Dax, I love your story and the resulting cultivar name - and the broom looks promising! Have fun - I look forward to seeing your new grafts over the years as they develop. :^)

Thank ya Ed. All the pieces to the puzzle fit together nicely.

Cheers,

Dax

Agree ! ...great story Dax.

BTW, who's going to be climbing up there ? ....or are you going to fire a missile at it ? :O)

Looks like a good climb Dax.
Wanna borrow my climbing gear?
Or you gonna go hand over hand?
Mike

Congratulations and that is a great story. Be careful up there.

tj

Dax, When are you going after it?

Do a photo shoot and be careful.

Dave

Helicopter?

Believe it - telescopic pole pruners will reach it. (5) sections @ 10'/3.33M snapped together. It's more or less 50'/17M up. No reason to climb for this broom (on a nice day this winter if possible & I'll bring my camera along). Charlie Hunter will be along to help. We're sending him in first in case of a feisty trigger-happy-neighbor.

Dax

Okay Broom Hunter Dax - when ya gonna let your hair grow out like that other broom hunter who sometimes posts here in the forum ;)
Marshall

excellenté

Dax the Jan Salma of the USA.

Dave

Just got a haircut and know that I must become old man to allow hair to become long again and then famous. :Dax

I'm a fan already...got any T-shirts? T.

Dax, while I'm not the broom fanatic that you and some others are, your story and the resulting cultivar name are pure brilliance! Good luck with it

+oM

bowing down...Dax

Tunilla - here's as close as I can come :Dax

I rounded up the neighbor and first shot he blasted a piece off the broom. Of course it stayed in the tree. And another shot threw off another chunk which too stayed in the tree. I'll be waiting for the wind to bring them down.

youtube video: You're able to see the piece fly off if watched carefully.

Dax

Here is a link that might be useful: Shawn Blasts Witches Broom Piece off Picea abies 'Harms Way'

Incredible! You have to be a good shot to accomplish such a feat.

-Sam

I kept waiting to see a goose fall with the scion ala the Three Stooges. lol. Thanks for the video.

tj

You Go Dax ! Way cool!

Nice!

He took that scion down clean.

Hey Dax,
What is the annual growth per year on this one? Can you show us a picture of the scions? A good thing the neighbor didn't start shooting back. Happy grafting.
Dennis

I don't shoot guns, but, that guy does obviously.

Hermsen, I have no idea what the growth rate is. I doubt it's 2" but I'll dream it is. I have some photos of the scions now. They vary so much, and when I was cutting up the chunks, I noticed some shoots at 2" others at 3". I'll wait for the grafts to push to know for sure. Obviously, whatever they grow this year you can double that growth rate after the plants are 10-years old, generally-speaking.

Later all,

Dax

Picea abies 'Harms Way'

Picea abies 'Harms Way'

Picea abies 'Harms Way'

Picea abies 'Harms Way'

Picea abies 'Harms Way'

Picea abies 'Harms Way'

those are some huge buds, Bud. Are you sure we're looking at a Picea abies? Does Picea rubens grow in your area? Just doesn't look like Picea abies to me.

How about all you other guys and girls?
~Dave

Perfect Dave, perfect. I'm at 100% with my grafts still. It however won't be all that long until I begin losing some that you'd swear there's no reasoning for it to happen.

And that's definitely Picea abies and I'll mention the simple reason why: the tree has different buds than the witches broom which you will notice when you compare a W.B. to the host. The tree, typical, orange florets, orange buds, the witches broom: reddish buds.

The,

Dax

Hey Dax, My grafting experience has been limited to a few japanese maples every spring...never attempted a conifer. I see in your photo that you must be hydrating your scion. Have you ever done that with scion from a deciduous tree? Ive never seen that done before.
Thanks AL

Sure you can.

I re-hydrate everything & anything. Stuff clipped the same day and in good condition I go 30 minutes. Then depending on the condition, or length of time the scion sat, you can go up to three hours, max. For stuff in the fridge for 3-weeks which is pretty well the limit for still having decent chances, I always start with 1.5 hours of re-hydration. Then if I think they are still too dry, I do another 1.5 hours.

Scions that are really dry and you still may want to graft because of rarity or some such factor - fill 1/2 a 5-gallon bucket with water and add one cap-full of 'Superthrive' and re-hydrate 2-3 hours.

Superthrive may be used anytime at that rate.

After you've re-hydrated them, allow them to air dry. I turn on my microwave oven exhaust fan and put the scions on a towel on my kitchen range and that wicks/pulls the water right off most all scions in 20 minutes. Then I wait an additional 40 minutes to allow the bark to dry - so the bark doesn't 'slip' when cutting - then go graft em up.

Dax

The master has spoken.

Cool Dax.

As my Dad says, I've taught you everything I know, but, I haven't taught you everything.

Dax

Correction to the above:

As my Dad says, I've taught you everything you know, but I haven't taught you everything, I know. This especially comes up when we're shooting pool/billiards.

Dax

WOW...Thanks for the hot tip !!!

I thought everyone knew this!? :-]~

Dax

Picea abies

{{gwi:850715}}

Color is grand.

Dax

Nice color,did you name it? you can name it Picea abies Dax.

I like that name.

Dax

Oh, no :(
P. abies 'Klakier'

That'll do!

:)

Dax