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[IBC] Sparkleberry
Hello, Jim et al!
Every day on my way home from work, I pass by this very interesting looking tree along side the road. It is about eight feet tall, the canopy is approximately 10 feet across. The base of the trunk at soil level is approximately 8 inches across. It is a true double trunk, with very gnarled branches and beautiful, shredding, brown and silvery bark. I'd love to have this tree in my yard, not to mention have it as an Imperial-sized Bonsai. Unfortunately, I seem to recall that several years ago you said Sparkleberry has a single tap root that attempts to reach clear through the Earth to China (My paraphrasing of your words!). : ) Thus, I have two questions for you: 1) Have you done any more research to verify a collecting/transplanting technique; and 2) can the branches be air-layered. There are any number of branches on this particular specimen that would make the beginnings of some fantastic bonsai. ************************************************** ****************************** ++++Sponsored, in part, by Marc Zimmerman++++ ************************************************** ****************************** -- The IBC HOME PAGE & FAQ: http://www.internetbonsaiclub.org/ -- +++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++ |
#2
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[IBC] Sparkleberry
Hello, Jim et al!
Every day on my way home from work, I pass by this very interesting looking tree along side the road. It is about eight feet tall, the canopy is approximately 10 feet across. The base of the trunk at soil level is approximately 8 inches across. It is a true double trunk, with very gnarled branches and beautiful, shredding, brown and silvery bark. I'd love to have this tree in my yard, not to mention have it as an Imperial-sized Bonsai. Unfortunately, I seem to recall that several years ago you said Sparkleberry has a single tap root that attempts to reach clear through the Earth to China (My paraphrasing of your words!). : ) Thus, I have two questions for you: 1) Have you done any more research to verify a collecting/transplanting technique; and 2) can the branches be air-layered. There are any number of branches on this particular specimen that would make the beginnings of some fantastic bonsai. It's not really a taproot. Sparkleberry (a.k.a. Farkleberry), Vaccinium arboreum is a blueberry and like all other blueberries is a thicket former. The trees reproduce by long runners, with sprouts popping up along the runners to form new bushes. These runners seem to have VERY few small roots; dig one up and you have an upside down T, with the trunk being the stem, and the runner being the crosspiece that goes off in both (or more) directions. Since the entire thicket is really one plant, it lives on nutrients provided by the roots of all the trees in the thicket. What you get when you dig one plant up is a VERY small part of the whole. Large trees (trunks greater than 3 inches) are almost impossible to dig (in MY experience). Trees up to 1 inch are quite diggable, but get as much of the runner roots (in both directions) as possible. And soil! You want all the fine roots you can get. They grow quite slowly, though, and I have never managed to get a tree in captivity to develop that polished orange bark that the big ones get. I suppose they'd layer. Bark is VERY thin. Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - Only where people have learned to appreciate and cherish the landscape and its living cover will they treat it with the care and respect it should have - Paul Bigelow Sears. ************************************************** ****************************** ++++Sponsored, in part, by Marc Zimmerman++++ ************************************************** ****************************** -- The IBC HOME PAGE & FAQ: http://www.internetbonsaiclub.org/ -- +++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++ |
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