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 A small wrecking bar or root hook are indispensible when working to examine the roots |
Care should be taken not to scrape the bark off the roots. If you decide to collect the tree, you want the surface roots to be in perfect condition so you do not have an ugly scar that may take a long time to heal. If exposing the roots shows that the base of the tree has serious flaws the tree may not be good enough to collect. The worst flaw at the base of the tree is reverse taperăthe tree gets narrower at the roots rather than wider. The best thing you can find is a very wide base with strong surface roots around the entire base of the tree.
Any tree you selected will most likely be too tall for bonsai and will have to be reduced in height. As you walk around looking at trees, you will have to decide how difficult it will be to reduce the height of the tree. One way to reduce the height is to find a tree with a low branch that can be used as the new top of the tree. Another way is to reduce the height by cutting off the top of the tree and allowing a bud to develop and become the new top.
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Cut where indicated by dotted lines and create a new trunk line. When selecting a tree to collect, try to focus on the future trunk line and disregard existing branching. If the tree does not have a good existing first branch that can be retained, then all the branches will have to be cut off in order for the first branch to have an opportunity to become the thickest. |
When you have found the tree you want, it's time to collect. Begin by using secateurs to prune the very long branches back to a reasonable length so that the tree will fit in the car.
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To create a new apex, make a diagonal cut as shown. Use cut paste so the cambium will not shrink back behind the bark. With luck, buds will appear at the top of the cut as well as further down the trunk. The saw cut should be sloping downwards towards the back of the tree. |
Since the field is not very rocky, a spade or trenching shovel can be used for digging. If you do find rocks around the base of the tree, a wrecking bar can be useful for prying them out. A trench is dug in a circle around the tree, leaving intact a root ball close to the trunk.
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A trench around the tree is important so that the remaining roots are disturbed as little as possible whenthe tree isremoved from the ground. |
This root ball should be a little bigger than the box you intend to put the tree in when you get it home. While digging, you will encounter very large roots that grow outwards from the tree. Be careful not to hit them too hard in case the impact breaks up the root ball. Since they may be too thick for your secateurs, use a pruning saw and cut off these roots at the point where they protrude from the root ball. Folding pruning saws are available at most hardware stores. Reducing the root mass is not harmful because you are also reducing the amount of foliage, so the tree will be kept in balance. When the trench is about 18 inches deep, start digging under the tree. You will find tap roots underneath the tree that will have to be sawed off. Again, take care not to disturb the root ball. For this awkward job of digging under the tree, a garden trowel or your wrecking bar can be useful to loosen the dirt before it is scooped out.
When the digging is done, lift the tree from the hole and place it into a large plastic garbage bag. The bag should be pulled tight around the root ball to keep it intact, and gathered around the base of the trunk to keep out air. Twine is wrapped around the trunk to close the top of the bag. Wrap the twine around the top of the plastic bag where it wraps around the trunk, but do not put the twine directly onto the bark of the trunk. Be very careful not to flake off the bark. the twine is wrapped around the plastic bag in all directions to keep the root ball intact. Fill in the hole with debris and place the sod on top. We don't want the farmer's cattle to fall in.
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What your bundle should look like ... if it had a crown. |
For carrying the tree out of the field, the best piece of equipment is a backpack frame without the bag on it. There are some frames with a small shelf on the bottom. The tree can be placed on this shelf and strapped onto the frame with twine or with nylon straps having quick release buckles.
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This type of backpack is really useful for the long haul. |
Potting:
When you arrive home with the tree, you should pot it as soon as possible. Big wooden boxes are not expensive to make. Give them feet, and drainage holes. The container should be much bigger and deeper than the size of the final bonsai pot the tree will be placed in. You should have a few choices of container sizes available immediately for this first potting of the tree, since you will probably find a few surprisesălarge roots that are not in an ideal place. It could be dangerous to remove too many roots at this time if the tree does not have a large system of fine roots near the base of the trunk. These badly located roots can be removed in subsequent years when the tree has developed a system of fine roots close to the trunk. Remove as much soil as possible without destroying small feeder roots that are close to the trunk. If the soil seems to be of good quality, and you think you may destroy necessary roots, don't try to remove all the soil immediatelyătake a few years to remove it bit by bit as the tree grows in strength.
If the container is very large, it ca be very heavy when filled. To deal with this problem, it is a good idea to use a lightweight product such as fired clay pellets (one of these products is called Turface) as a non-organic component of the potting medium, rather than the heavier crushed granite (available as a product called Sand-it, at Canadian Tire).
Pruning:
The tree should be drastically pruned immediately, removing everything not necessary to the design. this is not the time to spend a year thinking about what the tree should be. This first drastic pruning will produce far more buds than any pruning done in the years following. It is important to take advantage of this opportunity by removing all unnecessary branches so that the tree can produce buds in locations useful for the future design. Any branches that are not ideally placed should be removed by cutting them off with a knob cutter. If an unnecessary branch stub is left after pruning, it is probable that the new bud will emerge from the tip of the stub. If this stub is not a part of the final design, when you remove it you also remove the new bud. It is better to cut of that stub, which will force that bud to emerge from the main trunk.
After the tree is established, the new branches will be pruned to length. Branch pruning done in the early summer will not have a very strong result with regard to back budding, and frequently only a single bud will be produced on the end of the pruned branch. Pruning should be done in the late fall, so there is more chance of multiple buds being produced for the following spring.
Wiring:
The new branches should be wired into position in the summer of the first year, before they stiffen into a position that is not good for your design idea. The shape of the branch can be changed later but the angle that it has as it emerges from the main trunk should be controlled as soon as possible.
Pests:
Apple should be sprayed with a fungicide before being overwintered, and again in the spring before the leaves emerge. They should be sprayed during the growing season if fungus persists. The most common pest I have found is wooly aphids. Since they are easy to see I usually remove them manually with a cotton swab. Aphids that gather around new leaves can be sprayed forcefully with dishwashing detergent diluted in water. If this doesn't kill them, they usually disappear when the leaves get older and harden.
Collected apple sometimes does not bloom. Even having a great deal of patience may not pay off if you want to see flowers. Good luck.