AusBonsai

Please expand this section by sharing your opinions here.

oh....
I was hoping to learn something here. Has no body bonsai 'ed an acacia?
Looks like we are all waiting to see a post here. Hope we dont have to wait too long. Cheers!

I have a number of acacias, howadii, purpoluos and others not sure of.. I have found feeding important, encourage a lot of new growth then prune hard into new growth only. to prevent loosing growth (die back) from harder wood don't allow to dry out keep moist. Infact on really hot days I remove them from the direct sun. I have begun to repot and have been severe with root pruning on most. You don't have to re-pot as much as maybe exotic trees as the restriction of space in the pot tends to push out the trunk base better. but watering becomes even more vital. maybe dangerous incase it dries out too much. I have about 8 acacias and always open to new varieties as there are so many of them.

Hey
I have a couple of really nice looking acacias I would like to collect from my area. Dose anyone know if now is alright time to collect? if not when? And how should I collect eg. How much root, tap root should be left and after care to Ensure best survival and also how hard can they be hacked into when collecting like root, trunk and foliage.
Thanks

Hugh

Hi Hugh
I wiodu think collection time will be like most other native and similat to azaleas. Early spring is I deal, but you can take them any time so long as you get enough roots and have good after care

Ken

Thanks alot Ken for info muchly appreciated.

Hugh

I have had no success collecting Acacia's at any time of year, no matter what way I go about it or how much root I manage to get. They grow so quickly and easily from seed that I no longer bother trying to collect them.

I am not saying it cant be done tho, if you give it a go and succeed let us know, I have spotted several locally that would make really nice bonsai.

Matt

Will do mate, I'll be sure to keep you posted on my success or my failure of survival when I give collecing them a go

Hugh

Must be fate of some odd sense that I should come across this thread, just yesterday I was given one by my grandmothers (think its a queensland blue or silver wattle) as it was growing up in the middle of her garden. Its probably not the best option for me to be learning off (given that im 0 bonsai years old and I realise I know nothing) but i'll give it a go, have to start somewhere and where better then Australias own.

Any recomendations on styles? I read somewhere that they can grow out of their shape even if wired. So informal upright was best? (maybe ive been reading too much)

Istari wrote:, have to start somewhere and where better then Australias own.

Any recomendations on styles? I read somewhere that they can grow out of their shape even if wired. So informal upright was best? (maybe ive been reading too much)

All good istari.
First thing I believe they do not like having branches pulled below the horizontal.

Think a Sigle trunk with branches heading off and up at 45 deg with a Canopy over the whole of the tree

I think this sort of style suits aussie trees and is easy to achieve and maintain particularly for newbies

Ken

Hi,
I haven't done any bonsai, and want to try it out, so looking at specie possibilities I am considering an acacia.
Any comments/Tips, I'm a noob too.

kcpoole wrote:

Istari wrote:, have to start somewhere and where better then Australias own.

Any recomendations on styles? I read somewhere that they can grow out of their shape even if wired. So informal upright was best? (maybe ive been reading too much)

All good istari.
First thing I believe they do not like having branches pulled below the horizontal.

Think a Sigle trunk with branches heading off and up at 45 deg with a Canopy over the whole of the tree

I think this sort of style suits aussie trees and is easy to achieve and maintain particularly for newbies

Ken

Nice to know Ken Here are two shots of an Acacia of mine... Dec. 2009 & Dec. 2010...
It travelled over in a pot of cutttings (stow-away...) from Tas. last year... neither Mum, nor I, knew wtf it was
I potted it up in spring 'ish' last year, photo 2/3 months later... diatomite//Aus native pot mix//Worm castings
I have pruned heavily to prevent overgrowth, however it is still going 'too' well .. HAHA Its stands approx. 1m tall,
and I would like to reduce that..or stay @ aboot that height ...
unsure and any comments//advice welcome
ATM - Going to go with a 'broomstick' style, and just develop a canopy, as I think Ken is right, the 45 ish degree angle seems
to suit the tree ...
Matt.
P.S - still dont know what species it is ... ??

Hi just wondering if anybody has any experience with the purple leafed cootamundra? I brought one as tube stock a couple if months ago which I plan to grow up for a few years. Should I cut it back to encourage it to branch or should I just let it grow at this stage? Thanks for any feedback

General rule for anything: grow long, cut back. Because acacias don't bud back on bare wood, you can only cut back to the last couple of leaves. If you only leave a couple of growing points when it's young, and feed it madly, it should grow long and thicken. The more growing points you leave, the shorter everything will grow. In general.

As for styling Acacias, there's not a lot of good models to imitate, you'll have to figure it out as you go along. The large-ish leaves of the baileyana (is that it?) might mean that you should aim for a mid-to-large tree. Best of luck.

Gavin

all I know about Acacia is that it contains 5-MeO-DMT which is the most potent phsycho-active drug known to man.

I also found this interesting wiki article about a famous African Acacia that was the only tree for 400km, the roots went 30+ metres deep, for years it was used as a landmark by people travelling through the desert until some truck driver knocked it down in the 70s...... it was the ONLY tree for 400km and he managed to hit it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbre_du_T ... %A9r%C3%A9