Larch Suggestions/Advice

[W3rk]

I have this pair of young J. Larch that I picked up about a year ago. I wired them up immediately but had to remove the wires by mid summer and additional growth reduced some of those bends. They may have struggled a bit in the dead of summer here, but overall they grew incredibly well.

Things I know:
Buds are swelling and I will re-pot them & look at/work the roots some soon (I did not touch the roots when I potted them up a year ago).
Overall I'm interested in generally smaller/shohin sized trees.
I need to look out for and protect some of the lower and interior branches (from being shaded out by the many higher and larger branches).
I've looked at a lot of the info from Arihato on Larch - so I understand some things like: no bud no branch/that Larch don't back bud.
There are some spots with 3 or even for branches all coming out of the same node, so I'll want to remove a number of those.
And I'll want to be sure to use sacrifice branches to continue to grow and fatten my base.

Reference photos:
1.


&2.

 

[WNC Bonsai]

I have 10 Larix laricina and all have already started budding out with little green shavnig brushes all over the branches. I am surprised you Japanes larches are still dormant in Md zone 7a. These things grow like weeds in the right conditions and the trucnks can thicken up quickly in the ground or grow pots. I will eventually put mine in a forest once they get thick enough but for now I have them in oversized bulb pans and am letting them grow wild.

 

[Jorgens86]

Can i see how your larch is doing now?

 

[W3rk]

Can i see how your larch is doing now?

Sure thing, they are currently looking good/in good health and very bushy.

 

[Jorgens86]

Sure thing, they are currently looking good/in good health and very bushy.
View attachment 246232

Wow. Looking realy healty and good. Thumps up

 

[parhamr]

Nice! How much sun do they get each day?

I think mine gets 6 hours of full sun and then another 4 of partial shade. I’m not sure if I’m doing it right.

 

[vancehanna]

Larix Larcina are a nice choice. I collected this (now 3 trees) (originally 5) forest as 'small seedlings approx 4~5yrs old around 1985. They will grow if left unabated and as time moves on you can easily bend and wire per necessary. I moved it to this cement 'rockery' that I made about ten years ago....currently it needs a lot of work in trim and wire prior to a show.

 

[Jorgens86]

Nice! How much sun do they get each day?

I think mine gets 6 hours of full sun and then another 4 of partial shade. I’m not sure if I’m doing it right.

Hey. You dont have any sunburn?? It was realy hot here, 32+c and got a bit sunburn. Mine is full sun about same time your tree.

 

[parhamr]

Hey. You dont have any sunburn?? It was realy hot here, 32+c and got a bit sunburn. Mine is full sun about same time your tree.

One branch shows a tiny touch of sunburn. It hasn’t yet been that hot yet, here. I think it was only 28 C for a few days.

 

[Jorgens86]

One branch shows a tiny touch of sunburn. It hasn’t yet been that hot yet, here. I think it was only 28 C for a few days.

Could you make a picture of sunburn?

 

[W3rk]

Nice! How much sun do they get each day?

I think mine gets 6 hours of full sun and then another 4 of partial shade. I’m not sure if I’m doing it right.

Mine are at the "back"/east side of my deck so that they are shaded until early afternoon. They get 4-ish hours of mid afternoon sun. It's been great so far but heading into peak summer/sun it may be less than ideal for them. They struggled some in the dead of summer last year, so I will likely look to reposition them soon.

 

[parhamr]

Could you make a picture of sunburn?

I’ve blown out the color saturation so it’s even more pronounced:


The lime green foliage is fresh and not yet hardened, the darker green foliage is the standard color, and the browned foliage at center was sunburnt.

 

[twisted trees]

Sure thing, they are currently looking good/in good health and very bushy.
View attachment 246232

Trim those long branches back. Larch are very terminal oriented and the back buds get suppressed by the terminal growth. Also, long sacrificial branches don't work on larch for trunk thickening. Instead treat sacrificial branches like regular branches. The extra foliage works better. Otherwise induce that branch to become a leader.

 

[GGB]

Larch in Maryland, nice. I noticed meehans sold strictly Japanese larch. I assume they find the. To be the most heat tolerant? I didn’t ask. I grow American larch which are supposedly a little less tolerant. No problems yet. I almost never shelter them in winter, use a deeper pot than most trees, and move them to full/partial shade if there a heat wave above 99 degrees, otherwise full sun is what they love