AusBonsai

I agree with your summary, and as an added suggestion I'd look at getting some reflective material to wrap around the lower area as well. Bright white would help make the extra lower light bounce around the area.

You've really given yourself a tough challenge, and the tree seems to be doing very well!

I'm planning to start bringing my Casuarina Cunninghamiana outside during the days. It's between +6 and +10 C atm and getting warmer. During the night there's still the occasional frost (between -1 & -3 C) so I'll bring her inside then. We get around 8 hours of sun for the time being.

So the temperature difference will be about 30C between night and day (20+C inside and around 10+C outside).

Any objections/cautions from you, my esteemed bonsai-friends?

She's grown a bit leggy inside the grow tent but has a decent head of hair still.

Cheers in advance!

I'd do it. Outside in natural light will be appreciated, I reckon.

Good luck

Per PF wrote: ↑April 13th, 2022, 12:29 am During the night there's still the occasional frost (between -1 & -3 C)

Canberra gets down to those temps and my casuarina trees do fine. Frost is never an issue for them either.

Good luck mate

As long as they have been hardened off outside for a couple (up to 4 or so} of days before the frost hits. If the tips are tender you might get some damage or “Bronzing)

Good luck with it , but you really seem to be succeeding and breaking new ground here. Well done!!!

Grant

Thanks a bunch for all the interest and kind comments! I wouldn't have come nearly this far without the good people on this friendly forum.
I'll bring her out today or tomorrow and keep her inside at night for a week or so before going full outside.
(It's like Christmas getting to see how she's looking now! )

Here’s my memories from what Bill Valavanis said on one of his tours here.

Firstly, he keeps his trees over winter in an insulated, heated garage (heated to a tropical -2 )

at the end of winter he starts moving his trees outside on trolleys (with the help of an army of student volunteers/slaves) during the day for longer and longer times until finally after a period(maybe 2 weeks) the trees are sufficiently hardened off and they can then stay outside till the following Winter.

Bill lives in Rochester (upstate New York and not far from Toronto or southern Siberia) and in Winter it is seriously cold/freezing . It gets seriously cold winters and his trees thrive under his care and diligence.I visited his residence in 1979 and everything looked quite benign, but I was there in mid-summer.

I hope all goes well with our Ambassador to Sweden.

grant

That's very interesting about Mr Valavanis! Thanks Grant. In our current house I don't have much choice of insulated location and I don't have bonsai-slaves (yet?), but still interesting to hear.

I got a bit of leniency from my dear family and could bring her out today - behold

Pics inside the grow tent for comparison to when she went inside: More foliage than I expected! She had certainly filled the space available - with a triangular canopy Foliage in all stages of growth, death och drying from closest to the lights.
The top part were leggy and tangled. Untangled
Roots are coming out the bottom already... The plan is a big chop/air layer in late summer.

Per PF wrote: ↑April 13th, 2022, 11:39 pm Roots are coming out the bottom already... The plan is a big chop/air layer in late summer.

If your tree is healthy, either method should work well. Good luck!

Spring flew by and we're into early summer here in Sweden.

Of course the year I put Ripley out early, May turned out to be unusually cold.... We had several frost nights with below freezing temps and as a result my Cassy got quite the bronze color. When the heat finally showed up she didn't bounce back as expected... Weeks went by and she continued to brown. When I noticed water stayed in the pot I knew something was up with the roots. I hadn't been able to properly check the pot when she was indoors and it turned out she was VERY potbound ---> so emergency repot
Couldn't get her out even with a knife so I had to cut the nice plastic pot. ROOTS The new pot is double the volume. Finally today I saw some new green!

Phew, lucky escape!

One of my casuarinas followed a similar path - poor growth and yellowed needles. It was not quite as pot bound as yours but recovered after a repot into new potting mix.
Still only 2 examples but I'm feeling that regular repotting might be good for casuarina in pots.

It does worry me a bit in regards to a future (smaller) bonsai pot - I'm guessing repot (at the longest) every two years will be necessary.

The double whammy of freezing and being potbound almost took her down this year. I don't want to repeat this ordeal so lessons learned:
1. Check the pot and act before potbound.
2. Not bring her outside too early.

(Maybe 3. She seems to respond really well to liquid organic fertilizer - the pellets I'm still unsure of.)

Oh and no problems growing in 100% pumice!...

I’m about to repot a Casuarina tomorrow. I will add some posts for you.

I have a lot more to say about Casuarina, but It will take a bit of time.

There is a famous quote in English by a poet. He apologised for a long letter to a friend and said “If I had more time I would have written a shorter letter”
I also plan to take some photos of casuarina in our area. We can get as low as -12, but minus 6 or 8 is more common. We have had a cold start to Winter and already had a lot of minus 1 and a minus 3. My Casuarina (Torulosa) is fine so far.

Grant

Cheers Grant I'll follow with interest!