California Juniper Yamadori Collection

Last year I tried collecting a California Juniper and failed at the post collection care part. This dig went much better. I was able to be better about the transferring to the pot without losing any additional soil.

This was a close up of the trunk of the tree I dug. For some reason I didn’t get a backed out shot of the whole thing, oh well :/
Here it is a bit more zoomed out. The best I got.

I took a trenching shovel to dig the initial trench instead of a drain spade. It had recently rained which helped, but using a thinner shovel really helped to get down quicker and find the thick roots that I needed to cut.
img_3617
Here are some photos of the trenches I dug before widening the trench to get underneath the root ball. Here I began to wide the trench to be able to dig under the root ball to get to the taproot. 
Once I completed the circle the tree literally just leaned over. For a minute I thought there might not be a taproot on this tree. 
However, I was incorrect. There definitely was a taproot. While trying to reduce the root ball to a size that was conceivably moveable, I lost big chunks of dirt that took a bit of fine roots with them.

The taproot with my hand for size. 
When I lifted the tree out of the hole, I lost a huge chunk off of one side that didn’t feel the need to come with me back to the house.
I set the tree into the bag and secured it with an extra roll of electrical tape I found laying around.

Now for the slow and careful drive back home. I paid attention to the potholes on the way out to know where to look on the way home.

2 thoughts on “California Juniper Yamadori Collection”

  1. Pingback: California Juniper #1 | Nate's Nursery

Comments are closed.