The 2024 Yamadori/Collecting Thread

[Cajunrider]

After the big shock that wilted almost all the young leaves, Picasso is recovering.View attachment 536539
View attachment 536540

Budding started from the base. The question is how far past the bends will the buds be.

 

[Frozentreehugger]

I will take some pictures and send you. However, you do know that the Southern live oaks tend to vary the leaves depending on the age and condition of the trees.

What I have

 

[Cajunrider]

What I have

Very similar to my live oak juvenile leaves

 

[shohin_branches]

We've owned our home for two and a half years now, and when I first started pruning up the overgrown Juniperus chinensis in the front yard I found one branch had rooted itself in the ground. I cut it from the main tree early last year and it responded by putting out a ton of new growth. My plan was to slowly push the growth back on the long trunk and dig it up in a few years but my girlfriend complained about the ugly stick in the front yard so we agreed I'd dig it up this spring.

Well then I had emergency surgery so I'd have to wait another year to dig it up. My girlfriend found that unacceptable and said she'd do the digging and lifting if it ment getting the ugly stick out of the front yard. She put on her Conservation Corps work pants which always means some shit is about to get done around the house.


Welcome to the ugliest part of the yard, the front! Our side yard has a lot of really nice flowers and landscaping.

She got a really nice rootball for her first yamadori.


She carried it around to the back bench and I prepped the box. She did all the lifting. I need to take her with on all my yamadori digs.



Glad I had an Anderson flat laying around. At 5 ft long it's now my largest piece of material if I can keep it healthy. I can't believe it took me nine years to learn this lifehack of just having my girlfriend dig my bonsai material.

 

[Frozentreehugger]

Very similar to my live oak juvenile leaves
View attachment 542435
View attachment 542436

Thanks cajun

 

[Cajunrider]

Thanks cajun

No problem. Should be easy enough to tell this coming fall. If the leaves stay green it is live oak.

 

[19Mateo83]

We've owned our home for two and a half years now, and when I first started pruning up the overgrown Juniperus chinensis in the front yard I found one branch had rooted itself in the ground. I cut it from the main tree early last year and it responded by putting out a ton of new growth. My plan was to slowly push the growth back on the long trunk and dig it up in a few years but my girlfriend complained about the ugly stick in the front yard so we agreed I'd dig it up this spring.

Well then I had emergency surgery so I'd have to wait another year to dig it up. My girlfriend found that unacceptable and said she'd do the digging and lifting if it ment getting the ugly stick out of the front yard. She put on her Conservation Corps work pants which always means some shit is about to get done around the house.

View attachment 542447
Welcome to the ugliest part of the yard, the front! Our side yard has a lot of really nice flowers and landscaping.

She got a really nice rootball for her first yamadori.
View attachment 542443

She carried it around to the back bench and I prepped the box. She did all the lifting. I need to take her with on all my yamadori digs.
View attachment 542444

View attachment 542445
Glad I had an Anderson flat laying around. At 5 ft long it's now my largest piece of material if I can keep it healthy. I can't believe it took me nine years to learn this lifehack of just having my girlfriend dig my bonsai material.
View attachment 542446

Hurricane swept style?

 

[Cajunrider]

Hurricane swept style?

I am sure that straight trunk is going to be drastically bent in the future.

 

[ShadyStump]

We've owned our home for two and a half years now, and when I first started pruning up the overgrown Juniperus chinensis in the front yard I found one branch had rooted itself in the ground. I cut it from the main tree early last year and it responded by putting out a ton of new growth. My plan was to slowly push the growth back on the long trunk and dig it up in a few years but my girlfriend complained about the ugly stick in the front yard so we agreed I'd dig it up this spring.

Well then I had emergency surgery so I'd have to wait another year to dig it up. My girlfriend found that unacceptable and said she'd do the digging and lifting if it ment getting the ugly stick out of the front yard. She put on her Conservation Corps work pants which always means some shit is about to get done around the house.

View attachment 542447
Welcome to the ugliest part of the yard, the front! Our side yard has a lot of really nice flowers and landscaping.

She got a really nice rootball for her first yamadori.
View attachment 542443

She carried it around to the back bench and I prepped the box. She did all the lifting. I need to take her with on all my yamadori digs.
View attachment 542444

View attachment 542445
Glad I had an Anderson flat laying around. At 5 ft long it's now my largest piece of material if I can keep it healthy. I can't believe it took me nine years to learn this lifehack of just having my girlfriend dig my bonsai material.
View attachment 542446

Why can't I find someone that unafraid of work?
She's a keeper.

 

[actionflies]

Collected 15 mostly engelmann spruce and some lodgepole last Fall. 90% successful rate with 1 tree died because it didn't have a lot of roots.

 

[Goodbrake]

I love how whimsical spruce can look, almost like something out of Dr Seuss.

 

[Frozentreehugger]

Collected 15 mostly engelmann spruce and some lodgepole last Fall. 90% successful rate with 1 tree died because it didn't have a lot of roots.View attachment 542533View attachment 542534View attachment 542535

Congrats that’s a great success rate . Up here zone 4 it’s risky to collect in the fall . Without protection like a green house . I may try again with a bottom heat set up . But need something a little more robust than heat mat .

 

[Goodbrake]

Buds are extending, and thankfully they're appearing all up and down the trunk.

 

[KateM]

Collected 3 visterias on the side of the road.

 

[PonderingSage:]

I’m still curious what juniper it is . You have a valid point . But I only collect common juniper . And normally they only turn dead brown after collecting . Most Dicid trees up here pretty much stay the same . You may alter colour slightly . But barely so . Same as fall colour some say it will change with conditions . But I have never experienced that .

I’m not totally sure it seems Like we often get hybridization between Sierra and Western Juniper… Or maybe it’s just western.

 

[PonderingSage:]

Collected 15 mostly engelmann spruce and some lodgepole last Fall. 90% successful rate with 1 tree died because it didn't have a lot of roots.View attachment 542533View attachment 542534View attachment 542535

Damn! Nice job

 

[PonderingSage:]

Getting amped about my first trip out this season… photo from last year.

 

[Cajunrider]

10” trunk live oaks
Collect?

 

[Goodbrake]

10” trunk live oaks
Collect?
View attachment 543074
View attachment 543075

Got a bathtub to plant it in?

 

[ShadyStump]

10” trunk live oaks
Collect?
View attachment 543074
View attachment 543075

If you do, I think you'll be taking bonsai to an unhealthy level.
My morbid curiosity is picqued.