Doc's quaking aspen's

[doc spring _work]

This thread is mainly to consolidate my aspens with,


I've had my four quakies for probably two months now but given I'm about to move and Aspen 1 has failed I'll be doing my first cut back

(See photos below for quakie 1)

As for the history all of my quaking Aspens (which I'll refer to as qaukies from here on)
Where grown from cuttings at my nursery, there where several rejects destined for the trash so I saved three of them I wanted to play with

Two taller ones I wanted to raft out (here on labelled 1 and 2 respectively

Then two cute little ones 3 and 4

2 has yet to be attempted as a raft but I tried to raft 1 already... However it seems my angles where far to extreme here so I'll be removing the dead section and moving 1 over into a more shaded area to recover (currently out back where there is full unprotected sun for 15 hours give or take? Far too much for anything and that's killed a few of my projects )

That being said bellow you'll see a before cut and after then a good shot of the 4 under a multi-trunk black pine,

They definitely deserve better, poor things have been neglected during this move

 

[doc spring _work]

It's been awhile! So quick update;

The cascade quickly faded, unfortunately, an injury from the my military service knocked me out for awhile so they did dry out a bit... Outta worry I gave two of the remaining four to my neighbor,

Fully defoliated one of the cute ones (3 I think)

And I think I'll take the taller one and do a Phoenix graft into some sage deadwood I know it won't necessarily be typical of what you'd see but the dry nature of of my environment will preserve the wood hopefully will look nice

 

[doc spring _work]

Middle of moving but since we are expecting snow Monday most of my plants are in the new garage, reduced the smaller of the two quaking aspens and took the old apex and planted in with a sage, of that roots cool but I'm primarily reducing this Aspen, the longer of the two will be used in a Phoenix graft of a piece of sage wood further down the line

There where around 2 live nodes on the apex but the entire plant is rather straight at the moment so that'll add some more movement, I intend to continue slowly reducing the Aspen until I can work movement in better

 

[doc spring _work]

Little fella still hasn't dropped his leaves, getting him enough light has been a struggle while keeping him from fully freezing, honestly at a loss here... It'll probably die before I get my paycheck to get a artifactual light on it to support it's late holdout of leaves, if it lives through this winter it'll be in recovery for quite a bit me thinks.

Will be supplying some fertilizer here soon as an attempt to help support it's stubborn holdout. I honestly don't see any signs of it realizing it's winter (aside from the weakened leaves as a result of less lightning of course)

 

[Colorado]

Why are you trying to keep them from freezing, Doc?

Aspens are about as cold hardy as they come. I’ve had one in a pot for a few years now and I don’t provide it any winter protection whatsoever, other than putting it on the ground. Just don’t let it dry out. Mine have been outside -11F and didn’t mind at all!

 

[doc spring _work]

Why are you trying to keep them from freezing, Doc?

Aspens are about as cold hardy as they come. I’ve had one in a pot for a few years now and I don’t provide it any winter protection whatsoever, other than putting it on the ground. Just don’t let it dry out. Mine have been outside -11F and didn’t mind at all!

Just moved into a new house, unfortunately my area is known not only to Freeze through the pots soild, but thaw out fully, this destroys any potted trees completely... I want to build a bin I can place the trees in outside but my paycheck is a little.... Screwy,

Ideally I'd get my trees outside in a deep bin and bury them in either mulch or straw, when I moved in I wanted to find where the water lines were but the ground froze way too soon so my only option was to stick them in the garage to keep them alive, unfortunately it seems I defoliated this Aspen way to late in the year and it's determined to stay leafed out in the unheated garage where the other Aspen and my maple both decided to drop their leaves... So there's no reason for it to still hold onto it's leaves in the 20 f nights but it's determined to be a thorn in my side

I know the quakies are extremely resilient and if I have dieback on my trunk I'll get little seedlings in the spring but still Utah unique... (Annoying) Weather patterns leave almost anything left in a pot outside doomed..

If you have suggestions I'd love to hear them Colorado!

 

[Jrmcmich]

I I have a few trees been outside and plenty of cold and some still have leaves too. I guess I assume they will drop when they need to as I didn’t try to defoliate them.

 

[Colorado]

Just moved into a new house, unfortunately my area is known not only to Freeze through the pots soild, but thaw out fully, this destroys any potted trees completely... I want to build a bin I can place the trees in outside but my paycheck is a little.... Screwy,

Ideally I'd get my trees outside in a deep bin and bury them in either mulch or straw, when I moved in I wanted to find where the water lines were but the ground froze way too soon so my only option was to stick them in the garage to keep them alive, unfortunately it seems I defoliated this Aspen way to late in the year and it's determined to stay leafed out in the unheated garage where the other Aspen and my maple both decided to drop their leaves... So there's no reason for it to still hold onto it's leaves in the 20 f nights but it's determined to be a thorn in my side

I know the quakies are extremely resilient and if I have dieback on my trunk I'll get little seedlings in the spring but still Utah unique... (Annoying) Weather patterns leave almost anything left in a pot outside doomed..

If you have suggestions I'd love to hear them Colorado!

Mine freezes and thaws all the time and it’s no problem. I’d recommend just putting them outside in the shade if possible and I bet they’d be just fine!

 

[doc spring _work]

Mine freezes and thaws all the time and it’s no problem. I’d recommend just putting them outside in the shade if possible and I bet they’d be just fine!

Looking at our average weather cycles, yes we are quite similar however there is one major difference in our cycles which explains the requirements for me to cover my plants in an insolated area (outside that would be either in the ground or in mulch/straw)

Average snowfall, although our melt cycles almost perfectly lined up my average snowfall is half of yours, snow acting as a form of isolation allows your thaw and freeze to be generally less damaging as the frost doesn't penetrate quite as deep, on the other hand we completely melt between most of our snowfalls (on average)

The best course of action would be placing the tress outside in the shade as to promote a good microclimate with a solid base of insulation preventing any frost damage from damaging root structures

 

[Empty Mountain]

Mine freezes and thaws all the time and it’s no problem. I’d recommend just putting them outside in the shade if possible and I bet they’d be just fine!

Agreed, the farther north here in Canada you go you get to a point where quaking aspen is the only deciduous tree species that exists (no maples, oaks, elms nothing) in forests that are all conifers. I would think in an oversized nursery pot just keeping it on the ground outside would be more than enough winter protection.

 

[doc spring _work]

Agreed, the farther north here in Canada you go you get to a point where quaking aspen is the only deciduous tree species that exists (no maples, oaks, elms nothing) in forests that are all conifers. I would think in an oversized nursery pot just keeping it on the ground outside would be more than enough winter

An oversized yes... My quaking aspens are still twigs and I haven't given them a repot yet as I was focused on their health (these where considered throwaway trees at the nursery) so they are still in small five gallon containers... If they were 25 gallon I wouldn't worry about it but my the sage outside in a 25 froze all the way though...

 

[Eckhoffw]

An oversized yes... My quaking aspens are still twigs and I haven't given them a repot yet as I was focused on their health (these where considered throwaway trees at the nursery) so they are still in small five gallon containers... If they were 25 gallon I wouldn't worry about it but my the sage outside in a 25 froze all the way though...

Remember that the root ball can freeze all the way through without harming the roots. It all depends on how cold it actually gets at the roots.
I would just bury them completely in a pile of mulch/woodchips. Also, I would bury them wherever you have the best windbreak.

I really think that would be adequate.

Either way, I look forward to seeing your progress with these. I Have four quaking aspens myself. I put two in the ground and then was shocked by the amount of growth.

In 2 years, young whips (.5”) have over tripled in thickness.

 

[doc spring _work]

Been thinking based on some photos recently (didn't think to save them)

It's very possible for basically just a stump to live so long as it's a part of a clump/stand... I've even seen this with conifers with shared roots,

Given how easily deciduous trees back bud I assume one need not necessary worry a about it remaining a stump without growth.

This could possibly make the quakies a perfect forest given you encourage the roots to merge over time, I can see wild fire displays working quite well as well since they don't hesitate to throw suckers/clones whenever they are happy and get reduced.

In other words... I think this nerd needs to air layer some Aspen this coming year or buy some more to play with in this kind of display..

Many thoughts going through my head ATM... As typically happens when i Don't get to work on anything in awhile (bad addict! Don't kill your trees with overworking)

Does anybody know if an exposed root Aspen has been done?

Imagining an Aspen grown either over a rock using the same method here, or an exposed root as seen there.. although they do look insane to me... Id always thought those trees where whips grown together at a greater hight but I know better now,

Either way I think it would be interesting to do an exposed root and possibly graft branches on the roots later (if it doesn't just throw them out) and use those as a tiny forest allowing for the primary tree at the top of the stone to appear monolithic,

(I'm imagining world tree from Norse monolithic)

Have I perhaps finally become a mad man? Possibly, could I be delirious from lack of sleep and hoping not to forget my spontaneous insanity... Probably

 

[doc spring _work]

Example of living stump

Obviously it doesn't back bud because... Conifers rarely (if ever) do but one could In theory graft a stick anywhere on the trunk and it'll likely resume growth... This probably should have been a different thread but the roots of the Aspen I think is one of the primary features of interest for the species, aside form the beautiful sound they make in the wind and their fantastic ability to continue photosynthesis in dormancy through their bark (I could be wrong but I think they do this to a better extent then other trees I should hit the books again to confirm)

 

[doc spring _work]

It seems falling down the rabbit hole I could only find one particular study primarily focused on aspens photosynthetic abilities in winter " Photosynthesis in Aspen Bark During Winter Months" by L. C. Pearson
Ricks College
Donald B. Lawrence
University of Minnesota
In 1957

This however didn't measure the levels of energy produced but simply acknowledged that an Aspen doesn't rely solely upon store starches and noted the barks capabilities to produce starch by percentage of the average Aspen, still in interesting read PDF copy below.

Is anyone aware of any studies that compares Aspen to other deciduous trees?

I've seen some fascinating claims in my brief research (cough, cough fall down the rabbit hole) but I can't seem to locate scientific papers noting these abilities...

Some claims are thus "an Aspen stand will eventually be taken over by taller evergreens shading out the aspens however even after 100 years they can spring back to life" the claim goes on to further dictate that fires primarily allow for the regrowth of the Aspen, this claim does therefore support the Aspen as perhaps the most optimum choice for wildfire compositions if the claim is true
The claim does originate from the national park services, which should satisfy, I will likely seek out further reading materials on this fascinating species... Although I'm certainly clogging up my progression with needless rambling I think Ive come to the conclusion that I should work on this species more extensively as my over-analysis has me thinking personally American bonsai should be focused on our wonderful deciduous species although it's true theres nothing like a Japanese Black pine or Japanese maple I think the three things American bonsai has that is unique to us is our juniper yamadori, the ponderosa pine, the qaukie and finally the bald Cypress,

Being a frequent listener of "little things for bonsai people" I may be influenced by the claim that bald cypress is the American king of bonsai, I think the Aspen should likely be considered the queen in that regard as it is an elegant tree that is incredibly resilient and versatile but I am likely getting ahead of myself as I often do when I fall down these rabbit holes after not sleeping for a long period.. jeez I kinda went off on an massive tangent here sorry!

 

[doc spring _work]

Final piece of retrospective thought, it's likely due to the Aspens winter photosynthesis it can recover from frost damage to the resilient root system meaning I again in my pride disregarded valid advice and have been overthinking the aspens winter care shame on me

 

[Empty Mountain]

Your trees should propogate easily from root cuttings.

 

[doc spring _work]

Unfortunately seems I pushed the smaller one too far, fortunately.. plenty of aspens around my new property to attempt propagation with later in the year, I need to get some sage dead wood to Phoenix graft the tall fella to before my arbor day seedlings come in and I get swamped other then that I don't think I have any major operations planned for the Aspen this year, let them (it unless that lil fella springs up from silence.. seems highly unlikely) heal up and gain some strength before repotting next year,