Betula Pendula aka Silver Birch

[Luke308]

These are a few of the $2 tube stock tree I bought a while back from Raywood nursery I am thinking they will end up as shohin, but I am unsure as to how they will respond to leaf reduction so they may end up having to be a little bigger than I first thought

They aren't anything special but I thought I would document their progress

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[Craig]

I have a soft spot for the Silver birch Luke, i grew a couple of small ones when i first started ,just like the one you have here, they lasted a while but they were in a very shallow pot and dried out. I bought a rather large one some time after, did a big chop with any knowlege of them and it bled and bled sap . Best time to cut them is when the sap slow down. good luck with it mate.

[Luke308]

I have a soft spot for the Silver birch Luke, i grew a couple of small ones when i first started ,just like the one you have here, they lasted a while but they were in a very shallow pot and dried out. I bought a rather large one some time after, did a big chop with any knowlege of them and it bled and bled sap . Best time to cut them is when the sap slow down. good luck with it mate.

Thanks Craig, I recently read (after I had chopped) that they bled quite a bit. I use a wound sealant on all my deciduous trees whether the cuts are big and small and I am glad I did on these as it could have been disastrous otherwise. From your comment I'm guessing winter would be the best time to cut/prune them as the sap flow would have slowed? Do you still have yours? Also I'm reading between the lines here but are they a thirsty tree when in a pot or was it more because it was a shallow pot?
Thanks
Luke

[Craig]

yeah i guess winter not totally sure mate, but the trunk on the one i chopped was about 120mm and i used cut paste -it bled anyway, oh well we learn. Re; the smaller one , only like a pencil in a pot about 25mm deep, too shallow then but now i'd prob be ok.
pretty sure they drink alot like you say , persist and just go slowly with it till you get the feel for them.


http://walter-pall-bonsai.blogspot.com. ... birch.html


http://www.google.com.au/search?q=silve ... 20&bih=559

here it is ,i dug it out of the archives , don't laugh

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[Bretts]

[Bretts]

Ok Seriously I too had a silver birch just like your first pictured Luke.
I had high hopes for it because it was growing so well and had a great root spread. Then something really weird happened when I added some DL and it carked it. Still not sure exactly what happened but it looked exactly like a fertiliser overdose

I also had a inch thick one that I cut back hard then later found out that many birch don't like trunk chops and it only budded back as suckers. all gone now.

Your pics make me want to get a small one to try again. I reckon with their resistance to back budding that might be the best way to go with these.
Nice start

[Luke308]

Ok Seriously I too had a silver birch just like your first pictured Luke.
I had high hopes for it because it was growing so well and had a great root spread. Then something really weird happened when I added some DL and it carked it. Still not sure exactly what happened but it looked exactly like a fertiliser overdose

I also had a inch thick one that I cut back hard then later found out that many birch don't like trunk chops and it only budded back as suckers. all gone now.

Your pics make me want to get a small one to try again. I reckon with their resistance to back budding that might be the best way to go with these.
Nice start

Thanks, On the link Craig provided above of Walter Pall's birch, in the comments he says they need to be fertilised often or they become weak. He also confirms that they are thirsty little trees.


If they bleed so profusely would that mean you wouldn't be able to air-layer one?

And Craig, good on ya for having the guts to put pics up from your archive. It looks like most of the "bonsai" (and I use that tern very loosely) that they sell at my local bunnings

[treeman]

Luke, I tried some silver birch a while ago and it was looking good for a while then started losing branches all over the place. Nothing I tried seemed to help. You may want to consider keeping it soaking in a shallow tray of water when the roots fill the pot. They tend to like it really wet.

[Greth]

I had an inch thick one which was chopped and regrowing nicely, unfortunately a plant customer spotted it and I had to sell, money being an issue. Should turn into a nice tree eventually.

[bodhidharma]

I have tried and tried with these guys and have had debate on this forum about their worthiness as Bonsai
. They grow wild in Europe and places like Canada and are phenomenal to see but they do not do well in this great land of ours. Mine consistently dieback for me and it does not matter what i do. I will stand by my belief that they are not a good Bonsai specimen IN THIS COUNTRY. Most of the Birch in the Central highlands died during our last dry spell. These are two i have had for a long time.

[Craig]

no prob Luke,

If they bleed so profusely would that mean you wouldn't be able to air-layer one?

this first one is from 1961,
http://www.forestry.umn.edu/prod/groups ... 259604.pdf



http://weetrees.co.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic. ... 05&p=69916

[Bretts]

I have trouble passing a challenge like that up Bodi

[MattA]

Hey Luke,

Nice start there and definitely the way to go with birch. Like others here I have tried & failed in the past. They are a cool climate tree & hate both our heat & drying of any sort. Another issue I found is the way they callous around big chops, causing taper issues & basically looking ugly. It may be different since you have used wound paste but I would look to grow them slowly in pots, trying to avoid any big cuts.

Good luck with them & I look forward to seeing them develop for you over the coming years.

Matt

[MattA]

I have trouble passing a challenge like that up Bodi

So would I Brett but Silver Birch in my climate and with my set up... PASS ....

Good luck out your way, find the coolest wettest spot in your shadehouse & pray.

[GavinG]

Best of luck, Luke, but I agree they can be problematic (=b***** annoying!). Trunks look ugly when chopped back, branches die back, they're temperamental in the pot, they hate Australia...

Gavin