HellishThuja questions

[MMJNICE]

I was again Cruising the old north dayton nursery with no Particular thing I was looking for when I saw it. It Immediately grab me with an Awesome design but looked like it went through hell in a hand basket. I tried to talk myself out of it but that little devil on my shoulder says BUY IT,,, YOU WON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON A HALF DEAD TREE,,,,, YOU CAN SAVE IT... ... .. . so I did. When I got it home the soil in the pot had disintegrated into sand and well.... mostly sand and Microscopic Pieces of parallelite. When up the pot to Examine the root base the plastic nursery pot turned into dust basically. Only one thing to do boys....... ... OUT OF SEASON RE-POT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that little devil was working overtime on my that day. So I quickly built a box,,,, may i add the second grow box I ever built in life to help save it.. so to make a long story short heheheh.. how tuff are this thuja anyway? Anyone want to make a bet on its Survival chances? There was a gang of with roots under the trunk and lots of feeder roots that Weren't rotted next to the trunk about 4" away. All the outside roots in the root ball where totally rotted tho. My experience with thuja is with the Dorf thuja primo and those little guys are pretty tuff. They can stand at a out of season repot just fine. What about big brother thuja?? Did I do the right thing and what would be your course of action if it was you. I Included a few pictures for your viewing pleasure of this poor Doomed soul thuja. My plan was to jin the tops of all the trunks like a pointy cathedral similar to that one guy that people spend 300 dollars on his outa print book that his become a sort of new Testament Bible for bonsai.. with all that devil talk I had to Redeem myself trunk is about 3" right about the trunk flare. The spotlight makes it look like it's smaller fyi my girlfriend said something like that too I believed her stupid.... yup..

 

[JackHammer]

It looks sick. They should look like a big green ball. My landscaping trees have been really tough. This looks like it might take 2 seasons before it might be in a place to work on anything.
You can use a lot of ferts and they do well.

 

[MMJNICE]

It looks sick. They should look like a big green ball. My landscaping trees have been really tough. This looks like it might take 2 seasons before it might be in a place to work on anything.
You can use a lot of ferts and they do well.

It's definitely got a iron Deficiency probably not able to get nutrients up to the leaves because of the crappy soil. I already gave it a weak dose of iron to help green up the foliage.. i bought two more healthy thuja from the same nursery that have all their leaves but still have a yellow color. They are in much better shape but not as thick or Mature as the thuja in question. I would expect that by the end of the next growing season it will look like a different tree if. My aftercare is worth anything

 

[MMJNICE]

Just wanted to document the progress of my Thuja. I'm thinking that it may be an golden Thuja because of the color of the leaves. And also because I bought two golden Thuja that leaves look very similar. The green in the leaves are starting to greenen up a bit but not much. I've started to get small leaf budding on the trunk mostly at the bottom parts of the leaves and some close to the main leaders. The repot must have improved the condition of the tree slightly already but more time will tell if an out of season repot was the right move.

 

[MMJNICE]

Just a little update on the thuja. It's a golden type thuja so the yellow is it's normal color. The whole left side died off which is a bummer because I really liked the lower double trunk thing it had going on. But regardless I guess that makes for a lot of potential carving. I'm not Exactly sure where the Live vein is located I'm hoping that will become more obvious as time progress.

 

[MMJNICE]

Since this is a thuja thread I'll add a couple of trees I've been training this last two years. One is a little thuja I picked up at the Columbus bonsai society show and sell event this summer and the other larger tree I got last year at the local nursery. The larger of the Two I styled to look like a deciduous type tree and I'm pretty happy how it turned out. The root spread is so Radial it looks almost two perfect but I an't complaining. The smaller thuja I'm thinking about makes a root over rock planting because the way it's standing in the soil looks like a rock should be under it..and pics.

 

[MMJNICE]

So update on the Thuja. Half the trunk died during a greenhouse mishap and the only living sections is a small strip of live vein that runs up one side. It hasn't swollen enough yet to determine where it is exactly so no further deadwood work can be done except jin all the dead tops of the tree and repot it into a smaller training pot. I have no clue how im going to style the tree im hoping after the dead portion of the tree is clearly visible or should i say the living sections is visible till i considering a front. I would really just like to understand how to go about the styling because all the living branches are all lined up on top of each other in a row so whatever i do it will be challenging. I also repotted my little tiny Thuja on top of a rock like I envisioned the tree on when I first got it and it looks OK but not amazing as of yet.

 

[MMJNICE]

Also will be adding a additional thuja to the thread it's another root over rock planting. It's been on the rock for 2 or 3 years now im not exactly sure but it's firmly attached to the rock now and looks pretty cool. It's another golden thuja that had really radial roots so I plopped it on a rock a couple years ago.
It's really ready for a shallow container but doubt im going to repot it next spring because I have other trees that need it more desperately and don't have a pot for it anyway. It was up potted last year to give it some more room for the roots to lock onto the rock. I'll post pictures when I dig it out the greenhouse sometime this winter.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Main tree that keeps dying off is presenting opportunity for more natural Yamadori "appearing" tree as this is how nature works its creations. Keep dead foliage cleared out and just allow 3-4 years growth then study to see what can be done. Something interesting is hiding in there but may take some time to see it. Also why a smaller pot unless you want trunk always small? Give tree room to run and grow.

 

[MMJNICE]

Main tree that keeps dying off is presenting opportunity for more natural Yamadori "appearing" tree as this is how nature works its creations. Keep dead foliage cleared out and just allow 3-4 years growth then study to see what can be done. Something interesting is hiding in there but may take some time to see it. Also why a smaller pot unless you want trunk always small? Give tree room to run and grow.

Right now it's as big as I want the tree. I feel like there's enough foliage to style it just don't know what to do with the branches that i have Right now. I'll probably see a design after I stare at it next growing seasons i would imagine. The only reason it was in a box to begin with is because it was in horrible nursery soil and was literally on it's last leg when I bought it home from the nursery for next to nothin. The soil had turned into a fine powder after sitting for probably a minim 10 years I would guess. Seeing that only a small portion of the trunk was alive and I don't want it any bigger putting it in a small pot wouldn't be a problem. There's plenty of room in the pot for now but something bigger probably won't hurt in the future. The box got it healthy and did it's job so im happy. I've learned a lot since i got the tree but I know there's a lot more to learn and I do listen to others advice so thank you for your input .

 

[Cruiser]

Very old western red cedars often contain only a few live veins surviving in a towering cathedral of deadwood.


Nolan Creek Tree
One live vein is all that remains. Some jackass partially cut into the vein while clearing the area around its base.






Illustrations by Robert Van Pelt. Forest Giants of the Pacific Coast.

Food for thought.