Larix Species, Japanese Larch, Karamatsu

Timberplot, you can interplant larch with white pine to protect your pines from the weevil. They (the weevil) need a pine tip image again...Read Morest the sky to ID their target - by growing the larch, the pine tip stays camouflaged. This was told to me by an elder forester and verified by my forestry prof at Yale.

I got some bare root and set some of them out because I didn't want to pot them all and they died in a heavy clay. The potted ones thrive...Read Mored and I planted one out on a creek bottom and it grew well to 5.5' before a big buck came through and obliterated it. I am going to try it again. I like to grow most things for a growing season in a pot partly because I want some height on them before setting out. If above 6' that usually ensures their survival. A small resident herd of does browse through every so often so I want some height. But late in the growing season i lose something every year to the bucks that come through. I am starting a deciduous conifer collection and have two 90' baldcypress, a 30' dawn redwood, a 6' male ginkgo and a 6' pondcypress. I want to add japanese larch and goldenlarch to the collection. THe latter was spiking a leader and 4.5' when a buck inexplicably destroyed it to ground level. I am on a mission to put up barricades to buck rubbing

The Japanese Larch has established well on abandoned and reclaimed coal mining lands in Western and Southwestern PA. The yellow, golden f...Read Moreall color contrasts well with other deciduous trees. I planted 400 Japanese Larch on my farm in the late 1980's. I had chosen this conifer over the native White Pine due to the susceptibility of the White Pine to the White Pine Weevil which destroys the terminal leader. The Larch grow several feet / year and the lower branches "self " prune in a woodlot setting. A nice deciduous conifer, with minimal trimming, can grow into a tall, narrow form.

Japanese Larch is a handsome deciduous conifer, not very different from the European species that is more commonly planted in the Midwest...Read Moreern and Eastern USA. Both develop a good golden-bronze autumn color before the needles fall. There are about 40 needles on each short spur on the twig. I notice these larch as being mostly planted in affluent neighborhoods or in parks. Most cities and bigger towns will have some planted somewhere in the municipality. The foliage of the Japanese species is at least somewhat bluish and its mature bark is different, often considered as prettier than the European species. The cones are 1 to 1.5" long and the tips of the cone scales are recurved or rolled back. Some big nurseries offer this Japanese species here and there.