Portulacaria afra formal upright

[Hornet]

They are nice luke, best ones i have seen so far. Dont seem to be an overly popular subject, will try and get pics of what i have to work with tomorrow. Havent even seen the base of the tree out the back, over grown with that mother in-laws tongue

[kcpoole]

Nice photos luke
They show a good range of styles possible with these trees.

thanks
Ken

[Ray]

One tip for taking cuttings, once you have the cutting part, let it sit for 2-3 days before putting into a soil mix. This lets the cut callous over slightly, which stops the base rotting.

Another tip, is after repotting, don't start watering until you see signs of new growth. This can take up to a week and the leaves may shrivel, but again it will prevent rotting of the roots. Which is about the only way to kill these things.

Here's a pic of mine, one of a few tree's that managed to survive a few years of neglect and not cark it. Grown from a cutting and now about 15 years old. 30cm high.

[mugen]

There are some nice examples of portulacaria afra on Jim smths website
http://jimsmithbonsai.com/Plant%20Info% ... %20125.htm

Here is some info
http://www.phoenixbonsai.com/Portulacaria.html

[MattA]

Hey Ray, I really like your tree its similar to what I would like to achieve with mine over time, the impression of a big old pine

This is my stump 40cm high & wide at the original cuts, all the regrowth has occured over the last 6months while sitting on top of concrete, it should make a nice 2 tree raft with a bit of time.

100_4436rz.jpg

[Luke308]

Luke, You da man Thanks for posting these pics, the last one is my kind of crazy good. How bout a pic of your baby...

I had no idea these make good bonsai subjects until I went to my clubs show last October and saw the possibilities. One of our members is well known for her Jades, and suggested I find an interesting trunk and take a cutting. After cutting, she said I should leave it out in the open for 2 weeks to allow it to dry out. (I thought this was crazy, but she has been around bonsai since 1964, so I thought I would try) As I mentioned earlier, I had only just pruned a couple of Jades in my garden the weekend before the show. So I went home and rifled through the prunings/cuttings to find an interesting trunk-line. That is apparently the hardest thing to do with them!! She has done talks on them before, and then at the next workshop everyone brings boring telegraph pole straight cuttings. Once the trunk and branches have been developed, she told me to pinch out the small pairs of leaves that are at the tips of each shoot. This will decrease their size and increase ramification.

Here is a progression of mine so far.

MYJADE1.jpg

MYJADE3.jpg

MYJADE6.jpg

MYJADE7.jpg

[Luke308]

viewtopic.php?f=104&t=875&p=8167&hilit=jade#p8167
Here are some more I found from old threads

[LazyBonsai]

Has anyone tried the technique described here: splitting the base to widen it?

[Matt S]

Has anyone tried the technique described here: splitting the base to widen it?

Before you plant a cutting, you can make a some cuts lengthwise near the base with a knife. A centimetre deep on a large cutting is all it takes. Don't make the cuts to even i.e. vary the length and the distance between them, and keep adding cuts until you have vertical cuts all around the base. The base will then flare out as the cutting grows. The best thing you can do is choose a thick piece to start with!

[LazyBonsai]

Thanks Matt. So the cuts are made before rooting and even after?