Nigel Saunders larch forest repot

[WNC Bonsai]

I was just watching Nigel Saunders Youtube video series showing how he tore apart (literally, made me cringe watching it) his larch forest, bare rooted it, pruned back the roots, and repotted the trees. Amazingly his followup video a few months later showed how these same trees had grown like crazy after this treatment. I find this interesting since everything I have read says larch hate having their roots messed with, don’t ever bare root them, don’t do major pruning of them—in other words everything that Nigel did do! So how can he get away with doing this when everybody else warns against it? Where are you @Vance Wood on this one?

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Back when I didn't know what I was doing, I noticed the same in my own larches.
Larches don't care. As long as they're in the growing season, they tend to bounce back pretty well. Just don't damage the bark.

However, please take note that I only have 3 years of larch growing under my belt, and fewer repots. And that both of them are 6 years old at most.

 

[AlainK]

Nigel Saunders Youtube video series showing how he tore apart (literally, made me cringe watching it) his larch forest, bare rooted it, pruned back the roots, and repotted the trees.

Can you give us the link?

I'm curious to know when he did that: when you repot larch at the best time (just when buds are swelling), they can be very resilient, but I'd like to see the video.

 

[WNC Bonsai]

Ok, here is a link to the 1st of 5 videos in the series showing this repotting of the larch forest. There is another video shot in July 2017 showing the forest 3 months after it had recovered from the repotting.

 

[AlainK]

Ok, here is a link to the 1st of 5 videos in the series showing this repotting of the larch forest.

Fake knews!

Repotting is the second video

Kidding aside, thanks for the link, a very good tutorial.

More or less, that's what I do at about the same period in the year, but I don't remove so much of the previous soil. Maybe I could with healthy trees, I'll try next spring with strong ones.

Very interesting thread, thanks again.

BTW : where is he from? He's got an accent that, having learned "British English", I find very clear....

 

[Paulpash]

I hit pause at 1:12 when he said the Lichen could 'stop backbudding'. Larch don't backbud - ever! Using that toothbrush to remove Lichen could result in dislodging existing dormant buds, exactly the opposite of what he's trying to achieve.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Fake knews!

Repotting is the second video

Kidding aside, thanks for the link, a very good tutorial.

More or less, that's what I do at about the same period in the year, but I don't remove so much of the previous soil. Maybe I could with healthy trees, I'll try next spring with strong ones.

Very interesting thread, thanks again.

BTW : where is he from? He's got an accent that, having learned "British English", I find very clear....

He's from Canada, as far as I know. I had trouble placing the accent as well. It seems that I have had too little contact with Canadians in my life.

 

[sparklemotion]

I was just watching Nigel Saunders Youtube video series showing how he tore apart (literally, made me cringe watching it) his larch forest, bare rooted it, pruned back the roots, and repotted the trees. Amazingly his followup video a few months later showed how these same trees had grown like crazy after this treatment. I find this interesting since everything I have read says larch hate having their roots messed with, don’t ever bare root them, don’t do major pruning of them—in other words everything that Nigel did do! So how can he get away with doing this when everybody else warns against it? Where are you @Vance Wood on this one?

Anything is possible when you use a high quality soil mix like he does. ?

Nigel lives in the Kitchener, Ontario (which is in Canada) area. As an expat I find his accent particularly soothing.

 

[Soldano666]

I bare root, repot, and remove lots of roots at bud swell. I also collected and repotted from very late August thru September, , bare rooting, chopping large roots, leaving very few feeders and cramming them into small containers with high success rates. Granted my experience is only 5 or 6 years. But I've dug and repotted lots of them in that time frame. Larch are tough as nails in the right climate.

 

[WNC Bonsai]

I guess timing and tree vigor is everything then. As for his comment about back budding I guess it depends on your definition of back budding. Apparently larch can have dormant buds all over the branches and even on the trunk at locations where there previously were branches. These can be reactivated by pruning and produce new branches and foliage. You nust can’t get new buds to form where there previously were none so it is a hit and miss proposition. After cleaning off a Norway Spruce lately I can see where having a mass of lichen growing on the branches might inhibit these old buds to pop. I really like his larch forest best of all his bonsai. His low key approach to shooting and narrating his videos is reminicent of Bob Ross and his painting videos.

 

[Paulpash]

The definition of back budding is budding back beyond where there were no buds surely? Otherwise it would be activating dormant existing buds.

 

[WNC Bonsai]

The definition of back budding is budding back beyond where there were no buds surely? Otherwise it would be activating dormant existing buds.

True but some folks would define back buddnig as budding at some point on the branches or trunk where there are no visible buds, therefore not excluding dormant buds. If you do a search for posts or articles on the internet discussing larch back budding you will find many examples of folks who say they do and those who say they don’t. That is why I fond it is always good to define your terms before making definitive statements.

 

[tree3]

I bare root, repot, and remove lots of roots at bud swell. I also collected and repotted from very late August thru September, , bare rooting, chopping large roots, leaving very few feeders and cramming them into small containers with high success rates. Granted my experience is only 5 or 6 years. But I've dug and repotted lots of them in that time frame. Larch are tough as nails in the right climate.

When you say bare root, what do you mean?

 

[Soldano666]

When you say bare root, what do you mean?

Hose off all soil from the roots

 

[WNC Bonsai]

For another good example of someone ripping apart larch roots look at Peter Chan’s video on making forests in his Heron’s Bonsai Youtube channel published on or about March 3 2019. He literally rips those little seedlings out of their pots and tears the roots down to a few. It is painful to watch him but he does that kind of thing on all his trees. There is another video on growing maples where he pulls a big ne out of a nursery pots and goes at the roots with an axe. Really shows what you can actually do to healthy trees.

 

[JoeH]

I watch all of his videos and amazed at what he gets away with sometimes. Same goes for Peter Chan.