Nursery bougainvillea, Karratha, help

[Paulneill]

Hi guys,

I moved up to karratha (North west wa) 1.5 years ago and have been missing the hobby. I am unfamiliar with growing bonsai in this climate. And have been put off getting trees because of the heat and because not many trees will grow well here. Plus availability is an issue.
The weather up here is hot, it is 26c now at 5pm and will drop to around 20c by the morning. Temperatures over winter rarely drop below 10c. Summer is usually around the 40s and 35 at night. Also it is usually a dry heat which makes it easier to handle when at work.

Potting medium isn't easy to get up here so I have ordered stuff on e bay, expanded clay, perlight, coco husk, and sphagnum moss. I am going to try and make a half decent mix using these components. Ratio of probably 30,30,30,10.

I was lucky enough to pick up a nice bougainvillea tree today at the local nursery. I gave it a hair cut to fit it into the Corolla.
It looks fairly old and in good health the trunk is at least 4 inches wide and has some good taper, movement.

Couple of questions : would I be ok to repot now ? I guessing it should be ok concidering my climate
: does the potting mix sound ok ?
: what do you think of the tree?

Any advice would be great.

Photos will follow.

[Paulneill]

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[Paulneill]

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[kcpoole]

Some interesting shapes in the branching and nice taper;
Keep in a much larger / deeper pot than otherwise would do here and / or keep it on a water tray in the heat.

No reason why they will not be fine and in Summer, keep under heavy shadecloth but keep the sides open for air movement.

But interesting to see how you go.

Ken

[Starfox]

Jeez, wish I could find nursery stock like that around here instead of the routine cuttings in a pot.
I quite like that one, plenty of potential in that I think.

[Paulneill]

Thanks guys.

Do you reckon I will be ok to repot now ken?

[Paulneill]

It will be 30 deg every day here in winter but might be down around 10 deg some mornings

[melbrackstone]

Great find, looks like a good project.

The sphagnum in the potting mix might be a worry though....I'm in Brisbane, so not as hot and dry as your part of the world, but I find sphagnum goes to mush here... love to hear what people from hotter drier climates would suggest.

Reckon you'd be ok to repot now, those temps look perfect to me, and the plant will then be able to cope with the heat in summer better, imo.

[Paulneill]

Are you sure it was sphagnum moss you used and not peat moss?

[kcpoole]

Thanks guys.

Do you reckon I will be ok to repot now ken?

Yes I would repot and root prune in the milder seasons to help recovery.

Ken

[Paulneill]

Hi guys,

I repotted this and Prity much put a saw through the bottom removing all roots apart from a small cluster of fine feeder roots, I was amazed at how quickly it bounced back , 10 days later it started growing very strongly and hasn't stopped. I made a potting mix using expanded hydro clay balls which I crushed and sived the fines at 40% and got some corse coco husk which a sucked up using a leaf lower / mulcher to make it finer, used that at 40% and also used corse 4mm perlight at 20%.

Anyway here are some photos coming up next.

[Paulneill]

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[Paulneill]

After mulching the corse coco husk.




Front





Side on view




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[Paulneill]

Back



From above



Front






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[Paulneill]

Just a quick question guys .

I go on holiday in 8 weeks time and was thinking about defoilating this before I leave, would it be ok to defoliate it if the new growth hasn't hardened off yet?