help with establishing collected material?

Hi,

As I was walking home the other day I found one of my neighbours - chainsaw in hand - clearing most of his front garden to make way for a new driveway. Horrified and excited, I quickly asked if I could have any of the stumps that he had left and he was delighted to say yes ... and a little bewildered too!

I have never "collected" anything before, from the wild or from a garden, so my question is how do I stand the best chance of establishing this material??

As you can imagine from the chainsaw picture I described, many branches had already been removed by the time I came along and whilst some fine root was still evident on the stumps, many long thick woody roots had been chopped. Thankfully the weather was wet and humid so the roots hadn't dried out. I quickly got the material planted up into an equal mixture of fine chipped bark, fired clay (cat litter!) and grit and watered in well. They are all stood in a sheltered spot that doesn't get the sun till around 4 pm.

Given the rough handling they had I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't make it , but I would like to give myself the best chance - so any advice would be much appreciated.

Here are some pics of the candidates, all are around 25 years old:

Cotoneaster (either horizontalis or microphylla, not sure which), height = 37 cm

Cotoneaster, as above, height = 28 cm

Potentilla, height = 23 cm


Thaks in advance for advice!

Matt

Both your treatment and the mix sound great. If you can mist spray them a few times a day that will help. Try to keep the soil only barely damp, never soaking wet. The Cotoneaster and Potentilla are good sturdy bonsai candidates that should pull through. The Cotoneaster looks like horizontalis to me. Great catch. If you always keep your eyes open for opportunities like this one, you will occasionallly stumble upon real gold.

Keep us informed.

Wow, what a great find. On three separate occasions I have stumbled upon similar situations and most people really don't mind giving away what they see as yard trash.

Please keep us posted on the progress.

Take care,
Ed

Hello Matt

A very nice find and always worth a try!

Did you wash out the rootball? This is something I haven't done in former years and failed in cause of that!

Best regards
Martin

Thanks for the comments everyone!

Kev - Glad to hear I'm going along the right track. I guess time will tell how things play out, I'd love to get to do some work on these in the future

Martin - I didn't wash the rootball as there was hardly any soil left on them. The stumps were actually removed from the ground by my neighbour who intended to dump them so he was not careful. Hopefully they will be happy in their new home.

If these trees pull through, I'll be sure to post an update!

Thanks for now!

Matt

Klaudia & Martin wrote:Hello Matt

A very nice find and always worth a try!

Did you wash out the rootball? This is something I haven't done in former years and failed in cause of that!

Best regards
Martin

that's a handy tip. timely too. cheers.