Cedrus deodara?

[RJW]

I received this tree today from someone in my local bonsai club. It was given to them years ago by someone who dug it up out of the ground. They were originally told it was a larch but it is obviously an evergreen which leads me to believe it is a Cedrus deodara. I'm going to start working on root reduction in the spring. As of today my plan for this twin trunk is to remove/ jin the bulk of the lower branches & work with the upper canopy's weeping habit. Tomorrow I will inspect the soil some to see if there is some hidden nebari going on. The texture showing up on the trunk is very promising though. This might be the oldest tree in my collection so far. My small amount of research on this species has revealed some problems but my location in Albuquerque, NM solves many of them right off the bat. Would love to get some recommendations, suggestions, & even opinions to consider before spring gets here.
Thanks,

 

[Desert O'Piñon]

Nice tree! Albuquerque definitely has more favorable climate for many species, and in New Mexico, we don't have the humidity that can foster ideal conditions for fungal growth. I'm guessing that is some of the problems you are referring to. Your altitude also prevents the temperature from being too high during the summer...
...most of the time. It's also very nice being in a large enough city where there is a club to join. Definitely good to take advantage of any advice from veterans.

 

[Shibui]

I agree with C. deodar as the most likely ID.
Cedars rarely bud on bare wood so you will need to work with branches with needles to get back buds if required and to form your branches, ramification and apex. From experience, Cedrus are a very long term project. At least you have some sort of head start here.

As of today my plan for this twin trunk is to remove/ jin the bulk of the lower branches

Only the needles for scale but I suspect those branches are way too thin to make useful jins. Need to remember there's thickness of bark all round any branch. Any branch under 1/4" will end up thinner than a match when you remove the bark. Not only do they look puny but also rot away within a few years, even when treated.

Hopefully you have some sort of rootage for nebari but I would not hold my breath. Evergreen transplants are rarely root pruned when dug so we end up with just the few laterals the seedling had and another deep 'tap' root. With some luck it has decided to grow some laterals while in the pot...

 

[RJW]

Nice tree! Albuquerque definitely has more favorable climate for many species, and in New Mexico, we don't have the humidity that can foster ideal conditions for fungal growth. I'm guessing that is some of the problems you are referring to. Your altitude also prevents the temperature from being too high during the summer...
...most of the time. It's also very nice being in a large enough city where there is a club to join. Definitely good to take advantage of any advice from veterans.

I'm a New Mexico transplant from Chicago originally. I was extremely surprised at the plant diversity here in this state. There are some absolute gems of tree species here. Finding an Alligator juniper is at the top of my list & I've currently got seeds that sprouted in the fall after being in the ground for 2 weeks without stratifying. I've got pinon seeds under my tree that did the same. Maybe they'll be ready for me to dig up in 4-5 years if I'm lucky

 

[Desert O'Piñon]

Welcome to the state! I consider myself as being from New Mexico now. Moved here in 2000 to marry my wife, and then I also fell in love with the weather, landscape, culture, and food. We're pretty isolated down here in the oilfield, which has its advantages and disadvantages. For example, the nearest bonsai club is probably the one you are a member of. About a 4 hour drive for me. That's why this forum is so important to me.
I started a thread to highlight some of the desert species of the Chihuahua Desert. Juniperus deppeanna, Alligator Juniper, is one of my favorite, but it's an uncommon bonsai species. There's not much information available, so whenever you start one, a progression thread will potentially help others down the line.
I'm currently stratifying some Pinus edulis for planting at the end of February. Piñon also in my top 5 favorite natives.
Good luck, and happy growing!

 

[RJW]

Welcome to the state! I consider myself as being from New Mexico now. Moved here in 2000 to marry my wife, and then I also fell in love with the weather, landscape, culture, and food. We're pretty isolated down here in the oilfield, which has its advantages and disadvantages. For example, the nearest bonsai club is probably the one you are a member of. About a 4 hour drive for me. That's why this forum is so important to me.
I started a thread to highlight some of the desert species of the Chihuahua Desert. Juniperus deppeanna, Alligator Juniper, is one of my favorite, but it's an uncommon bonsai species. There's not much information available, so whenever you start one, a progression thread will potentially help others down the line.
I'm currently stratifying some Pinus edulis for planting at the end of February. Piñon also in my top 5 favorite natives.
Good luck, and happy growing!

I just recently discovered the single leaf pinon, Pinus monophylla. It the only single needle conifer in existence & if your south of me probably perfect. The needle is serrated sort of showing how it was once multiple needles but it evolved to the extra arid parts of NA desert & reduced surface area on each needle. Sheffields has seeds for sale. I almost bought on the spot at Xmas when I saw here at local nursery but the graft scars were completely unacceptable so I decided to grow my own

 

[NMbonsai]

Your best bet is to put it in the ground and forget about it for 10 years! Seriously, as @Shibui said, cedars grow extremely slowly, slower than pines or other conifers. The other big issue for them is any disturbance to their root system. I have a C. deodara "Feelin' Blue", which is a Dutch cultivar with pendant but not weeping branches. I purchased it in 2020 and moved it into a large enough training pot that the roots were able to be spread out with little trimming needed. I wired the top and mainly worked on ramifying the pendulous branches. With pinching, it would backbud close to the tips, but not much farther back on bare wood.
In April of 2022, I bought a bonsai pot that was within inches of the size of the training pot it was in to avoid major root pruning to fit it in. I repotted the cedar and the tree was fine through the summer and fall, but started dropping needles in the spring of 2023 and continued to decline until it dropped the branch on the right last year and then slowly began to recover. It has never recovered its former glory and now needs to be restyled because of the out of balance appearance it now has.

 

[RJW]

Decided to pull this big guy out of his growing spot & clean up some of the weeds that have overgrown this season. I haven't done much pruning but I did begin my root reduction earlier this spring. I cut 1/4 of the root height & surface combed the perimeter roots. I ultimately decided to use an air root pruning pot for training on this & as I suspected it's very happy letting it's roots breathe freely. I still haven't committed to a design other than something to accentuate the weeping habit of this tree. I was getting worried about 6 weeks ago when it dropped all it's old needles because it was looking pretty sickly but then it started a 2nd flush & now it looks almost as full as it did when I got it.

 

[NMbonsai]

Looking good. In the spring, cedars will do a big needle drop all at once over the whole tree; unlike pines, that do it more gradually. My Blue Atlas did it as well. When you see the new needles budding out, it's time to give it a good spring fertilization. What are you feeding it with?

 

[RJW]

Ive been on a 2 week alternating fertilizer schedule this growing season. I use liquid fish emulsion & kelp with a mycorrhizal booster one weekend. 2 weeks later I use a granular, either blood meal or feather meal. I also added nano into the soil in the spring during re-potting. I start & end the growing season with a mixed dose of bone meal, Langbeinite, & Azomite also. The only other treatment im using with this is a silica foliar spray it gets once or twice per month. I should note I basically created a schedule with very little actual knowledge on the subject with the intentions of seeing how it goes this year & making adjustments for next. One change I just decided on was to reduce my nitrogen in July & maybe August as it suspect it contributed to my larch & pines dying when temps exceeded 95 for a few days in a row. Im going to still fertilize during those months but switch to just kelp for the liquid & granular weekends.

 

[NMbonsai]

Ive been on a 2 week alternating fertilizer schedule this growing season. I use liquid fish emulsion & kelp with a mycorrhizal booster one weekend. 2 weeks later I use a granular, either blood meal or feather meal. I also added nano into the soil in the spring during re-potting. I start & end the growing season with a mixed dose of bone meal, Langbeinite, & Azomite also. The only other treatment im using with this is a silica foliar spray it gets once or twice per month. I should note I basically created a schedule with very little actual knowledge on the subject with the intentions of seeing how it goes this year & making adjustments for next. One change I just decided on was to reduce my nitrogen in July & maybe August as it suspect it contributed to my larch & pines dying when temps exceeded 95 for a few days in a row. Im going to still fertilize during those months but switch to just kelp for the liquid & granular weekends.

It sounds like a plan. That tree is well fed. I don't know if that's what killed the larch and pines. Hopefully some more knowledgeable members will join in. Leo? Shibui? Jelle? They are three of my go-to-guys on stuff like this.