Dwarf Sitka Spruce

[JosephCooper]

Some suggestions:

Make the secondary trunks a bit shorter so they aren't visually competing with the main trunk.

You could try formal upright and airlayer above the trunk on the right?

Try getting the trunk on the right further from the main one as well.

You don't need to follow these suggestions, just wondering if you'd want to try it. It's fine if you don't want to

 

[Josh88]

Summer update: This tree has grown nice and healthy this year, with buds bursting everywhere for next season’s growth. I did a bit more branch clean up this weekend and rewired a few branches where the wire was really cutting in before the fall vascular growth takes off. I’m gonna let what is there be for this year and I’m really looking forward to seeing what another season of growth will do for this tree. I feel like another round of branch selection and wire after one more season’s growth and this will really be developing nicely. A little more foliage on the top right and some thickening of secondary branches should allow for nice pad development next year. I like how it’s coming along...

 

[Josh88]

I had set aside a number of pots for this tree’s repot with different widths and depths not knowing what to expect when I got into the root system. My hope was still for the Walsall oval earlier in the thread. Once I saw what I was working with under the hood each pot was right/not right. Perfect width but too shallow. Perfect depth but too wide. Just when I was going to give in and cut down a nursery can I noticed the pot for another tree I needed to repot was the perfect size! I was able to expose almost two more inches of trunk base and get out a good bit of remaining nursery can soil without removing much root mass at all. Not it’s final pot, but a good step in the right direction. Buds are bursting everywhere, and with hopefully another good growing season ahead I will let it fill in for it’s next style and pruning to pull in the lowest right branch in and define pads. I wish pictures did this tree justice at this point. It really inspires the feeling of standing under an old tree for me.

 

[0soyoung]

Put it on a slab!

 

[Josh88]

Put it on a slab!

I would love to get it onto a slab! I’m hoping with another repot or two over the next few years it can get to that shallow of a root mass, but I’m not confident enough in my repotting and root work at this point to make that significant of a reduction quickly. I’m right with you though. I think that would look great.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

That pot is a good compromise. Not bad. Not bad at all. In a few years, a shallower, wider pot will be better, then eventually, a slab.

Nice progress

 

[0soyoung]

I would love to get it onto a slab! I’m hoping with another repot or two over the next few years it can get to that shallow of a root mass, but I’m not confident enough in my repotting and root work at this point to make that significant of a reduction quickly. I’m right with you though. I think that would look great.

Slabs for conifers are a bit cup shaped, not so flat as one would put deciduous trees on. Take a closer look at Walter Pall's conifer slabs/rocks. IOW it isn't as big a deal as you are making of it, IMHO. Regardless, it is always better to be safe than sorry.

 

[NHATIVE]

Any update on this one? Just came across one of these at a local nursery that I passed up. Had a really big base at 4-5" across, but got really bushy only about 6 inches up the trunk with an overall height of about 16". Beautiful tree!

 

[Josh88]

Any update on this one? Just came across one of these at a local nursery that I passed up. Had a really big base at 4-5" across, but got really bushy only about 6 inches up the trunk with an overall height of about 16". Beautiful tree!

This tree was my one heartbreak of the year. In June I put on a Bonsai and Beer show at a Portland pub, featuring beers that used trees in the brewing process along with the species that helped make them. This tree paired nicely with a spruce tip saison The tree had a ton of new growth and looked happy as could be.






A week later my family took a weeklong vacation and I had someone water my trees for me. When I returned home this was the only tree that didn’t look good. The new growth was drying up and nothing that I did to try to rescue it helped at all. The whole tree was brown and dead about 2-3 weeks later. My best guess is that when I repotted it in the spring it wasn’t tied into the pot securely enough and may have sustained damage in transport to and from the show. As it started to turn when I wasn’t home I can’t say for sure if anything else happened to cause it’s decline, so I have to live with my assumption. I really enjoyed how this tree reminded me of the PNW forests and it’s sad to have watched it die, but I’m glad that I took it out of my yard and shared it with other people, as a lot of folks attending the show were drawn to that tree and had the same reaction that I did to it. Live and try to learn I suppose. RIP