xanthoman
Avid Member
madrona, the king of cham branches
they are often found by the tops of cliffs or steep dry hillsides by water, and often found with wild rhododendrons.
most of the bark peels off readily, leaving a satiny smooth dry underbranch
because of its readily shedable bark and its smooth dry underbranch, its not as conducive to hosting parasites as some other branch types. just hose it off, pick off all the loose bark and you are ready to go.
if it had excessive bird or squirrell squat on it you may want to stop by the car wash and spray it with engine cleaner and rinse it off just to be safe.
an application of hot wax wouldnt hurt anything either lol.
the section shown was one of several that came from a section that was 6'x4'x3' had to cut it up cause i couldnt fit it in my car lol.
more lol, if you have a problem finding them, they are also often found in ritzy yards with high priced japanese landscaping. if you have to, you can always just use the rope/2x4 trick to do the "snap and run", but you had better park down the street, cause you'll probably get a section that is too big to fit in your car, . jmo you could also ask local landscapers/treetrimmers if they ever have any madrona scraps, one good section, will give you a lifetime of climbing branches, they all have that whacky meandering branches in the small diameter that chams prefer ps if you ever come to seattle, let me know and ill tell you where to get an endless supply, no snap-n-run required.
edit; just to be clear, there are plenty of great climbing branches, i just happen to be partial to madrona cause thats what i have always used, and thats because i have ready access to it. if i had ready access to a different type of suitable climbing branch, i wouldnt hesitate to use it. like the ep said, corkscrew myrtle is another great choice, so is dried grapevine.
go with what you can get. so you can spend your cham$ on more important things.
it would be silly, to buy the bitchin climbing branch, but do without some more needed piece of equipment because you were short $20
generally speaking, i think as long as its not fuzzy or sticky, has a fine bark or is easily debarked and dry underneath then you are probably ok.
ive seen plenty of chams eat foliage, i have never seen one try to eat an actual branch.
correction; mostly a coastal species, wiki implies no wild madrona east of sierra nevada, but i bet there are cultivated ones for landscaping etc.
never been to utah but pretty sure they have madrona there, a local nursery or your local university agricultural extension could tell you.Are there those types of Trees in Utah?? That would be a nice piece to my chams cage!!!
they are often found by the tops of cliffs or steep dry hillsides by water, and often found with wild rhododendrons.
most of the bark peels off readily, leaving a satiny smooth dry underbranch
because of its readily shedable bark and its smooth dry underbranch, its not as conducive to hosting parasites as some other branch types. just hose it off, pick off all the loose bark and you are ready to go.
if it had excessive bird or squirrell squat on it you may want to stop by the car wash and spray it with engine cleaner and rinse it off just to be safe.
an application of hot wax wouldnt hurt anything either lol.
the section shown was one of several that came from a section that was 6'x4'x3' had to cut it up cause i couldnt fit it in my car lol.
more lol, if you have a problem finding them, they are also often found in ritzy yards with high priced japanese landscaping. if you have to, you can always just use the rope/2x4 trick to do the "snap and run", but you had better park down the street, cause you'll probably get a section that is too big to fit in your car, . jmo you could also ask local landscapers/treetrimmers if they ever have any madrona scraps, one good section, will give you a lifetime of climbing branches, they all have that whacky meandering branches in the small diameter that chams prefer ps if you ever come to seattle, let me know and ill tell you where to get an endless supply, no snap-n-run required.
edit; just to be clear, there are plenty of great climbing branches, i just happen to be partial to madrona cause thats what i have always used, and thats because i have ready access to it. if i had ready access to a different type of suitable climbing branch, i wouldnt hesitate to use it. like the ep said, corkscrew myrtle is another great choice, so is dried grapevine.
go with what you can get. so you can spend your cham$ on more important things.
it would be silly, to buy the bitchin climbing branch, but do without some more needed piece of equipment because you were short $20
generally speaking, i think as long as its not fuzzy or sticky, has a fine bark or is easily debarked and dry underneath then you are probably ok.
ive seen plenty of chams eat foliage, i have never seen one try to eat an actual branch.
correction; mostly a coastal species, wiki implies no wild madrona east of sierra nevada, but i bet there are cultivated ones for landscaping etc.
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