Work Session August 20, 2017

Sorry for the delay, but yes we did have a very good work session in August.  We had 12 members present working on their show trees but mostly on bringing other trees along and starting some new ones to keep the pipeline full of progressing trees.

This is Barb with her beautiful Olive which is from Dave Woodall's collection.  

This is Shirley and her "Octopus Fig" which by the way is a standard sized Fig.  Serious leaf size reduction has been done.

Here is a nifty way to push roots into the soil or at least push them down closer to the soil surface to reduce the visual impact if they are too much in your face.  This issue does distract from the tree.  You see 4 things to accomplish this.  First are the stick(s) used as a stiff object which the pull down wire is attached to.  In this case John used 3-1/8" sticks and used a piece of wire to hold them together.  The wine cork was cut in half length-wise and is used as the soft but firm object which is pressed against the root.  For the hold down wire used to create the downward pressure on the sticks and corks, John used some a piece of insulated solid copper wire.  As is seen in the photo, the wire is run under the pot and wired at each end.  The ends are twisted creating the downward pressure.  this allows the pressure to be increased over time as the root is pressed into the soil.  As the roots harden they will stay lower in the soil.