When to carve?

This question is for newly collected trees with little or growing new roots that may be disturbed by the (power) carving vibration. I do not want to wait too long in fear that some areas will be more difficult to access once new branches have grown. Don't want to start too soon either that I may endanger the plants health.

When should I attempt carving? Is a year wait sufficient?

Thank you.

When the trees are rooted enough that they are solid in the pot, at least a year or more depending on how the plant is growing.

hi Dario,

It will take between one and three years for the tree to strengthen. There are fairly defined stages really - A collected and hard cut back deciduous material needs totally unpruned and unstyled free growth so the tree recovers, strengthens and grows a new root pad - this is one or better still two full growing seasons. Growing season 3 you can start branch selection so will remove all branches not needed and shorten the ones you are keeping to a few cm. Now you will be repotting the tree, arranging the roots better and choosing the front so I guess a rough carve would be ok before 1st repotting but I see detail carving and ramification the final development stages. If you start wiring, pruning and working the first new shoots to form the tree it will be poor for years and the results from it will disapoint - it is so easy to style a nice tree from plenty of strong foliage (I waited 4 years to 1st style the needle juniper, and it was a bonsai not a newly dug tree)

As you are quite impatient for everything to happen at once just use some of the ????? material to practice on and keep the nicer bits to do properly in the right time scale - why risk killing bits of the better material and leaving yourself with all the average stuff? If you have wired the trees into the pots properly and can lift them by the trunk without any movement in the soil at all then less harm will be done to the root tips. If they are loose or wobble forget it, or tie and wedge them in properly.

cheers Marcus

Thanks Bob and Marcus!

Me impatient? How did you get to that conclusion?

good question Dario though, I was wondering myself about this. But figured don't mess with it till roots established as I guessed carving/vibrations isn't too good for developing roots. Thanks for asking.

Chris

It's more than "vibration." If you are doing any significant sawing or carving you are placing a lot of torque on the tree, and if it is not FIRMLY tied in (and even then), that can do severe damage to new roots, or even prevent new roots from forming.

It's always best to wait at least 2 years after collection to be certain it is sprouting green on its roots and when it is firm in its pot from something other than tie downs before doing any major surgery.

There always is pinching and pruning you can do if you MUST do something -- but even that is better left for a year or so, hard as that can be.

Thanks Jim. I have a recently collected Ponderosa, and 4 trees from a field dig this early spring. I don't mind being patient though and had told myself already to just put it in a box and leave it alone lol

Thank Jim. I promise not to saw cut or carve my trees.

I am a pincher though and I can't resist doing it. We will see if this habit of mine is really bad and should be evident in a few years.