Digging a picea nudiformis

[clive bennett]

I have a Picea Abies Nidiformis in my garden I need to dig up it is over 3 feet diameter and about 18 inches high, in about 1 foot of good soil then very heavy clay, growing very well. What would be the best time to dig it up and pot it up for a potential bonsai? I will need to fairly drastically prune back branches to be able to dig the roots out. I live in the English midlands and for a supposed slow grower it adds 8" width every year
Winters fairly mild here, summers cool and wet

 

[just.wing.it]

Nudiformis is when you dig up a tree in the nude....good clean fun.
I'd shoot for early spring time!

 

[clive bennett]

Ha Ha Ha apologies for my spelling, lousy at Latin

 

[just.wing.it]

Ha Ha Ha apologies for my spelling, lousy at Latin

I make typos all the time, and google auto correct makes the rest....
I have one small picea abies nidiformis.
I love them, great for bonsai, very dense, small foliage...
I repotted it from a nursery bucket into a flower pot in spring time, last time...
This will be it's second year in that pot, gonna find a new pot next spring.
Good luck with your dig!

 

[0soyoung]

I have a Picea Abies Nidiformis in my garden I need to dig up it is over 3 feet diameter and about 18 inches high, in about 1 foot of good soil then very heavy clay, growing very well. What would be the best time to dig it up and pot it up for a potential bonsai? I will need to fairly drastically prune back branches to be able to dig the roots out. I live in the English midlands and for a supposed slow grower it adds 8" width every year
Winters fairly mild here, summers cool and wet

Dig it now, if you want. The fact that it is in soil atop clay likely means it has a nice shallow root mat.

Anytime after the summer solstice until buds begin to swell is okay to dig/repot most all conifers and waxy leafed trees. The question, though, is what comes next. You want a few weeks for roots to grow and be frost free. I would guess your first frost date is sometime in late October or maybe November which is plenty of time if you dig it sometime this month and even into early October.

After these few weeks one wants another few weeks of progressively colder overnight temperatures with any 'alpine' or 'temperate' tree - this develops the tree's cold hardiness (they actually sugar-up --> sugar is tree antifreeze). All trees will be damaged by a sudden hard freeze without it, but 'brand new' fleshy white roots are quite a bit more susceptible.

 

[clive bennett]

Thank you will prune and dig , fingers crossed

 

[sorce]

Nekkid Englishman!

Eww....

Lil Twigroot probly looks Hatian compared to that!

That's not even pasty! That's straight elmers glue!

Birds nest?

Sorce

 

[clive bennett]

Sorry I do not understand your comments Sorce? Can you translate for an Englishman

 

[sorce]

Nekkid is how everone else spells naked here...

They thought this lil feller was pasty....
https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/please-share-your-photos.19358/page-142#post-488988

You all nekkid would be like a reverse solar eclipse!
Shiny and bright!

Lol!

Birds nest spruce?

Sorce

 

[augustine]

Some friends and I dug spruce from a tree farm first of April (Zone 7a). I don't think there were any losses. So I would say dig right before or as they start moving.

 

[clive bennett]

Thanks all just had a go at trying to see the trunk, slightly underestimated its size which is 10 feet wide and just over 3 feet high, it gets bigger as I try to find my way into it . I now understand the "birds nest" name it looks so ordered from the outside but inside the branches go all over the place and it is knee deep in old dead needles, which it appears to have rooted into.

 

[defra]

Do you have a pic?

 

[clive bennett]

will take one tomorrow,

 

[clive bennett]

poor photo I found , better one tomorrowI started to prune branches to get to the trunk, it is nicely curved and about 4 inches across 1 foot from the ground, the low branches have rooted in the huge quantities of fallen needles, this is becoming very hard work!

 

[augustine]

Yes, that one could be very good. I've seen photos of wonderful bonsai created with P. nidiformis. Take it in Spring. Don't know your climate but I am here in mid-Atlantic right by the Chesapeake Bay and first part of April worked very well.

If you have two years maybe dig around the roots in Spring 2018 and lift in 2019? (Wouldn't it be nice to give it 3 years and get Peter Warren to "set the bones.")

Check out the Bonsai Empire Videos, there is one of a young Japanese artist styling a spruce.

 

[Melospiza]

All the best with the spruce. Almost seems a pity because it looks so at home in your garden and your garden itself is absolutely stunning, especially the way it frames the landscape behind. Are you on an elevated site?

 

[clive bennett]

Yes it did look comfortable but had just grown too big another year and it would have covered a path, so dug out and put in a huge container and looking good plenty of fat buds and great colour. Yes the garden is half way up a hill but faces East so no sunsets and evenings start early . Thanks for your kind words will get back in a year or so if it lives and gets a first styling