Monster juniper yardmadori

[CWTurner]

assume it will be sold to be torn down/land cleared and rebuilt on

If it were me, I would wait for the sale and grab the demo guy and give him $20 to dig those out for you with his machine. In the meantime remove the vines and overgrowth to get them as much sun as possible and water them well till then.
CW

 

[Andrew Robson]

Can you tell the difference between vigorous growth and weak growth? This is not a smart ass question but something that needs to be asked and answered because I have a problem with a lot of the currently circulating wisdom on Junipers, and this area is one of them.

Vigorous growth on junipers means long extensions. What do you need before you can style a juniper? Extensions (which can be from 1 inch to 6 or more inches). How do you get long extensions? Plant the tree in good soil and fertilize well.

Here is a Juniper from Michael's yard nicknamed "the fish". After it was collected, it was put in straight pumice and left to grow strong. Notice how long Michael and Bobby let the extensions grow before styling it...

https://crataegus.com/2015/04/01/return-of-the-fish/

https://crataegus.com/2013/08/20/big-juniper-project-the-fish-part-i/

https://crataegus.com/2013/08/21/big-juniper-project-the-fish-part-ii/

https://crataegus.com/2013/08/22/big-juniper-project-the-fish-part-iii-finis/

 

[drew33998]

Where is the tree in the deadwood?

 

[Atrox]

OMONO Since you collect in NM as do I, I was wondering if you have collected alligator juniper? Aside from the grail of growing in a dish in a big rock my experience with ones like above is that they are very fragile. I see photos of folks packin' giant junipers with just a bit of a root ball and they pop em in a grow box and off they go. I have learned, foe me,not to cut any! green until the 3rd year or so and big roots must be cut at least a year before collecting.

This one was collected the same year as the first one but I did some pruning and bending. As you see it is not as happy as the 1st one. It was full and green to start with, I didn't prune to the above state just had lots of dying. This is the 3re spring after collection for both.

 

[aml1014]

View attachment 104057

OMONO Since you collect in NM as do I, I was wondering if you have collected alligator juniper? Aside from the grail of growing in a dish in a big rock my experience with ones like above is that they are very fragile. I see photos of folks packin' giant junipers with just a bit of a root ball and they pop em in a grow box and off they go. I have learned, foe me,not to cut any! green until the 3rd year or so and big roots must be cut at least a year before collecting. View attachment 104058

This one was collected the same year as the first one but I did some pruning and bending. As you see it is not as happy as the 1st one. It was full and green to start with, I didn't prune to the above state just had lots of dying. This is the 3re spring after collection for both.

I personally haven't collected alligator junipers bit several people on my club have. My teacher Connie has 7 that I can think of that her husband and her collected about 35 years ago. I'll have to ask her what her tricks were back then as she's in her 80s and can only walk around the block let alone go collecting, so I'll have to learn from her past experiences.
I'll shoot you a PM as soon as I see her again on Tuesday.

Aaron

 

[aml1014]

This thread can sadly die, as did the tree. Several days in the high 90s and the inability to move the tree to full shade spelled it's doom .

Keep an eye out for a thread in the future, where I've already got a plan for the beastly hunk of deadwood I'm left with.

Oh well, you live, you learn. Next time I'll try to push it off until spring and maybe they'll do better.

Aaron

 

[barrosinc]

 

[aml1014]

I'll leave a quick spoiler. With the remaining deadwood, I'm planing on doing and extremely controversial tree.

A phoenix graft with either a willow or cottonwood. I planning on carving grooves throughout the trunk and branches, and run the new plant all over this tree.

Aaron