Manzanita ground layer

[Atrox]

SW New Mexico 5,900'
This a manzanita that has self air layered when the ditch along the gravel road was re graded. This pushed pea sized gravel into the bottom of a large patch, covering the middle of some branches. As shown this branch rooted in a short section before all the gravel washed away. A bit deeper and I hit the natural ground level which none of the roots had penetrated. The root ball came out completely intact with not so much as a crack. I planted it in a 20"x20"x5" wire mesh bottomed grow box. It will spend the next 3 weeks in the shade auto watered once a day until I return to the cabin.

This won't make much of a "bonsai" for many years as the plant is just a bunch of sticks. This was just an experiment in the collection process. For further learning I artificially air layered a few that had much better trunks, but leaving the tops un trimmed. Also air layering others with good trunks but did some initial trimming to the "bunch of sticks" tops. The whole patch has just the first few news leaves open.

 

[Cypress187]

I think it's beautiful.

 

[Arcto]

Curious, how did it turn out?

 

[Atrox]

Now lots of new growth and I was even able to wire some of the skinny branches. Going back up to the cabin soon and will post pics from there.

 

[Arcto]

Great! Always good luck to find one without thick roots to deal with. What species is it?

 

[Atrox]

? from the photo someone may chime in.

 

[Arcto]

Similar to A. Patula up here. Maybe a little more leggy and more pointed leaves. Problem with these are they hybridize quite a bit. Someone from your area could take a better stab at it than I.

 

[Cypress187]

Are there new photo's maybe, we love to watch them and criticize i mean give our opinion.

 

[Atrox]

Will be back up to the cabin end of the week will post pics. The ones in the ground I wont fool with until the rains are going good. Then I may take a peek at how the roots are coming. I am hopeful some of these with good trunks relatively heavy branches will root this summer for collecting next spring.

 

[Atrox]

here is the tree last week. The deer got to it, but turns out it was better "training" than I had planned to do hahaha, tons of new growth in the second flush for this spring.

Here is one I cut from the main plant in May and just now collected.

great new back budding even on the larger old wood.


These both have come from a big patch growing with about 6" of top soil over decomposed granite. There are dozens of possible candidates so I have started some very ambitious preparations. On 2 with 2" trunks and branches starting less than a foot from the ground I dug and cut most of the large roots. Then trimmed down leaving only pencil size branches or larger and removed 2 out of 3 leaves. Our summer rains are in full swing so I have high hopes! We will be back up to the cabin in a month and I will get photos of these test trees. Next Spring will of course tell the real tale of success or --

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I wish manzanita would grow well in my area, but we have too much humidity and rain in our area, foliage stays too wet and eventually they perish. Nice material you have. Inspiring, I'm going to look at some blueberries and see if I can get one with an interesting trunk. They grow well where I am at.

 

[Atrox]

Before Ya start--I know "If one chooses to collect from the wild the one and only reason is to get a trunk" I'm workin' up to that. All I have read about Manzanita is they don't air layer well and they are usually in nearly rock and the dig is usually very large and seldom successful. That is the case with all the others I have investigated near the cabin. As I have said this patch is in 6" of top soil over decomposing granite. We get enough rain here seems the roots don't try to go into the granite much. The second tree above had ground layered on it's own as I have described. I cut the trunk away from the main patch early this spring and collected last week. With a sharp square shovel I was able to cut it free on 4 sides and on the bottom, sized to leave about 2" all around and below to fit in in the box shown. So as I described I am going to try this on a larger scale. The key of course is the topsoil!