New to California Juniper collecting...

[tamakwe]

I started bonsai when I was a kid about 15 years ago and had a lot of great mentors. Within a few years, my entire collection was made of of mature trees I had collected in the Northeast from the wild. Most of the men in my family were hunters and a couple were foresters, so I knew a lot of great, remote collecting spots for Larch, Pitch Pine, White Cedar, and more. A friend and I went on a dozens of collecting trips over the years, and I learned how to remove, transplant and care for each species with only a few casualties. Eventually, I had to give up my entire collection when I moved after college because I couldn't take my bonsai with me. We auctioned off the trees at a club benefit, and they all went to good homes.

I'm in Southern California for grad school now, and it looks like I might be stationed here for few years after. I want to start bonsai again. Naturally, I want to work with collected material, but I'm a little wary. I've been scoping out locales for California Junipers using a lot of the same tricks I used in the Northeast, and I've found some awesome trees with permission to dig, but I have no experience with this species. I'm used to collecting in bogs and lake shores, not deserts, and I won't be as skilled at determining what can be removed and how likely each tree would be to survive. I plan to hit up my local club soon, but what are the best resources out there to learn? I want to make sure I really know what I'm doing before I walk in there with a shovel. The pics below are a few trees I tagged to give you a sense of what I'm looking at.
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[Boscology]

Welcome to the forum!

Some awesome material you have there and possibly more complicated collection methods might be needed here than the lush, temperate, Pacific Northwest. Techniques have included digging a 1-2 foot trench around the tree, cutting the large roots, replacing with medium, coming back a year later, and then if healthy collecting it. A good deal of care should be taken with tress such as these, their age requires a little bit of special handling and dignity.

 

[justBonsai]

Trees look awesome! Where are you going for grad school? I'm working on my undergraduate degree right now, but fortunately I can afford to keep them as my parents just water them with their other plants. I'm looking to go on a collecting trip myself hopefully in the next year or so. I don't have much knowledge in collecting myself, but I'm sure many members here could give you tips. Good luck!

 

[Potawatomi13]

I started bonsai when I was a kid about 15 years ago and had a lot of great mentors. Within a few years, my entire collection was made of of mature trees I had collected in the Northeast from the wild. Most of the men in my family were hunters and a couple were foresters, so I knew a lot of great, remote collecting spots for Larch, Pitch Pine, White Cedar, and more. A friend and I went on a dozens of collecting trips over the years, and I learned how to remove, transplant and care for each species with only a few casualties. Eventually, I had to give up my entire collection when I moved after college because I couldn't take my bonsai with me. We auctioned off the trees at a club benefit, and they all went to good homes.

I'm in Southern California for grad school now, and it looks like I might be stationed here for few years after. I want to start bonsai again. Naturally, I want to work with collected material, but I'm a little wary. I've been scoping out locales for California Junipers using a lot of the same tricks I used in the Northeast, and I've found some awesome trees with permission to dig, but I have no experience with this species. I'm used to collecting in bogs and lake shores, not deserts, and I won't be as skilled at determining what can be removed and how likely each tree would be to survive. I plan to hit up my local club soon, but what are the best resources out there to learn? I want to make sure I really know what I'm doing before I walk in there with a shovel. The pics below are a few trees I tagged to give you a sense of what I'm looking at.
View attachment 95210 View attachment 95211 View attachment 95212 View attachment 95213 .

Great Trees! Not sure but Randy Knight might give you some pointers as has collected at least 3 kinds of Juniper.
Also believe Golden Arrow Bonsai has a disc or booklet on collecting. Best of fortune in this worthy endeavor.

 

[Cypress187]

 

[M. Frary]

So you already know the basics to getting trees out of the ground. As you should know from collecting before,start small and work your way up to the larger trees if you aren't sure how to collect it. Smaller trees are more likely to survive. Building confidence and knowledge of the collection practices for that species.
It isn't so much species to worry about it will be the ground and root systems that you will encounter. Once again start small.
Also as you will know from collecting trees before that aftercare is of the utmost importance.

 

[bonsaibp]

Personally I only collect CA's from Nov. through mid March, in really rainy years- unfortunately this year isn't one of them here in the south. Since they are desert trees they very often have long roots very far from the trunk, which make collecting difficult at best. When we gets some good rains they will grow new roots close to the surface in an effort to get as much of the moisture as possible while it can. I have a 80- 90% success rate when collecting in rainy years. The trees have all been in a drought situation for the last 5 years and are really stressed so I haven't been collecting in quite some time. I can't see taking a chance of killing something that is quite possibly several hundred years old. There are many others that will go dig almost anytime but I don't recommend it. If we get a couple of good rains this month it may be worth a try. If you do get one I'd suggest giving it at least 3 years after collecting before doing any styling etc.. I've seen them take that longer and longer to die. They'll look ok for the first couple of years than start declining losing a branch at a time. When removed from pot there are no roots, its been living off of stored energy. Good luck.

 

[tamakwe]

Personally I only collect CA's from Nov. through mid March, in really rainy years- unfortunately this year isn't one of them here in the south. Since they are desert trees they very often have long roots very far from the trunk, which make collecting difficult at best. When we gets some good rains they will grow new roots close to the surface in an effort to get as much of the moisture as possible while it can. I have a 80- 90% success rate when collecting in rainy years. The trees have all been in a drought situation for the last 5 years and are really stressed so I haven't been collecting in quite some time. I can't see taking a chance of killing something that is quite possibly several hundred years old. There are many others that will go dig almost anytime but I don't recommend it. If we get a couple of good rains this month it may be worth a try. If you do get one I'd suggest giving it at least 3 years after collecting before doing any styling etc.. I've seen them take that longer and longer to die. They'll look ok for the first couple of years than start declining losing a branch at a time. When removed from pot there are no roots, its been living off of stored energy. Good luck.

Actually, this spot has gotten a few inches of rain above average this year. The area was very green with lots of new grass, even though its hard to see in the photo, and I saw a lot of new growth on some of the trees. Many had berries too.

How important are the roots in collecting CA Junipers? Larch, for example, will survive on a few feeder roots if you really cut back foliage, but do these guys need most of the root bundle intact? The reason I ask is because some, like the second photo, are growing our of cracks, where it would be next to impossible to get at all the roots.

 

[bonsaibp]

You want to get as many roots as possible and keep as much foliage as possible. They are not as forgiving as larch - either with the root reduction or massive foliage cutback. Having shade and a misting system will increase your odds of recovery.