Collected Yew. Not a lot of roots, any suggestions?

I think it's a Hicks Yew, but not sure. I found it out in front of my condo among the various vines and euonymus. I think someone must have discarded it years ago and somehow it thrived.

You can see in this photo all the dead surface roots. It was probably thrown into the brush by our genius landscapers.

Looks like Summer where you are. Your Yew may survive but it's very unlikely. Winter or early Spring is the best time for lifting Yews.

Hi Cris,

Get your yew under shade immediately. Treat it like a large cutting ... spray the foliage with water and monitor soil dampness keeping it most, not soggy. By all means give Vitamin B1 when you water.

Good luck!
Peter Adams

I've successfully rooted a yew with hardly any roots to start with. I removed most of the foliage, and soaked the root area in Dyna-gro K-L-N http://www.dyna-gro.com/ for several days before potting it. Then each watering for 2 or 3 months had K-L-N in the water. After a couple of months new growth began to emerge. I like morning sun and an area thats free of wind.
Anyway, whatever you do, I wish you luck.

Mike

will baddeley wrote:Your Yew may survive but it's very unlikely.

Permit me to disagree.

1/ make sure the tree doesn't move in its container, and don't move the container itself : if you can, put it in a place with sun in the morning and in the evening, but shaded the rest of the day.
2/ don't fertilize it
3/ don't remove the leaves that will dry out (some of them will), just leave it alone
4/ keep a damp atmosphere around, but don't over-water it

I think the chances it will survive are 5 to 1.

Give it a go but dont think you've won because it looks like its growing. Someone was grubbing out a hedge of varying sizes but at this time of year. All the trees came out with good root and appeared to grow well for the rest of the year. None of them budded up the following Spring and on inspection, all roots were dead but the trunk was still sappy. Best of luck.

yeah. I attempted to lift a yew from my side yard. When I got it out of the ground there were NO feeders close to the trunk, symptomatic of poor soil. I wrapped the trunk in moss, replanted and said a quick prayer. The foliage on it lasted for two years. It never developed buds for the following year. That's how I knew I lost it. A lost yew will push sap for two years with no new buds to set. I may have had a chance if I made a polytent under shade cloth to retain moisture for the foliage. I removed it from the ground last week. I'm going to use the dead trunk for carving practice.

Hey Cris, I have collected yew that were torn from the ground with little care in august and still managed to keep them alive. (I would probably think twice today knowing what a bad chance it would have, but then I was blissfully ignorant). One I still have today. The advice given is good, tuck it in, leave it alone, water just right, it should come back. Good luck.

Jim Doiron wrote:Hey Cris, I have collected yew that were torn from the ground with little care in august and still managed to keep them alive. (I would probably think twice today knowing what a bad chance it would have, but then I was blissfully ignorant). One I still have today. The advice given is good, tuck it in, leave it alone, water just right, it should come back. Good luck.

August is a different matter as most Yews have started shutting down for the year and so chances of survival are better.

AlainK wrote:
2/ don't fertilize it

Fertilization after rempoting has been clearly shown as enhancing new root growth.

Alain Bertrand wrote:

AlainK wrote:
2/ don't fertilize it

Fertilization after rempoting has been clearly shown as enhancing new root growth.

On freshly collected material? With little or no feeder roots?

Alain Bertrand wrote:

AlainK wrote:
2/ don't fertilize it

Fertilization after rempoting has been clearly shown as enhancing new root growth.

Well, maybe a little phosphate, but since the tree has very few roots, the danger is burning these.

But maybe I'm wrong...

will baddeley wrote:
On freshly collected material? With little or no feeder roots?

No, of course because you can't have statistical evidence from that kind of material. As the same time, there is also no statistical evidence that no feeding after collecting works better than the opposite, so you'll have to use Ockham's best razor to decide what is most probable. And, by the way, for in vitro culture of vegetals, you don't remove salts when you decide to root them.

AlainK wrote:Well, maybe a little phosphate, but since the tree has very few roots, the danger is burning these.

Feeders roots have a very short life span, about 3 weeks. If new feeder roots were more sensitive to osmotic strength than older ones, a fertilized tree could simply not grow new ones which is clearly not the case.

Alain Bertrand wrote:

will baddeley wrote:
On freshly collected material? With little or no feeder roots?

No, of course because you can't have statistical evidence from that kind of material. As the same time, there is also no statistical evidence that no feeding after collecting works better than the opposite, so you'll have to use Ockham's best razor to decide what is most probable. And, by the way, for in vitro culture of vegetals, you don't remove salts when you decide to root them.

The tree in question has very little root,as do others collected from the wild. It is common practice NOT to feed after collection. This is what I practice and it works for me. A few light feeds towards the end of the growing season but by then it is no longer a newly collected tree.

Lot of things work. But good advice is about what works best IMHO.