Finally found a good legal collecting spot for spruce!

[Tycoss]

Here is an update on the smallest two I'd posted earlier. This little single trunk shohin sized tree took a long time to recover from collection, but is showing good colour and lots of buds now. It may be ready for a bit of wire and pruning this fall.

 

[Tycoss]

This little oddball is much stronger, but it took me a while to come up with a plan as to what to do with it. Great bark for such a small tree:
I expect I should be able to do some wiring and branch selection before long.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Interesting how foliage changed with increased size.

 

[River's Edge]

Interesting how foliage changed with increased size.

This is a common reaction with increased health after collection. The trees selected for collection are often located in harsher environments and struggling for survival. This gives them a good portion of their character and smaller stature. Improving the environment and availability of nutrients naturally leads to an increase in foliage and foliage size. Once the tree has regained vigour the normal techniques can be applied to reduce needle size.
One other disconcerting change is rapid trunk thickening in conifers that can crack the thick aged flakey bark that is prized on some collected specimens.
One step that can be helpful is to limit fertilizer and time the application of same after the foliage has hardened off. For my collected trees I focus on small amounts of fertilizer in the late summer, early fall. The other time I tend to use smaller amounts is a month or so after repots that remove a good portion of the native soil. I also restrict my type of fertilizer to those with overall numbers below 10 in NPK. My preference is organic that breaks down very slowly and is kept in tea bags to allow for removal and limited application. The same principals could apply to liquid fertilizer application if you have a favourite. It is easy to stop and start liquid fertilizer application, particularly with inorganic substrates and low CEC ratings.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Those are some gnarly trunks man! I like em!

 

[Tycoss]

Interesting how foliage changed with increased size.

I actually feel very relieved when the foliage gets big and course. It means the trees survived collection and are now healthier than they were on the mountainside. Light, water, fertilizer etc. Can really change the size and colour of spruce needles

 

[Tycoss]

Those are some gnarly trunks man! I like em!

Thanks, that second tree has been possibly the hardest tree I have to create a decent vision for it's future style, and it's only 6.5" tall! I hope to have post-styling updates on both of these in the fall.

 

[Woocash]

These are some awesome little spruce trees. The sorts of things I wish I’ll find when I enter one of those sprawling nurseries with the old abandoned plants in a dingy corner and you just have them on your doorstep. Amazing. I love P. Glauca.

 

[Tycoss]

The tall skinny bunjin got its first real styling today with the help of my friend @HENDO and eldest son. More Shari extension and branch development to come if it recovers well.

 

[Tycoss]

Hopefully it recovers well and I can get it in a nice small nanban pot next spring

 

[Tycoss]

The other large spruce from the start of this thread got a styling yesterday, with pruning and structural wiring. This and a few other trees will be allowed to grow for awhile before getting some detail wiring in late summer or fall. Thanks to @HENDO for helping so much with the styling. I think it's really getting the rugged but elegant look of spruce in the Canadian Rockies.