Babies on My Doorstep

[0soyoung]

Total tongue in cheek comment

Not to worry, I got it and I enjoyed the sarcasm - love the stuff almost as much as cheap puns.
I really didn't mean to take the air away.

Sphagnum isn't bad as a growing medium for a few years. With these little seedlings, its handy because I didn't need to wire their fragile little roots into the pots - just made a moss ball and stuffed it into the pot.

 

[0soyoung]

Baby 2 is still going strong. I am starting with trying to make something of it and this year trimmed back growth (to a bud).



Sadly, baby 1 died this year .

But, in August, I found a new cup of tea in the garden . Meet baby 3.

 

[0soyoung]

Baby 2 fell off the table in a spring breeze and broke its pot . Now it is in this glazed thingy, but its buds are bursting nonetheless.

 

[0soyoung]

More babies (a group of 5 in the middle pot, may be a forest someday ). These are all one-year old seedling volunteers - only one bud at the tip of the stem.

 

[TyroTinker]

How are these things doing nowadays?

 

[0soyoung]

I think just two, maybe only one of these made it (2 of the 5 in the middle pot) through this last season. I just cannot make myself stop digging them up when I find them in my yard, so I have several more 'yunguns', such as this one, now in an original vintage @sorce pot with a nice moss carpet around it.

'Baby 2' is now in a shallow terra cotta saucer and getting lankier (I still don't get budding with Dougies).

I didn't repot 'My Cup of Tea' this year. Maybe this explains this year's very compact growth.

 

[Potawatomi13]

(I still don't get budding with Dougies)

When is cutback done?

 

[Pitoon]

How's baby #2 doing?

 

[Gaff74]

Here’s one I collected from the yard (not sure if it was this year or last) and potted up last week.

 

[0soyoung]

How's baby #2 doing?

Baby #2 is still doing well in a 4" terra cotta tray. Buds are only showing up on branch tips, so it is only getting rangier

My cup of tea got blown off the bench this winter and broke it's demitasse. So it got promoted to this little Kataoka Akiji pot. I wish I knew why it has a bud on the left side, just as the trunk goes vertical. If I did, I could fix/repair baby#2.

The one I had in a little sorce pot is still with me .
I've got several more now, including this on in another little sorce pot , but how many can one look at before nausea sets in?

 

[Potawatomi13]

Two true Firs among these if eyes do not deceive.

 

[0soyoung]

Two true Firs among these if eyes do not deceive.

I don't think so, but these two are. White firs, I believe.

1.

2.

Flat arrangement of leaves, whereas pseudotsuga leaves are all around the stem, as you know.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Yes those look as true Firs. Both in Sorce pots and one in red one you hold.

 

[Gaff74]

Today I potted up another baby Doug Fir from my yard. What fertilizer should I use now and in the fall? I put some Schulz 10-15-10 on a few of my Doug Firs and they are putting on a ton of foliage. I’d like to know that the roots are building up, though...

 

[0soyoung]

Great! Fun, fun, fun.

I use Osmocote-Plus and give them about half-a-dozen prills each.

I don't think the form or brand is important; just the management of nutrient minerals matters. Osmocote prills release more fert the warmer it is, roughly matching plant needs, so I'm free to day-dream. If you already have a fert regime, just use that and adjust your schedule accordingly (clearly you are aware of timing for bonsai).

These babies get repotted about every two years. Basically, when it gets blown off the bench is how they get new pots. In fact, the little cup of tea was such a solid ball of roots that it may have had something to do with why the demitasse broke. I'm looking into whether being root bound makes the needles shorter than just being small does. I have a number of bigger ones, too. I repot them about every 2 years now - some in spring before the buds break and the others sometime in summer or early fall (Aug/Sep typically).

 

[0soyoung]

Baby2

 

[eryk2kartman]

Wow, nice man, good progression,

I tried couple of different plants in the small mame pots like yours but i didnt get any one to grow more than 1 season and they were dead.
but you gave me idea, conifers might be way to go.......ive a lot of sprouce and pine seedlings.....
Cheers

 

[0soyoung]

tried couple of different plants in the small mame pots like yours but i didnt get any one to grow more than 1 season and they were dead.

I keep stuff in really small pots sitting atop a tray of fines (small stuff I sift out of my new bag of substrate) and sprinkle the whole works when I water.
Another detail is to not use small grained substrate with small trees - use the same size as you would normally use. I tried to grow some in my 'fines', stuff that falls through a 1/12-inch (12 mesh) screen, and had sickly plants that acted pretty much like your experience.

 

[0soyoung]

Baby 2 first flush 2021





My Cup of Tea first flush 2021




All of my babies have similar jaw-droppingly long first flush extension this year.

 

[0soyoung]

Yes those look as true Firs. Both in Sorce pots and one in red one you hold.

Indeed you are right.
Because I found them beneath my landscape planted 'Candicans', I presumed they were white firs, but I've come to realize that they are Grand firs (abies grandis) that likely trace their parentage to local forest lands on this island (there is a silver lining to Covid19 as I spent a lot of time wandering in the forestlands and improving my dendrological skills).