Lanky roots. Collection techniques?

[frozenlarch]

Up to this point, I've had about a 95% success rate recovering collected trees with severely cut back roots, and minimal feeders. Larix laricina (Tamarack) to be specific; the tough little buggers grow like weed around here and are fairly quick to recover in live Sphagnum with plenty of shade.

The issue that I'm running into, is a desire to start collecting larger (older) specimens. The few that I have looked at appear to have a root system that stretch out for meters, and out of a certain sense of fear I am reluctant to touch these trees.

I have read much about trenching and back-filling with Sphagnum or loose gravel, but there are still questions and concerns. Such as when to dig, how far from the base of the tree, how deep, and how long to leave it before lifting.

Once again, any advice is greatly appreciated.

FL

 

[JudyB]

I have no experience collecting larch as we have no wild ones here, but I have a book by Nick Lenz that does have a lot of good information about techniques on the subject. It's called Bonsai from the Wild. You can find it at Stone Lantern I know.
Hope this will help.

 

[KennedyMarx]

I read about a two stage process a while back, but haven't done this yet myself. First you trench around the tree with a spade in the spring when you'd normally repot so that the outer roots are severed and it helps to create newer root growth closer to the tree. Then the next spring you can collect the tree which hopefully has created a better root system that will survive collection into a container.

 

[jk_lewis]

Then the next spring you can collect the tree

Assuming someone else hasn't dug it up before you.

The trench is a good mark of a collectible tree. It only really works for trees growing where you have some control over the land.

 

[frozenlarch]

Assuming someone else hasn't dug it up before you.

The trench is a good mark of a collectible tree. It only really works for trees growing where you have some control over the land.

I'd like to think it would be safe in my little corner of nowhere, but there's still that very real possibility ...I guess that's the risk you take. One can only hope that it would go to a good home.

 

[frozenlarch]

Not sure of the rules in regards to posting links, but I stumbled across a writeup this morning, and thought it worth sharing. It goes well above just answering my question.

collecting-basics

I'd say it's worth a read for anyone interested in collecting older trees.

 

[amkhalid]

Larch grow thick trailing roots... thats just the way they are. When I collect larch I always have to break out the saw and make some serious cuts. Every time. Making the same cuts on a pine would be fatal, but fortunately larch almost always (in my experience) have fine feeder roots close to the trunk, even if the main root system is a couple of huge tap root jutting out into the nether regions (which it always is).

My question to you would be... are you sure there are no feeder roots near the trunk? Even ancient thick larch roots throw adventitious roots along their length quite well. Even if there are a few feeder roots, you can saw away the thick roots, try not to disturb the inner rootball, and the larch should survive in dappled sun with lots of misting in the first year. Don't be surprised if it hardly grows during the first year... even if the needles come out 1/4" long. If it sets winter buds in the late summer, you can start to pat yourself on the back.

If there are literally no feeder roots close to the trunk, I guess you have to try some trenching techniques but I collect very old larch from very poor soil without resorting to those techniques.

Here are a few pics. You can see that I try not to disturb the inner root ball during collection. Once I get home, I wash away some of the much to let it breathe a little.

This is my general approach to collecting larch. Trenching around the drip line and cutting thick roots indiscriminately, while trying not to disturb the inner rootball.

This is the bottom of that tree. You can see three huge roots were cut. But a decent amount of feeder roots are hidden in that rootball (most of it though is dead roots and muck).

Potting up the tree shows again the big cuts that were made. This is after hosing out the rootball.

This is a different larch but it was collected in the same way. You can see many thick roots were cut.

Hope that helps. Best of luck with your collecting! Larch are awesome!