Collecting in Georgia

fiona wrote:Happy researching and good luck to you Mr Carter. Please let us see the fruits of your labours when they happen.


BonsaiJim, you give some very sound advice indeed which should really help Mr Carter on his digging quest. Maybe leave out the fatuous remarks about other members of this forum next time though, eh?

Fiona
Moderator

While I'm a relative newcomer to this newer version of this forum I know JKL and was a member of the original List Serve from Waaaay back. In other words we know each other. I'm sure he can take some ribbing... so "maybe" or "maybe not"...

Mr. Carter wrote:Oh and one more thing...From what I've read, when you collect a tree, it is also a good idea to go ahead and get rid of all the growth that won't contribute to the design. So would that include a drastic trunk chop? I think that's what the article said, but I'd like to know, just to be sure that I read it right. Or would it be better to do a chop like that a year or two before I collect?

Can't generalize too much (depends on species if they can take it), but I chop all my collected trees as hard as needed ASAP. At least based on my design vision at that time, but sometimes, I still come back and re-chop in a day or so later.

By the way, if you haven't seen Sandev's yamadori movies yet, I suggest you watch them http://sandevbonsai.blogspot.com/ (or search at youtube)

It helped me a lot and changed my collecting style/perception for the better. His collection area is rocky so you will have to adapt when you only deal with soil. Good luck!

Back to that "all depends"...

If you have the luxury of time, you can do a whole lot of field training and get the advantage of healthy relatively undisturbed roots in the "infinite grow-pot" that is the earth. This allows you to design the trunk and get the most rapid scar healing because you have all that root to feed growth. You would not of course consider fine branching or nebari development until it is in a more restrained environment of a pot or box as that is where you want to control internodal length.

If however, you are racing the dozer or have one opportunity to get into a collecting area then you have to again (sounding like a broken record) know your species, conditions etc... Trees like boxwood- cut back hard... Bald cypress collected from the swamp end up being big cuttings... Others like junipers are risky chopping back BOTH roots and foliage.

Thanks again for all the help guys. An wow! That link you gave ne is awesome. I'll be watching videos for weeks now.