I’m writing this thread to share my experiences collecting pitch, shortleaf, and Virginia pine in South Jersey during the late spring. I’ve only been doing this for three years—I’m not an authority and don’t want anyone to mistake me for one. I’m sharing my experiences to learn and not to teach. I would be gratified if anyone with true experience offered their thoughts or corrections. But also, I wanted to share some of a corner of the world many don’t see.
I collect on private land in southwestern New Jersey. It’s mostly farmland and pastures, but the edges are undisturbed woodland. This is the southwestern edge of the Pine Barrens, and the soil is very sandy. As with the rest of the Pine Barrens that sandy, acidic soil prevented heavy agricultural development or the population density we see in the rest of the state.
This sand is the fine ‘sugar sand’ that supplied what was called the birthplace of American glassmaking. But you’ve heard this story before: the industry declined as the 20th century progressed and the world became more connected. Only a small amount of artistic glassblowing remains. The manufacture of scientific glass, once big business, went overseas, and we will not see it return.
The woods are a mix of native oaks, pines, and blueberries. The blueberries are everywhere here. I’m told they love the acidic soil. We’re not so far from the place where they were first commercially cultivated a hundred years ago, or from Hammonton—the supposed blueberry capital of the world.
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This is only about twenty minutes from the Delaware river’s widening mouth and the forgotten, disappearing communities of the Bayshore. If you ever drive down this way, spend an afternoon driving the lone roads through the marshes and visiting Fortescue, Money Island or Gandy’s Beach if the greenheads are not in season. An advancing coastline eats at these communities each and every year. One day they too will be gone.
Now that I’ve told you how sandy it is, I will tell you that I do not collect in the sand. I’ve tried and found it to be pointless. First, the roots are too long and without any fine feeders close to the trunk. Second, all the soil falls away when you lift the tree. In my experience this guarantees the death of a pine.
But in this mixed oak-pine woodland, we have a dense cover of duff. One photo shows it undisturbed, the second photo shows the soil beneath. The soil seems to me to be composed of the decayed duff. It is relatively light and airy but holds water well. I find this soil to be excellent to collect from because it produces many fine feeders close to the trunk.
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As for timing: I have had the best success collecting in May and June. But I don’t think the calendar is what matters. What I look for is the hardening of the first flush of growth. Once the candles extend and harden, I can collect with minimal anxiety. I have tried collecting while candles are soft and extending and it has guaranteed failure. I have, however, pruned off soft extending candles at the time of collection. This has worked for me. I’ve pruned native pines back pretty considerably (to fit in my car) while collecting at this time, also with good results.
My number one predictor of success is lifting a root ball of native soil filled with fine feeder roots. Here are some photos of my process, taken today while I collect a thick Virginia pine.
I use a good slim shovel to slice a good sized rootball. I don’t know if there’s an ideal size. I just eyeball it based on the thickness of the trunk. I use a Root Slayer shovel and it pretty easily slices through the taproot. I try never to rock the tree back and forth. It is tough to resist the urge, but I find that rocking just rips all those fine feeder roots, ruining your chances of survival.
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You can see here the amount of feeders I look for. Usually I get more, but this spot was a bit dry.
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I lay out a damp burlap square beside the root ball in preparation for lifting.
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Then, I slip the shovel back under the rootball to brace so I can lift the tree onto the burlap without the soil falling away. The shovel should take the full weight of the rootball, keeping those fine feeder roots in place.
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Then, I wrap up the burlap and secure it with electrical tape. I make the burlap as tight as I can to keep the rootball intact.
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Then, I further secure it in a black trash bag which I also secure with electrical tape. The black bag adds a little more support, but is mostly to keep the moisture in and keep it relatively clean when I put it in my car. Here’s the finished bundle beside a 5 gallon bucket.
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I transport them home and pot them up the next day. My solution for collected pines is a little unusual, but it’s been very successful for me. I line a milk crate with landscape fabric, and then fill it with pumice. That’s it. The aeration is excellent, which I think keeps these pines happy and healthy. I stick a chopstick down into the native soil and use that to gauge moisture. At this time of year I’m watering them about once a week, but in the dog days of summer they might get watered every day. It all depends on how fast they start drying out.
Pitch pines have responded the best, and by that I mean they remain 100% green and don’t give any indication of distress. Younger ones I have even repotted that fall. Virginia pines and shortleaf pines have both stayed healthy using this technique, but have a tendency to drop their older needles. Seeing yellowing needles was initially scary, but it never progressed beyond the older needles.
I also prefer the pitch pines for another reason: they seem to look old much more quickly. I found these two growing together, about six feet tall each and 1.5 inches in diameter. But already with cracked, aging bark.
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Here’s another one, showing their characteristic back budding and basal crook. Excuse the poor lighting. At lower left it looks like there’s a thick root, but that’s a trick of perspective. It’s actually a dead sucker that grew up out of the basal crook. Most of the crook is buried beneath the pumice.
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This method has been working for me for three years. I don’t know if my conditions are unique to me, but I wanted to add one more data point to the discussion.
In parting, a photo I took today of a more mature pitch pine. Again, showing its characteristic back budding.
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I’m trying to get better at collecting because I don’t get the chance to do it often, so knowing the pitch pine collection window is quite wide based on your experiences is very encouraging for me. 
