2026 Native Collected Broadleaf Challenge

[em901]

Yes, agreed! It will be fun to see the diversity of entries. I'm in, Im sure I will learn a lot.

 

[JoeWilson]

To me it makes sense to prune now, allow a resprout, and use the rootmass and then dig up.

To be honest, I never understand why there is an end to joining these things. In my mind things go: Lets do a little challenge. starting from now onwards. And then.. tree needs to be in a pot for at least a year at the end date.

I did stop and think "What would Jelle do?" and the conclusion I came to was "develop it in the ground for as long as I can".

 

[Dav4]

I did stop and think "What would Jelle do?" and the conclusion I came to was "develop it in the ground for as long as I can".

Ground growing is great for building a trunk, but not much else, and both existing roots and branches will almost always grow out of proportion with the trunk if left unchecked. If I enter this particular contest, it will be because I've found a native tree that already has a decent trunk with some size and movement down low- added trunk taper and a decent root spread would be ideal- and collect to build both the rootage and the canopy in a pot. That's my plan .

 

[Gabler]

Ground growing is great for building a trunk, but not much else, and both existing roots and branches will almost always grow out of proportion with the trunk if left unchecked. If I enter this particular contest, it will be because I've found a native tree that already has a decent trunk with some size and movement down low- added trunk taper and a decent root spread would be ideal- and collect to build both the rootage and the canopy in a pot. That's my plan .

Dav4 is one of the heavy hitters around here. Definitely listen to what he says.

Edit: Obviously you're already aware that Jelle is also one of the heavy hitters around here.

 

[JoeWilson]

This is all quite reasonable. I think the difference of opinion on this probably comes down to our approaches. I do not have the experience or confidence to go out and collect a gnarly old tree (or a site to collect from and permissions for that matter). I do have a bunch of low-risk natives growing in my backyard, that I have either planted or have self-seeded (chokecherry groves, mostly). I’m going to be working with material that isn’t particularly exceptional, so getting anything at all going on with the trunk is my first goal. This is young, vigorous stock.

If I were collecting a mature, difficult-to-transplant specimen, I would follow Gabler and Dav4’s advice to the tee.