AusBonsai

I had a last minute opportunity to collect a dwarf umbrella tree from a residence that was to be removed along with other plants. This is my very first collection attempt and I do no know if a umbrella plant is considered worth collecting!

The tree is about 10 to 15 years old and was about 2.5m tall. By the time I got to collecting the tree had been pruned down. Apparently there were the beginnings of some aerial roots above the prune line.

Most of the soils in the area were shallow (as in a foot before basalt starts) and I was lucky that the root system was indeed shallow.

I had to cut a lot of roots off to get the plant to fit in the most suitable container I could razzle together at short notice. The same goes for the soil. The bottom 2/3 is a 50/50 perlite and course grit mix, both debco products. The top third is some left over premium potting mix when the course stuff ran out. I have not idea if I have done the best thing.

I plan to water daily and fertilised three a week of those waterings eco-seaweed. I have no idea how to style this plant, I have very little bonsai experience. I figure the best thing is leave it 6 months and make sure it lives first!

Before photos are pretty slim. I did get some video of the collection which I have put up on my YouTube channel (a long time pipeline dream in the same boat as getting stuck into some bonsai!) for those who are interested.




https://youtu.be/YGn9V3-G1zw




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Neuby,
Just watched your vid & thought you did pretty good on your first "Yardadori" so thanks for sharing. I have grown umbrella plant before as an indoor plant, but never tried training them as bonsai. I don't think you will have a problem keeping this alive, just keep the aftercare up.

Hi Neuby
Watched the video great way of sharing urban yamadori collection.
Just a tip for others I found over the 30 odd years of collecting stuff in similar situations.
Was to work your way around the tree to break up the compacted soil with rock's and large roots in the way, was to use a good quality pitch fork rather than a shovel.
This allows you to get the heavy roots exposed a lot quicker than using a shovel hitting rocks and roots all the time.
As you did with the shovel the pitch fork slips in under the root ball and you can usually halve the time it takes with a shovel to do the job.
Hope this helps