Daintree Pine (Gymnostoma australianum)- Literati?

[dansai]

Thanks Snoopy. I am happy with this one and am thinking I might take it to Canberra for the National Native Trees as Bonsai exhibition

[MrSnoopy]

Well if you do, I might have the privilege to see it in person... It should make quite the impression down in Canberra

[raewynk]

No I thought I would let it recover more for awhile and see if I can more or less full recovery, before I did the chop.
If I could get as much as half of your foliage into my tree, I would be happy to proceed, but for now I will err on the side of caution.

I can see your point in cutting the roots but this was significantly solid and I took at least an hour of even getting some of the roots loosened. The feeder roots are in tact and quite in abundance.

Some of the needles have started to brown off and drop, ?????? not enough water?????? root bound ?????????????????? too many green grass hoppers
I would say combination of all the above, so slowly does it. I think, even the little that I have done in 4 hours I have seen the depth in colour return to the needles, and the foliage start to drop with the weight of the moisture.

My ignorance for not doing it properly in the first place.

So kicking myself for not taking some photos to share. UUUURRRRRRR at me.

Rae

[raewynk]

I have further done a spray with yates bug spray Pyrethenin, read on the label that it is not intended for new foliage.
I then sprayed all the foliage with Seasol.

Result being 12 green grasshoppers dead.
Tree looking good with healthy looking foliage.
All in the last 24 hours.

I forgot to mention however in the prior post, when I potted the Daintree into a bigger pot and changed over the quality of the soil, I put in 1 third soil put in the tree, ran the hose in for a good few minutes and filled the pot. Left it until all the air bubbles removed.
I then put in another third soil and did the same with the hose until all air bubbles removed and so forth until the pot was fill and the tree stable.

Success I believe, time will tell.

regards
Rae

[dansai]

Hi Rae,

Sounds good and likely for success. One reason for root pruning trees is to keep the root ball small and compact as trees only absorb water and nutrients on the ends of new roots. The rest of the root just stabilises the plant and provides the channel for the water to travel, Much like branches are there to hold the leaves in the best possible place to receive sunlight. When you root prune the tree makes new roots closer to the trunk rather than at the ends of existing roots and a nice tight root ball will result. If you don't root prune you end up with very long ropey roots and it can be hard to fill all the spaces with new potting mix, resulting in air gaps that hold water and can cause root rot. It does sound like you did a good job washing the mix into the roots and I am sure the tree will be fine, but if you are going to train this tree as a bonsai, or any other, you will need to be more ruthless with the roots.

However, having said all that, some trees do not like root disturbance, others only a little and some are happy with an 80% reduction so it is always good to know what a particular species likes before jumping in. That is why I asked wether you did, as my only experience with this species is a light prune or a total one that the curl grubs did. My feeling is that we could be quite ruthless with this species, but we need to have more experience to make claims that others can follow. So it is always good to record what you do so you can see the results and what the tree is doing the next time you repot, trim, wire, etc. Unfortunately I am hopeless when it comes to recording what I do.

Anyway, Happy Bonsai'ing
Dan

[Roger]

Hi Everyone. Loved this string on the Daintrees. I don't get on AusBonsai much these days, alas, but stumbled there today and saw your string.
Look forward to seeing how your repotting and pruning progress.

My experience is similar to yours: new growth quite readily at the base of a branch. That applies to the primary branch against the trunk and t the base of secondary branches against the primary.

I most often pinch prune mine to control growth. They respond strongly to this during the growing season.

My repotting has been mostly in late winter and spring. Apart from cleaning out old potting mix from the nursery, I mostly trim back around the edges and bottom, with occasional forays into the central part in pie-wedges. The tree has responded well to this.

I have only the one tree. It is now just over 10 years since I bought it, when it was perhaps 2-3 years old.

Here are a couple of pics from a few minutes ago: whole tree and a close up of some of the branching near the top. [Sorry I can't seem to load the files. Keep getting error message about invalid file.]

All the best with yours.

Cheers
Roger

[Elmar]

[Sorry I can't seem to load the files. Keep getting error message about invalid file.]

All the best with yours.

Cheers
Roger

G'day Rodger, try changing the file format to JPEG. I had a couple of tiffs that did the same...


Cheers
EZ
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[raewynk]

Here the result so far.
New shoots minus green grasshoppers much healthier looking.
I will start pinch pruning next week or would you advise dormancy period during winter or early spring?
I have a couple of cut offs that I am trying to propagate.

Sent from my GT-S5300 using Tapatalk 2

[raewynk]

Sorry forgot to include the before photo.
This was taken a couple of weeks before the repot.
Not a good photo on either the foliage colour went down to a translucent colour not representing a healthy plant at all. Since the repot the colouring and the abundance of New shoots in comparison.

Sent from my GT-S5300 using Tapatalk 2

[Roger]

Hi All
Just having a quick look to see if any progress with the Gymnostomas.
Found I didn't follow up with the pic that failed, so here is another try .

[Roger]

Sorry. Still cant do. . I reduced file size to 689, nothing turns up.
Must go for now. Maybe next time

[Lynette]

Just a heads up for the growers of these trees, I had one I had grown from a thin stick that I got as a left over Christmas tree from Big W. It grew really well and I had a trunk of about 18cm ( probably about 3-4 years growing in a large container) when I decided to start styling it.
I cut it back quite a lot in Summer and it just dropped dead, almost straight away.
I have been looking for another since but haven't been able to find one.