Fun times with abies lasiocarpa

[andrewiles]

Subalpine firs are one of the easier trees to collect around here. And for some reason easier to get forest service permits for than most everything else.

It's really common to see these form clumps -- 1 tree with multiple ground layered branches that eventually form a small multi-trunk grove. Often with a krummholz skirt. Like so:



I figured this year I'd try to collect some trees that can be trained into this form. Here are some of the trees I collected over the past 4 months. Each of these is a single connected tree. For scale the gray egg crates are about 2' wide, the black Anderson flat is the 15" variety and the last grow box is about 3' wide.







Most of these were collected in the spring and placed in part-sun under mist for a few months. Once they showed root growth they were removed from mist and left in part sun until the end of the growing season.

Subalpine firs seem to have a reputation for struggling in warmer temps. My collected material from the past 2 years is growing very happily in my zone 8 PNW climate, so if there is a temperature problem it's not showing up yet. None of my trees are in small pots yet so it may be a future challenge with root temps -- we'll see.

These have naturally small needles that reduce to 1 cm from what I can see. Under heavy fertilization they are about 1 inch. Great at back budding.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Fascinating. Many possibilities/many many hours work to develop. Reminds of Mt. Hemlock Michael Hagedorn works with. These grow together? Perhaps can lean on him for help. Also believe Ryan Neil has live stream on these. A question please: What is white surrounding rock at photo site?

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Nice job Andrew!

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[Colorado]

Very nice! Especially love #5

 

[andrewiles]

Fascinating. Many possibilities/many many hours work to develop. Reminds of Mt. Hemlock Michael Hagedorn works with. These grow together? Perhaps can lean on him for help. Also believe Ryan Neil has live stream on these. A question please: What is white surrounding rock at photo site?

Mountain hemlocks and subalpine firs do overlap around here, but the subalpine firs can take drier conditions and thus extend much further east across the Cascades.

Yeah, I've been to a few intensives with Michael and he has some fun trees like this. I recall seeing a subalpine fir down there last time I went, though his more well known clump is that big mountain hemlock.

Not sure on the rock type. From a quick google map search it looks like these rocks are part of the "Virginian Ridge Formation" in north-central Washington. So Cretaceous sedimentary apparently.

 

[August44]

Great trees Andrew! Love them and what you have collected look fantastic to say the least. I have these in the Mts right outside of town. Have you ever tried collecting in the fall with these? What elevation do you collect these in?

 

[andrewiles]

Yeah, fall collection is often easier. No snow, trees are dormant, no big worries about evaporative water loss. Just need some winter protection.

I try to collect these as high as possible. Some as high as 7000' at the treeline around here. This year I was able to get a permit exception from the FS to go out to some of the higher forest service roads around Methow and Chelan in eastern WA. But even then you're looking at hiking 1000' or so of vertical to hit the ridgetops.

I have a hauling packpack to make that more feasible, but still a lot of work. Here's a picture of the backpack and what it looks like hidden under a big hemlock . The plastic bags keep the humidity inside at 100% so the tree doesn't dry out. Might be in there for a day or two before I get back home.

 

[August44]

Thanks for the reply Andrew. I can drive or take the 4 wheeler up to 8000" here so don't have the packing like you do. I got some last year, small and growing over big rocks and they had 1" plus big trunks. They were very cool! Where did you get those egg crates by the way? They look sturdy.

Nice pack. I have one of those too, but have not used it yet.

 

[andrewiles]

Nice. I have a truck but we just don't have high roads in most of Washington.

The crates are from here. They're $25 each but rugged. Should last a long time. I purchased from this site because they have a local distribution center so I could avoid shipping costs. Might not work for you...

 

[August44]

Nice. I have a truck but we just don't have high roads in most of Washington.

The crates are from here. They're $25 each but rugged. Should last a long time. I purchased from this site because they have a local distribution center so I could avoid shipping costs. Might not work for you...

I like the crates but shipping would kill me. Your SA Firs are different than mine. You have the nice groves of small trees and I don't. My trees are usually singles. Also, most of my SA Firs are a medium green, but also have some that are a way darker green. The darker ones are by far the best for some reason. You can collect with me anytime you want Andrew.

 

[AshleyMammal]

Your collected trees are amazing straight out of the ground!

 

[andrewiles]

Figure I'd add a short update. 5 out of 6 of these are doing really well. Probably one more year, then do some soil removal and repotting in spring of 2025. I need to figure out what to do with the clump in the last photo of my original post. It's too big to move anywhere so it's just sitting unceremoniously in my driveway.

But this one died:


It's worrisome because I don't know why. It flushed out nicely, then in mid summer started drying up. On postmortem, it had generated new roots post-collection. A decent number. I've never had a collected fir collapse like that after putting out healthy new growth. One data point is that this was basically dug out of clay, and that Anderson flat was almost entirely the existing soil. So maybe I had it too wet all spring without realizing it. It was also in full sun on a concrete surface, so perhaps heat was a factor. Though other nearby trees were fine.