Yamabudoudanshi
Shohin
What a great variation in sizes. I'm really looking for this one to come together.
Sapling Division: Gabler's Sweetgum Forest Planting
- Thread starter Gabler
- Start date
Gabler
Masterpiece
Most of the cuttings died. I decided to try again with softwood cuttings. Here’s the planting after removing the dead cuttings and again after adding fresh cuttings. If even a few of them take, I’ll be off to a good start. Also, I’m still keeping the planting in the greenhouse for the benefit of the high humidity.
Gabler
Masterpiece
The new cuttings are still turgid. Fingers crossed.
Also, the old trunks are leafing out.
Also, the old trunks are leafing out.
Cmd5235
Chumono
Any update on this planting?
Gabler
Masterpiece
About half the trees are flourishing, and half appear dead. I have some replacements in pots, so I should be able to maintain the overall integrity of the composition.
Gabler
Masterpiece
I haven’t been real active on here lately, because I’m sitting for the Delaware Bar. Today is day two, so I decided to sign on here for a few minutes this morning to calm my nerves a bit before I take the next part of the test. To be clear, I’m still taking care of my trees. I’m just not online as much.
Best of luck on the test!
Gabler
Masterpiece
Thanks. I’ll snap a few photos.
Gabler
Masterpiece
Gabler
Masterpiece
Gabler
Masterpiece
A quick update: the three big trees all died. A fourth big tree that I collected at the same time had better roots but less movement. I stuck it in a plastic pot as a spare, and it is thriving. The smaller landscape trees are all still alive. Hopefully, I can find two more decent-sized trees so I can replace the ones that died and keep the original composition more or less the same as it was. Hopefully they have decent roots and aren't just suckers off of larger trees like the three that died.
Gabler
Masterpiece
The new iteration of my sweetgum forest has a bit of a different character than the prior iteration. The trunks are younger and thinner. I picked the largest trees I could find with feeder roots close to the trunk. They’re significantly younger than my prior choices, but I feel they better reflect the natural tendency of sweetgum to grow in clumps of two to five thick, vertical trunks.
Gabler
Masterpiece
The largest tree is truncated, and it gives the impression that it is an old survivor from a forest that was cleared, and the younger trees are pioneers colonizing the free real estate of the nearby cleared land. That’s the typical ecological niche of sweetgum as a pioneer species, so I feel it’s appropriate for designing a naturalistic landscape.
Gabler
Masterpiece
Several other trees have been mowed to ground level every spring at my parents house when my dad cuts the wildflower field in front of the house. This has been going on for years. Conveniently, the resulting clumps growing from stumps supplement the illusion that this planting has grown from a forest that once was cleared and then allowed to re-grow.
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Gabler
Masterpiece
You can see in these diagonal views a bit more detail of the young trunks starting to cork up.
Gabler
Masterpiece
I think this may be a better image of the truncated largest tree. I’ll need to carve it up a bit, but for now, I’m just letting the trees establish lots of roots, since sweetgums naturally grow wide, invasive root systems, and these have all been root pruned either this or last spring. Carving will shake the trees a lot, and I don’t want to damage fresh root hairs.
Gabler
Masterpiece
Cajunrider
Imperial Masterpiece
Beautiful forest
Gabler
Masterpiece
Thanks!
Gabler
Masterpiece
I've been thinking a lot about this arrangement lately. In part, I'm glad I was able to find some material with good roots, and I do like the direction this new forest is going. Fingers crossed that these trees all recover swiftly. Hopefully, I can quickly thicken a few of them up just a little bit by letting them grow. Still, I'm a disappointed that the bigger trees didn't make it and that I had to replace them with smaller trees with less interesting movement.
Regarding why some of the trees died, I was already well aware that, for example, beeches and pines hate root work. However, I was under the false impression that sweetgum would be more forgiving. Relevantly, I think of beeches as sensitive to disturbance because they're a "climax community" tree in terms of ecological succession in disturbed areas. I still believe this is partly true—and also why, with patience, they make excellent specimen trees. By contrast, "pioneer species" like mulberries love to shoot up in cleared areas. They aren't demanding in terms of soil quality, humidity, etc. They just love to get lots of sunlight. Northern red maples fill a similar role, as do sycamores (along stream banks) and tulip poplars. Sweetgum also fills this role.
Accordingly, I expected all of the trees I collected to be as hardy as similarly-situated maples, sycamores, and tulip poplars. The field trees met my expectations. The ones collected from the forest did not. They had all grown from suckers on more mature trees, and, lacking roots, they ran out of energy by mid summer and died over the winter. Maples I had collected nearby came, in a few cases, without any feeder roots. I chopped the trunks, chopped the thick roots, and put the stumps in pots. All quickly rooted and are still alive. I've had similar success with ironwoods (what some of you heathens call "American hornbeam"). No roots necessary. So long as I have the root collar, it'll work like a giant cutting, even without a greenhouse to keep in the humidity. Just shade. The sweetgums were not so forgiving.
The seedlings I collected from the field all had great roots. Shallow, with feeders close to the trunk. They all survived. The forest "seedlings" I collected were not seedlings at all, but suckers, as previously mentioned. They soon withered. They tried to send out a second flush of growth after the first shriveled up, but they couldn't recoup enough energy to survive the winter. The suckers were accustomed to drawing energy from the parent plant, and they could not survive when separated. It's the same as with beech.
Regarding why some of the trees died, I was already well aware that, for example, beeches and pines hate root work. However, I was under the false impression that sweetgum would be more forgiving. Relevantly, I think of beeches as sensitive to disturbance because they're a "climax community" tree in terms of ecological succession in disturbed areas. I still believe this is partly true—and also why, with patience, they make excellent specimen trees. By contrast, "pioneer species" like mulberries love to shoot up in cleared areas. They aren't demanding in terms of soil quality, humidity, etc. They just love to get lots of sunlight. Northern red maples fill a similar role, as do sycamores (along stream banks) and tulip poplars. Sweetgum also fills this role.
Accordingly, I expected all of the trees I collected to be as hardy as similarly-situated maples, sycamores, and tulip poplars. The field trees met my expectations. The ones collected from the forest did not. They had all grown from suckers on more mature trees, and, lacking roots, they ran out of energy by mid summer and died over the winter. Maples I had collected nearby came, in a few cases, without any feeder roots. I chopped the trunks, chopped the thick roots, and put the stumps in pots. All quickly rooted and are still alive. I've had similar success with ironwoods (what some of you heathens call "American hornbeam"). No roots necessary. So long as I have the root collar, it'll work like a giant cutting, even without a greenhouse to keep in the humidity. Just shade. The sweetgums were not so forgiving.
The seedlings I collected from the field all had great roots. Shallow, with feeders close to the trunk. They all survived. The forest "seedlings" I collected were not seedlings at all, but suckers, as previously mentioned. They soon withered. They tried to send out a second flush of growth after the first shriveled up, but they couldn't recoup enough energy to survive the winter. The suckers were accustomed to drawing energy from the parent plant, and they could not survive when separated. It's the same as with beech.
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