Tsuga Canadensis study group

[Frozentreehugger]

Sorry no photo yet . Crappy home internet . I’ll load tomorrow . If there is interest . But so far a one summer experiment of sorts . 2 3 gallon trees . Purchased from a reforestation nursery . Spring sale to Kate to repot . So left in the nursery soil . Experiment was light related . One in let’s call it shade ( say 25 percent light ) back of my normal part shade bench somewhat behind other trees . The other in ( say 3/4 sun ) not full sun which is at a premium for me . Both watered the same . Which amounts to the shade tree watered when the sun tree was due . So always wet in the shade . Both fairly heavy fert the exact same . Fish emulsion and miracle gro . Results are somewhat expected the sun tree is shorter has slightly tighter growth . And is let’s say leaning to light green colour . The shade tree has more elongation . Is about 30 percent taller. And what I would say nice dark green colour . As for trunk size development an argument can be made that the shade tree might be larger . But both basically the same . Both started out the same . Colour and size . Both trees received zero . Trimming

 

[Frozentreehugger]

Finally collected stick in a pot eastern hemlock . Found 2 springs ago to late to collect . First year trimmed back fert spike added . Second year more fert and some close to trunk excavation. Between large roots . Replace soil with 50 50 absorbent and composted pine bark . Tree was growing out of the corner of a fallen tree root stump . Hard to tell very rotten but don’t think it was hemlock . In middle of what was once a beaver . Flooded area . Dry for 3 years . Absorbent added for concern of moisture . After collecting this seems to have been effective . Area is full of roots . Collecting involved . Sawing the corner off the root ball . And taking what I could carry ( not doing that again only thing I have collected that big was thuja which is much lighter ) there is no doubt in my mind tree was wounded and healed over in the past . Possible beaver . Largest root 1/4 size of trunk has 38 rings . Core native rooted stump soil left around base untacked. Medium is mixture one part each . Hard crushed granite . Black pumice . ( lava grip ) oil absorbent . This is a standard non organic mix I make as a base to add to . In this case it’s

 

[Frozentreehugger]

Finally collected stick in a pot eastern hemlock . Found 2 springs ago to late to collect . First year trimmed back fert spike added . Second year more fert and some close to trunk excavation. Between large roots . Replace soil with 50 50 absorbent and composted pine bark . Tree was growing out of the corner of a fallen tree root stump . Hard to tell very rotten but don’t think it was hemlock . In middle of what was once a beaver . Flooded area . Dry for 3 years . Absorbent added for concern of moisture . After collecting this seems to have been effective . Area is full of roots . Collecting involved . Sawing the corner off the root ball . And taking what I could carry ( not doing that again only thing I have collected that big was thuja which is much lighter ) there is no doubt in my mind tree was wounded and healed over in the past . Possible beaver . Largest root 1/4 size of trunk has 38 rings . Core native rooted stump soil left around base untacked. Medium is mixture one part each . Hard crushed granite . Black pumice . ( lava grip ) oil absorbent . This is a standard non organic mix I make as a base to add to . In this case it’s

2 parts in organic 1 part composted pine . With about 50 percent of the pine larger sized .

 

[MrFancyPlants]

Finally collected stick in a pot eastern hemlock . Found 2 springs ago to late to collect . First year trimmed back fert spike added . Second year more fert and some close to trunk excavation. Between large roots . Replace soil with 50 50 absorbent and composted pine bark . Tree was growing out of the corner of a fallen tree root stump . Hard to tell very rotten but don’t think it was hemlock . In middle of what was once a beaver . Flooded area . Dry for 3 years . Absorbent added for concern of moisture . After collecting this seems to have been effective . Area is full of roots . Collecting involved . Sawing the corner off the root ball . And taking what I could carry ( not doing that again only thing I have collected that big was thuja which is much lighter ) there is no doubt in my mind tree was wounded and healed over in the past . Possible beaver . Largest root 1/4 size of trunk has 38 rings . Core native rooted stump soil left around base untacked. Medium is mixture one part each . Hard crushed granite . Black pumice . ( lava grip ) oil absorbent . This is a standard non organic mix I make as a base to add to . In this case it’s

That is more than a stick in a pot. That is a honking trunk. And a nice amount of roots too. Give it 2-3 years of unrestricted growth to strengthen it in it’s new environment. Down the road. I would consider some self grafts to compact the structure. Could be a stunning tree down the road.

 

[Frozentreehugger]

That is more than a stick in a pot. That is a honking trunk. And a nice amount of roots too. Give it 2-3 years of unrestricted growth to strengthen it in it’s new environment. Down the road. I would consider some self grafts to compact the structure. Could be a stunning tree down the road.

Thanks my friend . From the get go . Grafting is in the plan . ( most likely approach grafting young potted native stock for reforestation is easy to come by here . ) but first let’s make it live . Some would say I’m being to conservative at the start . But I’ve been burned before . And to most one of the drawbacks of the species. As you know is difficulty of finding good wild stock . I don’t want to squander . The material .

 

[Frozentreehugger]

Some other spring info may be of interest . Found a beaver pond near my cottage with freshly chewed down . Hemlock may be interesting to see if they re sprout . Also looks like my experiment to chop back in the wild other than the above collected tree failed . To recap . Fairly drastically cut back trees leaving green growth . One without light condition change . The other 2 were growing out of a nursing dead stump . A storm felled large tree openend up the canopy . To light to the south . Fert spikes were added when trimmed last spring . All three were struggling as if the fall and seem dead this spring . The one without the light change seemed the healthiest in fall .

 

[MrFancyPlants]

Thanks my friend . From the get go . Grafting is in the plan . ( most likely approach grafting young potted native stock for reforestation is easy to come by here . ) but first let’s make it live . Some would say I’m being to conservative at the start . But I’ve been burned before . And to most one of the drawbacks of the species. As you know is difficulty of finding good wild stock . I don’t want to squander . The material .

Sounds like a plan, but I’ll resuggest the self-graft. With the genetic variability in stock, it would stink to put in all the work and then have different branches expressing themselves differently. And the length and flexibility of Tsuga growth should make it easy to approach to itself.

Get it healthy first, by all means.

 

[Underdog]

I recently dug the one I put in the ground after collection because I had almost no roots and questioned it's survival. It had put out a lot of healthy new roots.



Put it in a grow box of pumice, lava, crushed brick and pine bark.

 

[Frozentreehugger]

I recently dug the one I put in the ground after collection because I had almost no roots and questioned it's survival. It had put out a lot of healthy new roots.
View attachment 541738View attachment 541739


Put it in a grow box of pumice, lava, crushed brick and pine bark.
View attachment 541740View attachment 541741

Very nice it also
Looks like it was wounded at one time . What kind of enviro conditions did you find it in . From the fairly vertical growth looks like it was in a fair amount of sun

 

[Underdog]

Post #4 in this thread and also...

5yr native tree challenge - Tsuga canadensis, aka eastern hemlock

Dug 3/3/2021 put one in the ground and one in a box.

www.bonsainut.com

 

[Frozentreehugger]

Post #4 in this thread and also...View attachment 541754View attachment 541755

5yr native tree challenge - Tsuga canadensis, aka eastern hemlock

Dug 3/3/2021 put one in the ground and one in a box.

www.bonsainut.com

I did not even recognize the tree . The killer low branch I don’t remember being there thru me off . It looks great bro

 

[Underdog]

Wire this fall if it continues to thrive.
My other one got a bit wind burnt over winter but new growth is looking good.