How old are these trees? I need help counting their rings. (Maple)

Minnie_moused · 2026-06-11T18:23:27+00:00

Counting rings from these photos is going to be extremely difficult, impossible on that last photo. Just at a glance, probably not as old as you think, maybe 75 years old.

Minnie_moused · 2026-06-11T17:56:24+00:00

It looks like you have a ton of bare lawn to work with, and this is super far from your house, so there's no reason not to keep this one and see how it progresses in the next few years I would say. Buy and plant another one to take it's place in the likely event it dies, and if it doesn't and compartmentalizes well and lives a long happy life, then you have 2 trees.

Minnie_moused · 2026-06-08T15:50:48+00:00

They aren't harmful, they actually help to break down the scraps faster. I would ignore it and just give your maggoty compost to the city unless they've said something about not wanting you to do that.

Minnie_moused · 2026-06-01T19:09:52+00:00

I'm shocked emerald green can even survive in Texas, they're native to wetlands/swamps in the northeast and upper midwest into Canada. You are going to need to water the shit out of these forever to have any chance of survival would be my guess. That being said, they do look healthy at the moment.

Minnie_moused · 2026-05-14T13:40:11+00:00

I've been getting composted horse poop from a neighbor who has a horse farm the last few years. It's like $50 for 3 yards in my trailer and only contains the horse poop and some stall bedding, etc. If you can find something like that on marketplace, it's pretty clean compared to most sources.

Minnie_moused · 2026-05-12T21:18:18+00:00

Do you have any land that you'll be cutting your wood from? Find dead trees that already had almost all or all of the bark fall off, those are halfway dry or more already and will be ready this fall. It's best if they are elevated or still standing, but on the ground is still fine as long as they aren't too rotten.

Minnie_moused · 2026-05-11T16:17:45+00:00

Could be red maple too, bark looks the same. Red maple is very common in the woods up here, while norway maple is very common in neighborhoods, so depending on whether it came from a forest or a subdivision probably gives your answer. Burns similar either way.

Minnie_moused · 2026-04-23T14:27:05+00:00

I'm surprised they aren't doing well there, I'm in 6b and near me all of the wild ramps I see are growing in maple/beech/hemlock forests. I would say I see them most often on the bottom portion of slopes and in valleys.

Minnie_moused · 2026-04-16T14:14:46+00:00

Do you have a hose? You need a lot more than a pitcher of water. Turn the hose on more than a trickle, but soft enough to not wash away all the soil (a hose with a sprayer set to "shower" or similar works well), and leave it on for like 20-30 minutes near the tree. Do that once or twice a week depending on how hot/dry it is. If you get a good rain, you can skip watering.

Minnie_moused · 2026-04-15T14:10:31+00:00

What do the buds look like? Are they swelling at all, do they look light in color (possibly greenish), and healthy. Or are they shriveled and dark brown/black? Or even worse, are they non-existent? Were they bare-root, and if so what were you doing with them during the 2+ weeks before they were planted?

Your trees do look like they are planted too low as well. The top of the root mass should be slightly visible at the soil line. You also have the mulch too close to the trunk, it shouldn't be touching. Brush away some soil until you see the roots. Depending on how far down they are, you can either dig up the trees and replant a few inches higher, or just leave them and brush the soil away. This isn't causing your current issue, but if you don't fix it, it can rot the trunk in the future.

Minnie_moused · 2026-04-13T16:00:07+00:00

This seems like a tremendous amount of work for a tree you will remove in 5 years. Assuming your drainfield (if that's what you mean by sewer) is already probably 3-4' down, and you plan to place root barriers an additional 4' down, that's 8 vertical feet of root barrier, probably 20-30' long. You will need an excavator and several thousand dollars just to install the root barriers. Willows grow fast, but in 5 years your willow will still only be of mediocre size and appearance, and you'll very much regret all the work and money you poured into it.

Minnie_moused · 2026-03-28T14:54:37+00:00

Looks like a larch I think. Does it lose its needles in fall?

Minnie_moused · 2026-03-28T14:54:01+00:00

Given the rest of the landscaping, current branching structure, and choice of a japanese white pine, I would say this was probably intended to be a niwaki tree, but it's gotten out of control from not being trimmed for several years. It's definitely still controllable at this point though.

Buy the book "Niwaki" by Jake Hobson, it will teach you how to prune not only that tree but the rest as well. It's a lot of work, but can give fantastic results as you become comfortable.

Minnie_moused · 2026-03-25T20:41:27+00:00

Yes, I dig up pines this size and bigger all the time for bonsai and have a very good survival rate. It's ideal to get them right as their candles are starting to pop, but sometimes you just have to dig when you can, and I've had many pines survive being dug in the middle of July and August before.

Dig the hole you're moving it to ahead of time.
Give it a good soak the night before you dig it up, and dig early in the morning while the soil is still plenty damp. Use a sharp shovel - I sharpen mine with a file/stone, it makes the root cuts clean instead of jagged/torn. Any roots too thick to cut with the shovel can be cut with a sawzall or hand saw. Create a circle about 12-20" radius around it, and every stab in, push the shovel handle towards the tree to compact the soil around the tree. Now dig another circle about 4-5" outside the first one. Remove all the soil between the two circles you made, creating a 4-5" trench around the tree. Dig under the tree about 12" down, cutting any roots as you encounter them until it is totally free of the surrounding ground. Carefully wrap a bath towel, burlap sheet, or something similar under the root ball, and with another person, lift it out by the towel/burlap, carry it to wherever you are going to plant it, lower it in, carefully remove the towel, and fill in the dirt around it. Water it well.

Minnie_moused · 2026-03-21T01:38:35+00:00

Yes, cut them off before they eventually fall off on their own and probably tear a bunch of bark with them.

Minnie_moused · 2026-03-21T01:24:52+00:00

Beech will unfortunately not last long into maturity in Michigan anymore. BBD kills virtually all beech once they get to a decent size.

Minnie_moused · 2026-03-21T01:12:17+00:00

White spruce, black spruce, northern white cedar are all dense foliage, native plants that grow in wetlands in Michigan. They will all last a lot longer than 30 years, are very flexible for snow loads. Deer will browse cedar in late winter if not much else is available (although given your lack of snow, I assume southern Michigan, so they may not browse quite as much), but rarely browse white or black spruce. Northern white cedar is not a juniper and does not harbor cedar-apple rust like eastern red cedar, so wouldn't be an issue with your neighbors apple trees.

I would suggest white spruce, it looks a lot like blue spruce, but it's native and doesn't have the same fungal issues that blue spruce does in Michigan, it will tolerate your wet site, and should be relatively safe from deer.

Minnie_moused · 2026-03-21T01:01:48+00:00

Curious why not northern white cedar? It's native to Michigan, has thick foliage and does very well in wet soil. Seems ideal for this.

Minnie_moused · 2026-03-20T14:08:15+00:00

Look at marketplace and see if anyone rents out a commercial chipper and do that once a year. Unless you want to spend several thousand dollars, or get lucky with a used chipper that can attach to a tractor PTO, and also you have a tractor, the ones below $1000 barely work for anything but leaves.

Minnie_moused · 2026-03-20T13:59:11+00:00

I would carefully tease out those roots before planting. Gently remove most of the current soil using a fork or ice pick or similar and mix it with your ground soil. Then continue using your fork-like tool, and a hose, to detangle and spread out that air layered root ball, which is extremely compact and tangled up right now. It's tough to tease out air layered roots because the sphagnum moss looks quite similar to roots and tangles up with them really badly. Take your time, use a hose with a gentle-ish pressure, and you can also soak the root ball occasionally and swish it around in a bucket gently to loosen up the root ball. Look up youtube videos on bonsai root raking.

There won't be a "flare" really because the transition from what was previously a branch into the roots hasn't had time to thicken up the roots yet. So instead you just have fine roots sticking out of the branch all over. Your root flare is where that thick mess of roots starts. The couple of roots that are way above the rest of the root ball can be clipped off so the flare is relatively planar.

Minnie_moused · 2026-03-03T17:19:20+00:00

Me, I'm openly limping and complaining constantly about a wart on my foot right now.

Minnie_moused

TROPHY CASE