haven't been to a critique in person but have seen them on YouTube, and from what I remember when you have a species that isn't really known for its growth habit in the wild( yew, boxwood, etc) that you kind of have the freedom to style it as "yew" like. I would go with a juniper-esque heavy deadwood tree with your collected yews.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Here are a few yew for you to view...

I think the tree in your second photo is a podocarpus...fwiw.

 

[fore]

You bring up an interesting point. I haven't been to a critique in person but have seen them on YouTube, and from what I remember when you have a species that isn't really known for its growth habit in the wild( yew, boxwood, etc) that you kind of have the freedom to style it as "yew" like. I would go with a juniper-esque heavy deadwood tree with your collected yews.

That makes sense Tom, Thanks. And I totally agree with your suggestion, and like Brian's photos. It's the style that seems to be my preference too.

And Thanks Brian for those photos. Are those your friends? Beautiful! And "Doh" on the podocarpus, though I still like the deadwood lol I do have other photo's on another hd, I'll post them when I change drives. I can never get enough photo's of junipers/yews with gorgeous natural or carved deadwood

 

[fore]

Well, some bad news. We had a huge storm come thru last night, and a limb of a tree knocked the largest one (of course) over. The tree's only held in place w/ thick steel wired onto a couple branches. But it fell to a 45 degree, so the soil stayed in place, mostly. Though the top end lost about 2" of soil. When I righted it up, I couldn't move the tree, so I'm pretty sure it didn't shift much. I gathered up the soil, and replaced it back into the box. I worked it back in w. a bamboo stick. I did have to back fill in some around the top end nebari to give an idea of how much got knocked over.

Overall, I think it'll be ok. It's getting winter protection too.

 

[fore]

Brian, I have quite a bit of pumice now. And considering how wet my turface, grit and lava stayed all summer long, I'm wondering if I should repot these yews come spring, or just leave them in the present soil and just cont. the misting regimen?

 

[mcpesq817]

I never babied my collected yews, and they've all done just fine - no misting, full sun, lots of fertilizer, etc. The main work that I did over the first two potting seasons was to flatten the root pad and remove all the field soil.

First season I hosed the rootball and cut as many roots as I felt comfortable cutting. Second season I went back in, removed the remaining downward growing roots, cut off the dead roots, and hosed out the remaining field soil. Between season 1 and 2, the yews put out a ton of fine feeder roots and seemed to abandon some of the old roots. So, I went ahead and cut out all those dead roots which helped me to get right under the trunk and clean things out. None of the trees missed a beat, and they all started putting out lots of foliage.

 

[fore]

I never babied my collected yews, and they've all done just fine - no misting, full sun, lots of fertilizer, etc. The main work that I did over the first two potting seasons was to flatten the root pad and remove all the field soil.

First season I hosed the rootball and cut as many roots as I felt comfortable cutting. Second season I went back in, removed the remaining downward growing roots, cut off the dead roots, and hosed out the remaining field soil. Between season 1 and 2, the yews put out a ton of fine feeder roots and seemed to abandon some of the old roots. So, I went ahead and cut out all those dead roots which helped me to get right under the trunk and clean things out. None of the trees missed a beat, and they all started putting out lots of foliage.

Thanks guys. 2/3 are in way too deep containers, and all 3 in shitty soil. It'd be great to get in there and cut back the tap root so I can get it in a 6" box. I'm sure I'd get much better root growth in pumice.

 

[discusmike]

Cordless saw zaw with pruning blade always helps me, I'm gonna try a come along.good luck

 

[discusmike]

Just seen your collection, nice

 

[fore]

I never babied my collected yews, and they've all done just fine - no misting, full sun, lots of fertilizer, etc. The main work that I did over the first two potting seasons was to flatten the root pad and remove all the field soil.

First season I hosed the rootball and cut as many roots as I felt comfortable cutting. Second season I went back in, removed the remaining downward growing roots, cut off the dead roots, and hosed out the remaining field soil. Between season 1 and 2, the yews put out a ton of fine feeder roots and seemed to abandon some of the old roots. So, I went ahead and cut out all those dead roots which helped me to get right under the trunk and clean things out. None of the trees missed a beat, and they all started putting out lots of foliage.

Mcpesq, not sure why I didn't ask this in Dec., but you put your recently collected yews under full sun? I'd assume Va. and IL have similar weather...

 

[mcpesq817]

Mcpesq, not sure why I didn't ask this in Dec., but you put your recently collected yews under full sun? I'd assume Va. and IL have similar weather...

Yep, full sun, plenty of water and fertilizer. Our weather is hotter and more humid than yours. They sat in nursery containers or anderson flats on the ground, and had no problems. Plenty of back budding, and the ones in the anderson flats started rooting into the ground.

 

[fore]

Yep, full sun, plenty of water and fertilizer. Our weather is hotter and more humid than yours. They sat in nursery containers or anderson flats on the ground, and had no problems. Plenty of back budding, and the ones in the anderson flats started rooting into the ground.

Thanks for that info! I may follow this advice as last yr, 50% shade cloth and misting = constantly damp soil. So I was wondering if more direct light would help.

2/3 are holding up well in the hoop house. One has had some die back, but still has other area's with strong green foliage...we'll see come spring time.

 

[mcpesq817]

I was a bit skeptical of the advice you got for the shade cloth and constant misting. Yews are really tough. I've dug up five on three separate occasions, and got a recently collected one at a workshop. For each, I hosed the rootballs off to get as much of the field soil/clay off, cut as many roots, especially thick ones, as I felt comfortable with, and cut off a lot of top growth (I always leave some green on each of the thicker branches or sub-trunks).

Then, they are placed in Anderson flats, and if the rootballs are too big for the flats, they go into the smallest nursery container that will fit them. From there, they go into 100% inorganic mix, with full sun, watering every day as with my other trees, and heavy fertilization as with my other trees. The following year, I repot to further flatten the rootball and get out the remaining pockets of field soil that I wasn't able to get to the year before.

I've only lost one of the six yews doing this - and that was one that was collected from very dry rocky soil under an oak tree, and I wasn't able to get much roots on it. It was doing ok until I accidentally hit it with the lawn mower during that first summer and it got loose in the pot and died shortly thereafter (hadn't rooted much at that point unfortunately).

 

[fore]

I was a bit skeptical of the advice you got for the shade cloth and constant misting. Yews are really tough. I've dug up five on three separate occasions, and got a recently collected one at a workshop. For each, I hosed the rootballs off to get as much of the field soil/clay off, cut as many roots, especially thick ones, as I felt comfortable with, and cut off a lot of top growth (I always leave some green on each of the thicker branches or sub-trunks).

Then, they are placed in Anderson flats, and if the rootballs are too big for the flats, they go into the smallest nursery container that will fit them. From there, they go into 100% inorganic mix, with full sun, watering every day as with my other trees, and heavy fertilization as with my other trees. The following year, I repot to further flatten the rootball and get out the remaining pockets of field soil that I wasn't able to get to the year before.

I've only lost one of the six yews doing this - and that was one that was collected from very dry rocky soil under an oak tree, and I wasn't able to get much roots on it. It was doing ok until I accidentally hit it with the lawn mower during that first summer and it got loose in the pot and died shortly thereafter (hadn't rooted much at that point unfortunately).

I'll have to do quite a bit of root reduction to get these in an Anderson flat...aren't they like 15x15x4-5"? I could prob. get one trees widths down to under 15", but doubt I can fit the other two into 4-5" depth. I'm making some grow boxes this winter to keep me occupied lol. So I'll make two as small as I can...I remember the root system well so I can appx. the sizing.

Thanks for the advice Mcpesq.

I know Brian told me to keep them under the shade and misting for another yr., but I've really need to get these to be more vigourous so I don't have to worry so much about the cold on them next yr. So what my plan is is to introduce them to sun slowly and see how they respond.

 

[mcpesq817]

I'll have to do quite a bit of root reduction to get these in an Anderson flat...aren't they like 15x15x4-5"? I could prob. get one trees widths down to under 15", but doubt I can fit the other two into 4-5" depth. I'm making some grow boxes this winter to keep me occupied lol. So I'll make two as small as I can...I remember the root system well so I can appx. the sizing.

Thanks for the advice Mcpesq.

I know Brian told me to keep them under the shade and misting for another yr., but I've really need to get these to be more vigourous so I don't have to worry so much about the cold on them next yr. So what my plan is is to introduce them to sun slowly and see how they respond.

The flats I've been using are about that. To give you an idea of how aggressive you can be with these, here is a fairly big yew that I dug up in spring 2011 for free in response to a Craigslist ad (this is the smaller of the two I dug up at that time).

First picture shows the rootball after I brought it home and hosed it out. Like many yews, there were two planes of thick roots. The top plane of roots will end up as jins, so those ended up above the soil line. I was able to hack the rootball back so that I could fit it in a flat.

The next pictures show the tree in spring 2012 after additional root work. I was able to completely flatten the base, remove all the old thick roots, and get rid of all the remaining clay. You can see what kind of fine root growth I got after one year, even after hacking back the top the prior year. I also left it and the others out all winter, except for when the lows got below 20. They didn't miss a beat.

I don't know that you need to slowly adjust yours to full sun. If they were mine, I would just leave them out in full sun in the beginning of the season.