AusBonsai

Almost record breaking temperatures out here today @ 46 degrees.
Trees are all good in full sun for the entire day.

Kevin

Do Banksia's come back after copping a drying out session bit worried about mine, have got it soaking in a tub of Charlie carp and seasol, fingers crossed,it got trimmed pretty heavy a couple of weeks ago and has not liked the heat,47 out in my backyard yesterday and 43 today, cooled down now thank Christ.

Paul W wrote:Do Banksia's come back after copping a drying out session bit worried about mine, have got it soaking in a tub of Charlie carp and seasol, fingers crossed,it got trimmed pretty heavy a couple of weeks ago and has not liked the heat,47 out in my backyard yesterday and 43 today, cooled down now thank Christ.

Mine did not recover after repotting early December

Ken

Thanks Ken, I think they can be a bit touchy, know a lot of people that have lost them, and then others say they are tough, can be a bit expensive losing trees to the heat.

It's 17C outside, I've got a jumper on and I haven't had to water anything in 3 days.

treeman wrote:It's 17C outside, I've got a jumper on and I haven't had to water anything in 3 days.

Good old Melbourne Mike, its actually about 17 here atm as well I had a jumper on yestaday while doing some pine work. the day before it was 42 and I had minor heat stroke been out in it for 6 hrs

Always thought that the best thing about Melbourne was the road out of it.

kcpoole wrote:

Paul W wrote:Do Banksia's come back after copping a drying out session bit worried about mine, have got it soaking in a tub of Charlie carp and seasol, fingers crossed,it got trimmed pretty heavy a couple of weeks ago and has not liked the heat,47 out in my backyard yesterday and 43 today, cooled down now thank Christ.

Mine did not recover after repotting early December

Ken

Hi Ken how old was it? how hard did you root prune? do you consider winter a better time to root prune? How much foliage was left? Where did you put it to recover? I have a 3 yr old in a 300mm pot and after a squeeze pot is rather firm, new growth-half has hardened off with new buds forming, should i just leave it or size up after all new growth has hardened?

Regards
Max

I only root prune banksia in warmer months - Nov, Dec, Jan and Feb. The ones I repotted in March as a trial sulked all winter and did not shoot again until the following December. Winter is NOT a good time to root prune banksia.
Mine were all done in December this year.

When I root prune banksias I usually take off around 1/2, sometimes 3/4 of the root mass. Roots are usually masses of very fine roots with few larger ones. The root mass is quite brittle so instead of cutting I mostly just break off clumps of root until I've got it down the required amount.

I did this Banksia viewtopic.php?f=153&t=19570&start=0&hil ... ta#p197813
Just the other week and as Shibui said the entire root mass basically broke off into just fine chunks..
I reckon I removed around 3/4 of what was there as the fine roots had made it hard for the substrate to take any water.

The tree now seems to be showing increased vigour and I'm confident it will be fine.

Okie dokie that's great, i'll give it a root prune 2 moro my next problem will be deciding which branches to take off/shorten i find it hard to bite the bullet, another part of learning I'll try to show ya's a before after shot.

Cheers lads
Max

was thinking last night about fire, Freud do you guys use it much? like i know the prolific regrowth of some trees and even the benefits of smoke and was wondering,as i was supposed to be sleeping, about how some species don't back bud. Would burning/heating an area of said species trigger something to happen? besides scorching

Some growers do use the blowtorch on some natives in order to get epicormic buds for regrowth. I think PUP has posted a few times about using this. see if you can find something with the search button.

Hi all,
Anyone notice some plants seem to shut down on very hot days and not use as much water? I sometimes wonder if I have overwatered on such days leading to root rot.

Stu, I don't think root rot starts just from overwatering for a few days. It takes a bit longer for the fungi to develop and grow. Personally my trees get watered every morning and evening to saturation whether they need it or not. I do use a very open mix but I am not plagued by root rot.
The few times I have had root problems has been late winter/ early spring when moisture and temp are ideal for fungi to grow.
Can't speak for other climates or other soil mixes but overwatering kills far less trees here than underwatering or failure to repot often enough.