In researching hounding, ive seen it mentioned that abnormally large trees in a specific may indicate a pocket. Anyone ever had lucl digging under such trees? The 2 largest trees in the forest are right by the amazonite plates i found.

I have a LOT more experience with plants than I do prospecting.

However, when I have been out prospecting since I am a noob I try to take in as many points of data as possible. At first, I walked around the holes at the claim I go to and holes on other peoples' claims... (or filled spots for that matter) Just to see what they were following. For a long time I couldn't figure out what made people dig under certain rocks and trees. I still think that 80% of people prospecting are just digging under a "good looking spot" rather than use educated means to find a pocket.

The first thing is to find the floaters and follow them up until they stop, yes. But how do you know where to look from there? All the boulders look the same, pegmatite everywhere, pieces of Amazonite strewn willy-nilly... Smokys laying about ready to be picked up...

What I started to do to determine where minerals may be is to look for patches of ground that would or should otherwise have trees like the surrounding area. This could indicate that sulphates are concentrated in the area which would lead to the growth of only grasses, some flowers, and other acidic soil loving plants. If there are sulphates in the area there could be other minerals.

If you notice a tree that is doing exceptionally well compared to its peers, or more green than usual it could mean Iron abundance in the area which for me indicates that red iron oxide sand/clay.

Rocks, especially the pink feldspar pegmatite, that have Lichens and mosses growing on them also indicate elevated levels of sulphates. The mosses also indicate that degradation of the rocks is occurring and the effects of weathering could be exposing other minerals inside that matrix as the outside portion crumbles away.

The Pinon Pines I have undercut have always been of a medium size, never extra large or anything. Usual trees have been around 5' in diameter but I have also found stuff tucked into nooks in Ponderosa Pine root areas.

I would also like to say that I have cut one root that was about 4" in diameter but I waxed the fresh cut end so there would be speedy healing AND I amended the soil I disturbed with a little Organic fertilizer I mix up for this purpose. I DO like digging up under plants to get the goodies because THATS WHERE I FIND MINERALS THE MOST but I also reclaim any site that I dig and leave it BETTER than I found it. I know there are people who are religiously zealous about not disturbing wildlife, but its WILD LIFE. As a human with custodial right to this planet I am going to do whatever I want to do within reason. However, as an individual I choose to repair any destruction I have caused including injury to long term flora.

When I put all my soils back into a hole, I will spray the root ball area of the tree with a blend of immediately bioavailable Humates and Fulvic Acid, Mycorrhizae and Trichoderma, with a little bit of Amino Acids and B-Vitamins to speed recovery. Beneficials operate to exclude negative bacteria and fungus from the area treated. Amino Acids aid in taking up the nutrients, and the Humic and Fulvic content replenishes the soil naturally by breaking down and chelating the minerals surrounding the root zone. This should cause any plant that I have disturbed to have at least some kind of healthy bounceback.

I speak of pinon pines because I have rarely been above the 7500ft range and these are the trees I encounter the most. It takes at least 3 seasons for these plants to become established and about that time is when the roots would generally go deep enough to actually penetrate sufficient mineral bearing soil. Therefore, it is safe to assume that digging under most smaller pines would not necessarily yield minerals as much as a larger, say 5-7 year old tree. Those roots would be larger, digging further for water, and chunking up the microcline in it's wake. If you wanted to help additionally, since the trees are wind pollinated you can thrash about and run into the trees while hiking to encourage pollen spreading and tree reproduction. A simple 1L spray bottle is easy enough to carry around and Humic/Fulvic acids work in concentrations as low as 1 part per billion.

Good God, that was halfway an explanatory rant, haha.

The tree roots will also find the easiest travel underground in search for water, which will usually mean a seam. The trees on a seam will prosper more than other trees around it so thats a good indicator. You can trace the seams by the plant life growing on top usually, if you pay attention and look closely. That's a good indicator many times.

Intereating responses. I wish i had more experience and understanding of things i notice. Maybe we can link up sometime and i can learn a bit from you.