My Greatest challenge ever

[Andrew F]

Hi V.S , plenty of jins and shari's on all of them and they will take some serious carving too.

I think pics will be too much effort going to have to employ someone to video tape the process

[alpineart]

A sneak peek at the days work

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Well all in all its been the toughest day in 4 months and tomorrow i hope i don't pay the penalty dancing around with the chainsaw .

Cheers Alpineart

[fiveoffive]

1500 / 8 = X each x pot x your time x water x feed x style = LOADS of lunchs

I might have to take up a 2nd job that way i get 2 lunchs a day

[boom64]

Hi Ian ,
Looking FANTASTIC you have made a lot of people green with envy. I look forward to see how you will top this one.
Have a shari load of fun, John.

[Bretts]

Best of luck Nice haul. I hope you charged for their removal

[The Hacker]

Hi folk's I'm just letting you know that that very nice looking Sabina is going to be very happy hanging out at the Hacker's house along side half of that big mother as that is the spotter's fee

[alpineart]

Hi 5of5 mate i didn't get breakfast lunch or tea , way to busy thinking outside that big square and trying to work out how to pay for them .

Hi boom64 , mate if my excavator gets delivered , all hell will break loose .then all i need is a set of traffic lights 12 months insurance and a few workers . It will keep me off the streets that's for sure

Hi Bretts , it certainly is a nice haul , mate they cost an arm and a leg but worth every penny to pick these size trunks up in Aus that for sure .

Hi The Hacker , mate your dreaming if you think i'm giving you a sabina , well maybe a layered trunk , there too big for an old fella like you . I do have another one i will split it down into 2 trunks , might be more your size around 150mmx 200mm base and 1-1.5m long .The root mass on the rest of these is around 1.2 in diameter and all are around 120mm thick at the trunk so they will slip into a Big bonsai pot without any height reduction to the root ball . Anyway whats this spotters fee, didn't i show you a personal tour of my collection fields Better cancel the order for that digger , i need a 4 WD front end loader / backhoe with a 3 way bucket , then i wont need to hire labourers .

Cheers Fella's . Alpine

[anttal63]

Congrats On this score mate !!! Hope they survive and prosper !!!

[Brian]

Alpine,
you need to be adding liquid rooting hormone watered to the roots every few days to promote root growth.

I hope they survive,and the bonus is its a good time to collect and repot junipers. If you have 40% success with the overall tree collection surviving, you are doing well.

[Mojo Moyogi]

Hi Alpine, nice material. I will be watching the progress of these with interest as I have 80+ J.sabinas to dig from my former home, the trees were planted between 1984 and 1987 and as you can imagine are quite sizeable with the sort of movement that can only be found in trees that have been left to nature. Joe (Jow) had a great idea that I should attempt to graft Shimpaku foliage on some of them, much the same as they do in California with collected indigenous Junipers.

Cheers,
Mojo

[alpineart]

Hi anttal63 , great score these were , they should survive as there is a huge root mass on all of them .

Hi Brian , what would you suggest as a liquid hormone . Whats this 40% caper mate i'm looking at 90% plus . These are planted in red scoria and pine bark .If i can get a Pinus Nigra to grow roots when collected with none at all , then these should power away .There is huge fiber roots masses on all and as the where grown on road base with 200mm of soil then the root ball is flat , fibrous and very healthy . Re -potting time for Junipers was a topic of light discussion at the A-W Bonsai club last week. I have 5 wet grow beds set up so any methods in addition to the blend i will test if members want to suggest them .

Hi Mojo , in the past i have found the Sabina to be the most robust of all the junipers i have used . Cutting pushed into wet sand strike well without hormone powder , and the branches ground layer themselves easily , even in poor soil as i have here .Mate you would have some awesome Shimpaku juni's if you graft onto old Sabina trunks .

Cheers Guys . Alpine

[Jow]

Hi Alpine, nice material. I will be watching the progress of these with interest as I have 80+ J.sabinas to dig from my former home, the trees were planted between 1984 and 1987 and as you can imagine are quite sizeable with the sort of movement that can only be found in trees that have been left to nature. Joe (Jow) had a great idea that I should attempt to graft Shimpaku foliage on some of them, much the same as they do in California with collected indigenous Junipers.

Cheers,
Mojo

Hey Jason,

Are you still planning on digging these junipers? If you need some (limited) muscle i'd be keen to help swing a shovel. Did you try any grafts on them yet?

I have fairly reciently come into some good shimpaku stock which i think is the 'kishu' variety. I believe it was originally imported by Ron Anderson but i could be wrong. Either way it is a strong growing, tight foliaged variety that i am sure i could get you a few cuttings from.

Anyway, hope you are settling into the new place,

Joe

[Mojo Moyogi]

Hi Alpine, nice material. I will be watching the progress of these with interest as I have 80+ J.sabinas to dig from my former home, the trees were planted between 1984 and 1987 and as you can imagine are quite sizeable with the sort of movement that can only be found in trees that have been left to nature. Joe (Jow) had a great idea that I should attempt to graft Shimpaku foliage on some of them, much the same as they do in California with collected indigenous Junipers.

Cheers,
Mojo

Hey Jason,

Are you still planning on digging these junipers? If you need some (limited) muscle i'd be keen to help swing a shovel. Did you try any grafts on them yet?

I have fairly reciently come into some good shimpaku stock which i think is the 'kishu' variety. I believe it was originally imported by Ron Anderson but i could be wrong. Either way it is a strong growing, tight foliaged variety that i am sure i could get you a few cuttings from.

Anyway, hope you are settling into the new place,

Joe

Hi Joe, you are invited, but save those Landscape Architect biceps The plan with those Junipers and 50 odd J.squamata 'Meyeri' of about the same age is to get an earthmoving guy in over a weekend this coming winter, invite YVBS members and some invitees to pay a small amount as admission purely to cover costs and make a productive dig of it, my plan is to keep 20 or so of these and release the rest to my old club members and a few select people who are prepared to put in 2 years of aftercare while devising design options, before messing with the trees. I would like a couple of AusBonsai participants there as well, a couple from interstate would be nice. I'll organise a dedicated thread for the proposed dig shortly, do some costings and work out how many people to invite and how much it will cost.

Stay tuned on that one.

In regards to geting hold of named Shimpaku varieties or plants with preferable foliage characteristics, I would be very interested in obtaining some cutting material to graft or generate stock plants for future approach grafts.

Cheers,
Mojo

[alpineart]

These 2

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took 6 hours to sort out , the root mass alone were huge on both tree's

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.Now safely planted into the wet beds

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and its time for a rest , then into the last 3 .I noticed curl grubs

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in the 3 remaining

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, definitely the reason for poor health

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. These will end up in a separate grow bed and i will treat the ground as per lawn treatment . If they die well i've learned a little more about curl grubs and if a ground treatment works on bonsai .

Cheers Alpineart

[alpineart]

All done

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this one has 2 ground layers at the base

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giving several options from severing them to splitting the trunk into 2 tree's and planted out .Now whats next , i think a little MAME bonsai might be on the cards . All up 8 tree's and around 15 ground layers to play with .

Cheers Alpineart