Hello Reddit people, those of you who came to visit that is, I couldn't get imgur to behave today so I'm using my old blog to host this image. Above you can see the Sitka Spruce I laboriously extracted from the forest. It was growing from the rotting trunk of a fallen Alder, which must have had some living parts growing distantly, because the trunk was not rotting whatsoever at the core. It was hard as rock. My axe pinged, as if on metal, trying to cut that center, so I had to go get a saw. I was committed to extracting the tree, because I really liked the bendy trunk, and the exposed roots, and because I think it will survive easily (because most of it's roots are in that rotting trunk).
For now I will let it rest in the pot, until next year. The plastic wrapping is to prevent the shaking loose of superficial rotting layers of the trunk, where the feeder roots live. My chopping was quite percussive. I will keep it tied on until the roots have a chance to grab onto it and solidify the structure.
I don't know what direction I will take with this tree in the future, but I have some ideas. It is showing some growth very low on the trunk, and so I can imagine making the upper trunk into jin, and having the branches on the lower section. But, I can also imagine planting it at a slant in the future, so that the originally vertical trunk is at a slant, and then bending the apex vertical again. This is my idea in the even that, when the log ultimately disintegrates, a more horizontal orientation can be proved for the roots to take hold of. Whatever the case, I plan on substituting a nice rock for the stump, when, as it must, it is consumed by the spruce.
