Maiden's Liquiambar Orientalis

[Maiden69]

I bought this Sweetgum O. from Brent and received it August 2020. It was planted on a pond basket Spring 2021 after attempting to make a cutting from the top half of the tree. The cutting was not successful because of my inexperience, left the humidity dome off overnight and all the new foliage wilted, no roots, no recovery from that.

This image is from Spring 2021 before removing from the 1 gal container to move into a pond basket.


Spring 2021 after repot. Had I known better that first branch would had been pointed up into a possible 2nd trunk...


The tree did ok while in the pond basket, but I did notice that this tree is very susceptible to drying out. While my other deciduous on colanders were ok with two watering a day, the liquidambar would wilt between the first and second watering. I ended up adding a 1/2" deep water saucer at the bottom of the pond basket. This solved the issues.



The tree spent all 2022 in a Root Pouch on the bench, and it was moved into a grow bed in spring 2023. This was the tree March 2023, it has doubled in width and I am considering doing some defoliation and branch shortening on the lower half this month. I also want to air-layer the top half, it is very straight, but it has a few nice branches I can cut down to change the direction of the trunk. Undecided, I will hopefully make my mind up by Saturday.




Here you can see how the lower branch that I had wired above decided to become the main trunk, and the one that was the trunk just stopped growing. This happened because I was not paying attention to the tree and just letting it grow. I think next spring 2024 I am going to tilt this tree to the left to take advantage of the changes in direction. I know there will be plenty of roots because of the Root Pouch, but I am not sure if there will be too thick near the trunk preventing me to do the work. If so, a ground layer would be the next option, one that I am not looking forward on this tree.

 

[LuZiKui]

dang that has put on a ton of size in a short amount of time, gonna need to test it for PEDs . Nice looking tree, seems like you have some good options for the future!

 

[Maiden69]

Defoliated the lower half of the tree and did some pruning on branches I knew I will not need. Here are some pictures of the "bones", seeking some advice on where to chop the leader to hopefully move this tree into a bonsai pot next spring. I reduced all locations (that I noticed) where there were 3 branches to 2,





Not sure about the small second trunk, I thought it would make a decent mother/daugther, or low first branch but the more I look at it the more I think I will be cutting it off.

Not the same angle, but there is clearly a size difference between now to the March 2023 picture on the right.

 

[Maiden69]

No takers? Where's @Smoke

 

[Maiden69]

Looked at the pics for a while at work and decided to chop the leader.


I think this is the direction I'm going,



Little branch on the right could be a sub trunk eventually


I debated hard against cutting the lowest branch/trunk on the right. In the end I thought it was too thick to keep, and when I was about to cut it I noticed 2 buds peaking out about 1.5" to the center of the tree. I think with careful direction the furthest to the right could be used.


My second idea was to chop a little lower, and use the bud in the back as the new leader, making the tree go up-out-up-out but I think the first chop would be better at this time. The stub left will be carved after dieback. I don't know how liquidambar reacts to chops, I left branches in 3 places around the chop, so hopefully that will be enough to maintain the sap flow up to them to get a decent collar to carve to. There's not that much info out there and Zach Smith website hasn't been updated since ~2022.



Found a pic of when I received it from Brent.

 

[Maiden69]

Decent amount of budding, soon I will start eliminating buds in wrong places to redirect the energy to the keepers.



Love the bark. This is only 3 years from a cutting.




I think this area got sunburnt... hopefully it won't die back.

 

[jszg]

Does the bruised foliage have a fragrance like the American sweetgum?

 

[Maiden69]

Does the bruised foliage have a fragrance like the American sweetgum?

I wouldn't know... never had an American Sweetgum to compare.

 

[Maiden69]

quick update, growth has been decent, got some crispiness on the leave ends because of the heatwave we are going through now but I think the tree will do fine. Will do some branch selection and light wiring on fall, I think I will have plenty of options then.




I did notice some loss of percolation on the roots so I pocked a few holes down to the center to allow more water down there... I think this would be a species that will require yearly bag changes. In contrast my Chinese pistache has been on the bag the same amount of time and the water drains freely down the soil.

 

[Maiden69]

I installed a greenhouse frame with a 50% shade cloth to give the trees a little break from the intense heat this month... I should have done this in May. The tree is doing good for the weather it had to endure this month, lots of crispy edges but nothing mayor. I moved my Chinese Pistache as that one was taking a toll with the heat in front of this one, big advantage of growing in Root Pouch bags, only a few straggler roots get affected.

 

[Corrado]

Do you get any nice fall colors??

 

[Maiden69]

Do you get any nice fall colors??

Not yet... I had issues with this one since the shop. The new foliage burned with the sun, first time since I have it. And it was not percolating well. Most leaves developed black spots. I have not had a chance to check on them other than to see if they are getting watered since we are moving, but I should be able to remove them from the grow bed soon to bring them to the apartment or to a location to be taken care of till the new house is built.

 

[Corrado]

YEs, thats what mine gets a yellow color with black spots and a touch of dark purple.

 

[Maiden69]

YEs, thats what mine gets a yellow color with black spots and a touch of dark purple.

I found a pic I posted last year, not the peak but close. Dec 10, 2022.

 

[Apex37]

Per usual, @Maiden69, you blow me away with how quickly you can build trunks. 3 years is crazy fast for how much this thing bulked up. I have one I also got from Brent about 2 years ago, but have not had nearly this amount of growth. I think I’ve been under-fertilizing everything since getting into this hobby and gonna move towards doing small daily fert with a fert injector and then supplement weekly big fert dump. I also want to play around with some osmocote since I’ve seen so many people use it with great success.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

It is impressive how quickly this tree has developed. A combination of your Texas long growing season and your good horticulture. Nice.

 

[Maiden69]

I think I’ve been under-fertilizing everything since getting into this hobby and gonna move towards doing small daily fert with a fert injector and then supplement weekly big fert dump. I also want to play around with some osmocote since I’ve seen so many people use it with great success.

Last year I was on point with fertilization, this year life got in the way, so not so much. Last year I used Osmocote+ every other month, and Miracle Grow every 2-3 weeks with exception of the very hot summer months. Water 1-2-3 times a day depending on the weather, but keep in mind the soil inside the Rootpouch is completely inorganic. Last year I also started using NPK Industries RAW products, Kelp/Full up/Humic at 5:2, and CalMag added into the Miracle Grow solution.

Pretty much mix everything in a 5 gal bucket at the highest recommended dose and water the trees with it. I think that using a water down daily fert may work with the Miracle Grow but not with the RAW products.

It is impressive how quickly this tree has developed. A combination of your Texas long growing season and your good horticulture. Nice.

Thanks Leo, most of what I do I have learned from most of you guys. The addition of the RAW products I learned from @cmeg1 and I really think it is one of the key elements of the fast development I achieve, and the long growing season of course.

 

[Maiden69]

This one did not wake up from winter. Not sure if it was the freeze we had that killed a few other trees, or the removal from the grow bed in December. I did find what looked like a flying termite, but I didn't have my glasses on and by the time I took the phone out it was gone. I didn't inspect the tree, just picked it up and took it to the dumpster. I will be ordering one soon from Brent, this is definitely a species I want to have in my collection.

 

[Dabbler]

This one did not wake up from winter. Not sure if it was the freeze we had that killed a few other trees, or the removal from the grow bed in December. I did find what looked like a flying termite, but I didn't have my glasses on and by the time I took the phone out it was gone. I didn't inspect the tree, just picked it up and took it to the dumpster. I will be ordering one soon from Brent, this is definitely a species I want to have in my collection.

I've tried a few over the years and they always seemed to give up the gas for no reason - it's cool species I may try it again but not sure

 

[Corrado]

Oh MAn!!Along journey only to end like that!! Did you do a scratch test to see if there is any green underneath??? Sometimes too much water that doesnt drain ends up freezing by nightfall and kills the roots.