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August of 2006
I
learned of a trailer park that was going to be bulldozed
to make way for a new housing sub division. I gained permission
from the owners to collect any trees I found suitable.
Since I didn't know how long the park would be left without
bulldozing I had to collect the trees quickly even though
August is far from the ideal time of year to collect trees
or shrubs, especially shrubs you know nothing about!
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The weather was hot and humid during collection. I had plastic
construction bags to wrap the root ball for the 20 mile
transport home and water to keep the soil damp.
First
of all I chopped the trunks back so that I could get in
close enough to the base to dig up the tree. I was very
lucky with this tree in that the former owners had planted
the tree on top of a plastic bag. This had created a perfect
shallow root ball for collection. I found that I could practically
tilt the tree out of the soil.
Because of neglect, dry weather and poor growing conditions,
the tree had very little foliage on it and none after I
had cut it back. I was very unsure about the survival of
the tree, not only because of its health but also because
I had no idea what kind of tree it was.
After getting the tree home, I planted it in the compost
pile I have in the back yard, that being the only location
I had for it at the time. That location also provided partial
shade and wind protection.
The
tree then sat stagnant for a month before putting out the
first new leaves in late September. The tree put out very
little growth before then going dormant in November.
March 2007
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The tree began to put out numerous buds in March 2007. I
built a grow box for it out of wood and bare rooted the
tree to remove the ground soil. After spraying the soil
from the root ball, I found a shallow mass of healthy roots.
After a minor root prune, I planted the tree in the box
using 100% Turface.
At this time I also sent Harry Harrington an e-mail requesting
his help with this tree. Harry was gracious enough to agree
to help. Without Harry's help I would have chopped apart
the clump and attempted an informal upright with the largest
trunk. Following Harry's ideas for this tree, I pruned branches
and removed trunks to initial shape.
April of 2007
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To begin with, new trunk lines for the tree needed to be
established. All unnecessary branches were removed.
The curving trunk in the back was guy-wired down into position.
The tree was then fed, watered heavily and allowed to grow. I pruned any growth that did not extend the chosen trunk lines to concentrate the tree's energy where it was needed. All unnecessary buds on the trunks were rubbed off.
The tree grew very vigorously and in June, following Harry's advice, I stripped the foliage from the branches to be able to see where the new trunk lines were and to remove any doubled up shoots. The remaining branches and trunk lines were wired and positioned.
The tree was again allowed free growth until September when the branches and trunks were pruned back. I continued to feed and water heavily. Any shoots or buds that were not beneficial to the design were removed or pinched back until the tree went dormant.