Callistemon Viminalis "mini red" nursery stock (bought mid 2021)

[Joshua]

I got this callistemon in june 2021.
I'm thinking to use it to take my first steps in some branch development.

For while I've been looking at it with no idea where to go with it, but looking at it with my morning coffee recently, I started drawing and thought, hey that maybe doesn't look too bad.


Regarding it's recent 'history',
I gave it a root prune repot and trim when I got it in june 2021.
I didn't go too hard because I've lost a couple already.
It was potted into a fairly large pot and just simple potting soil. It filled with roots quite quickly. At some point since then (or maybe twice) I potted it up a size while just trimming the roots a bit but not much of a reduction.

I cut off about perhaps about half of the top last year after flowering.

In autumn last year it started getting some balck stuff on the leaves (some kind of fungus?) and it started dropping quite a lot of them. I trimmed off where it looked worse, and thinned it out a little. I think around the same time it was getting a bit underwatered, so not sure if there's a link.
Now it seems a bit stronger (still seems to be growing a bit through winter) but I've seen some more of these leaves with the black stuff.


And next,
I think that I need to do more or less the following:
- Transition to better soil
- Work more on the roots (there are still surely some massive out-of-proportion ones)
- Pot down to a more reasonable training pot (something fairly wide but not too deep, which I can also sit in a tray for summer)
- chop the trunk(s)

Not sure in what order I should do these things or on what kind of timeline.

Currently I'm thinking that this year after flowering and when it's nice and hot, I'll work hard on the roots again (depending on what the root ball will look like) and improve the soil with a repot.

Then next year the proper trunk chop.

Does this sound like a good plan or better to do it all at once this year?
Open to all suggestions for style/health/process.

Some pics:

mini red 2021-06-06 ready to repot 1.jpeg

June 2021 just before it's first repot.

mini red 2023-02-04 full tree.jpeg

The full tree

mini red 2023-02-04 trunk chop plan.jpeg

A zoomed view of the trunk with indications where I might chop (perhaps a little too high..?)

mini red 2023-02-04 drawing.jpeg

A little sketch I did of that trunk and potential (?) branches.

[Phil Rabl]

Just in case you haven't seen it, here is a link to a post I made in 2021 summarising AusBonsai posts on callistemons. viewtopic.php?f=55&t=29478.

[shibui]

You are already aware that Callistemon seem to cope with root pruning better in warmer months as you did the initial root trim in June. Late spring through to summer is usually good in cooler climates but in frost free areas any time of year is OK.
Your current plan - root prune first this spring/early summer, then chop when it recovers is what I'd do too.

[Joshua]

Just in case you haven't seen it, here is a link to a post I made in 2021 summarising AusBonsai posts on callistemons. viewtopic.php?f=55&t=29478.

Yes I have seen it but I'll surely benefit from reading through it again. Thanks!

You are already aware that Callistemon seem to cope with root pruning better in warmer months as you did the initial root trim in June. Late spring through to summer is usually good in cooler climates but in frost free areas any time of year is OK.
Your current plan - root prune first this spring/early summer, then chop when it recovers is what I'd do too.

Thanks, good to know.

We usually only get some pretty mild frosts during winter. I think we've had just about the last of them, but we can get some surprising cold snaps at the start of spring. In any case I'll wait to see if we get some flowers out if it first.

[Joshua]

Just playing with ideas here. A possible a direction in style, for later on down the track, but it would influence how I go about repotting this year. Change the planting angle so that middle branch is the main trunk sticking more upright, which leaves the other two as potential side branches.

mini red 2023-02-28 style idea 2.jpeg

Same photo posted previously, just rotated and roughly edited trying to show this idea.

mini red 2023-02-28 style idea 2 drawing.jpeg

Rough sketch. My partner said it looks like a brocolli . No the intention but whatever.

Just now had another idea while posting which would be do the same planting angle but use the right branch as the leader(/trunk) and completely remove the middle(/top) branch.

[Kevin]

Hello Josh,

For what it's worth, my

I like your first idea. The sketch you did is the direction i'd go too. In the photos it's balanced with the three branches and also tiered well.

Good luck with it. Please keep up the updates.

Kevin

[Joshua]

Gave it a repot, tried to clean up the roots a bit but without going to hard either or completely bare-rooting.
In any case now it's in a better medium and a shallower but still pretty wide pot.
It sulked pretty hard but it's bouncing back nicely now.
I think I'll trim back the top a little bit more later in the year.

mini red 2023-07-29.jpeg

[Kedron Brook]

Nice. Good to see some sketches, they are a good tool. My sketches also tend to be basic. My own experience is limited to basic styling of cheap stuff, and basic care. Your Callistemon is approaching a medium stage. I humbly suggest that the pads will not become as dense like in the drawings. So more sketches and coffee!

Did you ever visit us here in Aus? Many trees are very chaotic, thin pads and upright. If you see beauty in that you might cultivate it in this Callistemon. I like to see the red soil, it reminds me of the Red Centre and many camping trips.

[treeman]

There is a great little genetic dwarf called 'Green Envy'' ... I think that's what I have but there are quite a few now.
Should be fantastic for shohin and I does not seem to suffer from the cold wet like some others. But it still doesn't enjoy an exposed Melbourne winter.

[Joshua]

Nice. Good to see some sketches, they are a good tool. My sketches also tend to be basic. My own experience is limited to basic styling of cheap stuff, and basic care. Your Callistemon is approaching a medium stage. I humbly suggest that the pads will not become as dense like in the drawings. So more sketches and coffee!

Did you ever visit us here in Aus? Many trees are very chaotic, thin pads and upright. If you see beauty in that you might cultivate it in this Callistemon. I like to see the red soil, it reminds me of the Red Centre and many camping trips.

Hello, sorry I'm not very active on forums. Sporadically. Actually I grew up in Aus.

I agree that the sketches aren't necessarily representative of the species, partly because I can't draw and just went bifurcating on paper to see what happened. With the tree itself same thing. I don't really have any expectations of how it should turn out, mainly because it's a first time for me and I have no idea what I'm doing. I'll see what happens.

The red part of the soil comes from Seramis, which is a kind of fired clay I think. When starting out I found an article talking about different substrate options and it had good things to say about it. It comes from Germany and turned out I was able to order some online here. What's really great about it I find is a fairly consistent grain size, I guess due to the fact that it's manufactured. So no need to think too much about seiving except for the dust. What's funny is that when I was trying to find out more about it I just read opinions of people who didn't like the colour, which doesn't bother me at all. I only got one bag though and now that I'm with a club I'll probably stick to the pumice and chabasai I can get fairly cheap through group orders.

[Joshua]

Spring's come around and it's now got plenty of flower buds coming along. I plan to chop the trunks once the flowers are gone, probably in a month or two.

I was thinking there's a lot of potential for nice cuttings to take while chopping. In Phils summary post I see that they generally take well from cuttings, but it mentions air layers can be done successfully too which I've never done and considering trying.

I need to read up on this a bit more...

[Joshua]

mini red 2024-03-29 air layer idea.jpeg

Here's where I want to do the air layer (or maybe just a cutting after all). It's about 15cm up from where I'm planning the chop on that lowest branch. In green rough sketch just bifurcating my way up to get an vague idea.

Seeing the price of sphagnum I'm thinking of just using perlite, (also since I have some of that floating around). Or a mix of perlite with some coco coir and vermiculite .

Not sure when to do it. I prefer to wait til after the flowers. Which would mean the big chop would have to wait up to a few more months so perhaps mid-late summer.

Are they likely to start making shoots below the layer as if it were a chop or would that happen after removing the layer?

[Joshua]

Decided just to go for the air layer.
Didn't use Sphagnum but had some coco coir and vermiculite left over from a seed starter, hydrated and ready to go.
Didn't have rooting hormone but watered the layer with Osyril after putting it on (which is some proprietary root stimulator product).
I held up the Stanley knife to give an idea of size but I think actually I was holding it in the foreground . The branch below the layer is around 16mm wide.

I learned that you should cut off the bark and scrape of any green, but also you shouldn't scrape too much because that will remove the important layer underneath. While doing it it wasn't as straightforward as expected. I felt like I was removing too much, but there still appeared to have some green so I kept going. Worried that it was either too much or not enough. Oh well, time will tell.

Also In hindsight wondering If I should have done it above that lower branch, but whatever, it's done

mini red 2024-04-07 at 8.42.51 AM.jpeg

[Kedron Brook]

I started putting a zip-tie to the barewood after seeing calluses. This might help in future.