Hello!
Is it a problem to collect silver firs as Yamadori?
One of the best German Bonsai Books (by W.M.Busch) says that "unfortunately" you can grow silver firs only from seeds!
But why?
Are there maybe some special tricks or things to take care of?
I asked this on several German forums but got no answer.
I know that there sometimes are silver fir yamadori, but you don´t see that very often.

Why I ask: Two weeks ago I collected these three silver firs in my cousins forest in Bavaria. O.k., I had to cut the taproot, of course. But there were still more than enough roots left. The pots are comfortably big enough for the remaining roots, the brown pots even have air pruning that should especially support the growth of new feeder roots. The soil mix is rather natural as recommended by John Yoshio Naka.



What do you think – do the trees have a chance?
Is there anything I should especially take care of?

Thank you all!
Jens

p.s.: if you want to see the whole story, here it is on facebook:
www.facebook.com/jens.lindworsky.7

What do you mean when you refer to silver fir? Please provide the latin name, as the common name may refer to several species.
I know some picea species hate being repotted.

Oh, thank you, you´re right, of course!
The species I have is:
Abies alba

So maybe this is not the right forum to ask as they only grow in Europe from the Pyrenees to the Carpathiens, from Italys Calabria to Poland.

What I will do due to your hint (if they survive): repot them very carefully and never exchange the complete substrate.

Why would this not be the right forum to ask? I would say, and international forum is the best place

but.. No experience with the species!

... when I looked at the map where the tree grows I saw: English speaking countries are not even close:)
But you´re right: the forum is international, so maybe someone has a little advise ...

Today I saw that one of the trees starts to wake up.

Maybe there is hope, though I know that after two weeks in a pot it´s too early to hope ...

hey, it is much better than brown branches!

If anyone who read this has experiences or knows tricks for digging out other conifers that have tap roots, i would be glad to read about them, too.

This kind of silver fir does not grow in English speaking countries, I know now, but maybe similar species have similar problems?

Thank you all,

Jens