My deciduous trees

[apr]

Today's work, repotting some oak saplings.



I dont know whether oak will airlayer or ground layer itself, but did the best I could with repositioning and wiring some roots for future nebari. I guess this is one of the challenges with not growing from seed and being able to get in early and get the taproot out.

Will see how this develops. I need to get better at wiring in bareroot small trees, I'm sure there's a better way to do it with small trees that don't have an established root mass to get wires around.

 

[apr]

A few more trees sorted this week.

Zelkovas



I want to create a nice nebari, but didn't feel confident removing all the lower roots at this time of year, so my thought was to repot and allow more horizontal roots to develop.

Given they are young, I am considering another spring repot to correct the roots, then left alone.



Tried making a wire cage, bit like a seating plan stand to keep them secure.



Horizontal roots spread out. I want to eventually rely on just these and remove anything lower.



Second wire holder was better !



Roots covered with another 2cm of substrate.

Some more oaks as well



I like the movement in this one.




Again didn't feel confident removing alot of root mass, but need to eventually get rid of these big thick taproots.



Another one with good lower movement but a poor straight section after that.

Couldn't decide on planting angle so it went back in as a potential raft for now.



A big thick mess on these which need to be removed eventually.






Not sure about spring repotting of these, but I'd rather correct the roots sooner rather than later.

 

[apr]

Repotted some grafted trees this week.

They come in a very moist organic substrate and even with doing my best to leave them alone, the soil is too wet to survive a winter here. I had one die last year from what I suspect was root rot, so hopefully they will all be fine come spring.

No root work as they are all grafted. Varieties are deshojo, arakawa, Nishiki gawa and I think okushimo.



I also made some cuttings of arakawa, katsura, "little princess". I can see roots from the katsura and new growth, as well as some possible roots from another unnamed variety I have.





Airlayer from my little princess, along with this other maple, have failed this season - I put it down to the moss substrate being too wet



I've airlayered from this successfully before as well as some cuttings, so I know it will be possible for next season. Little princess cutting also failed.

I've also got an airlayer coming along nicely of my shishigashira. No pics but roots are really healthy. I will leave this on the tree overwinter.