Collected western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla)

[Cruiser]

Collected late Spring 2021
-1200’ elevation. Southern aspect.
-Located partly underneath hemlock canopy but good sun exposure.
-Growing in duff layer over sandy-rocky soil on roadside slope. Minor pistol-butt and uneven root growth on uphill side.

Put into a large pot with collected substrate and standard potting mix. Kept in partially shaded location for most of summer.

August 29, 2021

Damage to a large root occurred when tree was removed. A few months in, and it’s starting to roll over. Wound closure is rapid with this species.


Lots of fine branches and inner foliage.

 

[Cruiser]

January 14, 2022

Height reduction. Wooden block used to spread trunks. Small inner foliage pruned in favor of larger more developed branches (a mistake). Branches wired.

 

[Cruiser]

August 23, 2022

More branch pruning. The wooden block was damaging trunks so it was replaced with a tennis ball.

 

[Cruiser]

January 20, 2023

 

[Cruiser]

January 25, 2023

Subordinate trunk reduced further. More branches pruned and re-wired.

 

[Cruiser]

April 8-9, 2023
Swelling buds. Green starting to peek through golden bud scales. Time to repot.





Fresh white root tips confirm good timing for the repot. The original collected soil, layers of organic duff and sandy soil, are conspicuous.


Roots combed out. Some were rinsed. Removal was kept to a minimum.



New substrate is a mix of the collected soil, potting mix, and sifted pumice.
This species prefers organic soils and likes things a little bit wetter.


Planted into shallow Anderson flat. Not the final planting angle. Just the best fit for now.

 

[Cruiser]

April 28, 2023
Buds have opened. New growth emerges.




May 4, 2023
A high degree of shade tolerance allows for decent growth all over the tree, not just branch ends. However, top and tip growth is still stronger.




May 14, 2023
Tried pinching the tips off strong shoots.



June 17, 2023
So far so good. Decent growth all over tree. Not sure how much of it was due to pinching.

 

[Cruiser]

August 8, 2023
Small amounts of foliage still emerging. Not as vigorously as before.



Although western hemlock can have proportionally long branches, the width of the canopy was off. I decided to cut most of the large diameter branches to promote small inner growth.
The understory tree also got a haircut.

 

[Cruiser]

9/16/23
The pruning last August appears to have resulted in a minor flush of new growth.




Current: 9/16/23

The tentative plan is to portray a forest hemlock growing on an unstable slope. When its foundation moves, it sometimes does too. Its planting angle changes. The result can be a curved trunk base on a relatively straight forest tree.





Heavy, long duration snow loads and other processes can also create curved trunk bases.


I might kill the subordinate trunk or break it and leave one branch remaining. The idea is to portray rot and associated breakage from schweinitzii fungus.


The small hemlock will stay. I’ll try to make it into a suppressed understory tree. Around here, not many other tree species can survive under a hemlock canopy, but other hemlocks usually can. (Western red cedar, yew, and holly too.)

Why try to grow up at this point? Focus where the best light is.


This suppressed hemlock was fortunate to be growing where a gap has recently opened up in the canopy. It has been released from near constant shade. Now it has enough over head sun exposure to grow up, instead of searching for dappled light laterally.
When this happens to hemlocks that have been suppressed for a very long time the different stages of growth can become very apparent in the trees form.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Nice!

If not done yet, you might check out Michael Hagedorn’s blog showing progression of Hemlock on a slant procedure. Michael’s uses a cutting board material to save weight. Pretty innovative series of posts.

cheers
DSD sends

 

[Cruiser]

Not yet. Is this the blog you’re referring to?

Mountain Hemlock On Levitated Nylon Board

Yes, that is the correct headline… bonsai on plastic. I wasn’t too sure of it myself. In the late summer of 2010 I collected this Mountain Hemlock, Tsuga mertensiana, with my friend Ant…

crataegus.com

I do like the idea of a lighter pot, but was thinking of something crescent shaped rather than slab.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

That’s Michael’s blog.

Snoop around it a bit. This post looks like one of his older Iterations of this technique. I think he used a number of trees, in cluding vine maple on these.

cheers
DSD sends

 

[Cruiser]