What’s “reasonably priced” mean to you and what species are you looking for? The club newsletter has sponsors listed at the end each month who may be able to meet your needs, here are the ones from October.

Option 2 is my favorite. I like the consistent theme and simplicity of the stands. Trees engage more with each other with the right-side stones moving left.

OK, I probably should have googled around before asking this question, but I think I have a potential answer and will leave this up in case it helps others. I found this PDF of insects that infect ponderosas in Colorado and on page 30 it describes a moth behavior that seemed to match up (infects/kills tips, produces pitch): https://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs_rm/rm_gtr075.pdf Looked up that genus and I would say the photos on this Wikipedia article of the pupae match closely: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dioryctria_ponderosae The PDF says infections are rarely heavy enough to be serious, but they got 3 - 4 buds on each of my two ponderosas this year. Has anyone dealt with this and have good prevention / eradication strategy?

Is it generally ok for the native conifers to get no direct or dappled sun in the winter, for instance heeling them into an area that is fully shaded all winter? Is the avoidance of sun mostly to keep the root mass from freezing and thawing frequently, or are there other considerations there? Thanks!

Thank you so much for the reply! I've also saved some of these 1/4-3/8" particles for aeration layer on some of my trees, but these particles in the recent club order seem to be largely in the 3/8"-1/2" range. I will try to pulverize as you suggested -- do you have any tool/technique suggestions to make that easier?

I tried it with some larch -- they may have been too large already as they had small lower branching, but I guess I'll find out. :) Also have an order in for some aspen seedlings, so I will try it with those when they arrive.

Do you have any rain water collection system you can recommend? I'm looking to add something on to one of the downspouts on my house. Unsure if I should just go with whatever barrel system I find on Amazon or if there is something you've tried and liked?

How often do you foliar feed?

Awesome, I’ll let you know if I don’t hear from anyone else locally, and would love to take you up on that offer!

Thanks Dan, I did find one BLM forester who surprisingly got me some permits, but the four or five FS districts closer to me said they had no way to be in their office or do it by mail. It’s a good thought to try and contact the forester individually because a few times I was only dealing with the main office. Thank you also for all of the information you’ve shared through your blog and the podcast interview.

@Nicholas Box Thanks -- appreciate the advice!!

thanks for the link, I'll take a look!

Thanks for the great info and tips! I suppose this could be a delay on one of the branches. I brought the tree to Chatfield meet up last week and had Larry take a look and he suspected like you did that some of those needles are older and he wasn't too concerned. Larry also suggested covering the soil with some sphagnum. I noticed that a lot of the collectors that I've read/listened to like Randy Knight or Backcountry do not seem to use top dressing on the pumice for their recently collected trees. Ryan Neil also thought that a higher oxygen ratio for newly collected trees may be best and that drying out a bit is good for root recovery compared to when they are in a smaller bonsai pot. Any thoughts on that?

Thanks for posting, it looks great! Does this stay indoors and under lights all year or just during the winter?