AusBonsai

Hi all,

I’ve just acquired a Saligna. It is about 2m tall very straight and it has a base about 6/7cm in diameter and it was cheap. Those are the good points, the bad point is it has a bad case if some type of borer! My question if anyone can help is, do I:

A) trunk chop it now and dispose of the infected material and hope it shoots back or ....
B) give it some confidor and wait until November to trunk chop it.

Thanks in advance
David

Hi David and welcome
A picture is a big help when seeking information.
Confidor sprayed into the holes a few times should help.
Also poking some wire in, trying to skewer the little buggers.
I would suggest for now just water regularly and fertilize now with some slow release.
Then post a picture in late spring or summer for chopping suggestions .
I would be getting the tree healthy and growing well first before considering my options.
November or December is optimal for natives, even late October in Sydney works.
I'm assuming your new to bonsai ? in which case you have chosen a very difficult species!!
good luck

Welcome, I also noticed its your first post so I hope you enjoy the forum.
Rob is correct in what he has said. Photos tell a thousand words and are very helpful. There is a section (in wiki I think) that explains how to post photos.
The Sydney blue gum has very large leaves and reducing them to an acceptable size will be your biggest job, but don't be deterred, the more people that give them a try the more information we will all gain in the development of Australian native plants as bonsai.

Thanks, I understand the picture comment a tried up loading a few but just got the file too large message. Thanks for the advice but I think this one might be a casualty already.
I have posted in another thread about tips for uploading images

And thanks for the welcome. Yes I am relatively new to Bonsai. I currently have figs, junipers, azalea, maple and elms and I just bought some nursery stock natives, callistemon, agonis, eucalyptus and Brachychiton.

If that is eucalyptus saligna, I actually found it quite easy to maintain them.
I found it reduced the foliage relatively well. Although this was usually because I had cut back the entire tree quite regularly, like once every 3 months.
It can be prone to bulging in multiple branch points. And in fact that is an interesting thing about eucs.
Some of them are so prone to bulging and others rarely bulge even from multiple bar branches.
I found it to be quite hardy and a fairly good candidate from my experience.

However, it wasn’t very tolerant of bugs and myrtle rust. I just got disinterested in them because of the lack of vigour from so many constant wallaby attacks. But other than that, if I was you I’d give it a go for sure.

DavidJames wrote:Thanks for the advice but I think this one might be a casualty already.

Hello David,

I wouldn't be so sure at the moment.

When developing Euc's for bonsai we grow long and cut back hard to get movement and interest into the trunks.
I would cut this hard now below the lowest evidence of borers or about 100mm - 200mm above the ground. In Sydney i have found my Euc's do continue to grow throughout Winter.
The tree should send up multiple shoots over winter and in a few months select one shoot to be the new leader and either remove the rest or keep a few to develop into the new design.
Growing Eucalyptus as Bonsai takes several years of growing long and cutting back repeatedly to achieve a desired trunk thickness before developing the canopy.

Getting the tree back to good health is also a priority and i would continue feeding over the next few months.
I would leave the repotting of this tree until mid spring to late summer.

These are just my thoughts from my limited experiences. There are many talented Euc growers on AusBonsai.
Have a look in the Eucalyptus Forum section for some inspiration.

Kevin

Thanks for the advice. I've already cut the tree back to the point of lowest infection by the borers and burnt the infected material. I'm looking forward to the journey with natives. Yes I am a newbie in bonsai but I've decided, I don't really want to walk out in my backyard and feel like I'm in a Japanese Garden, I want to walk out and feel like I'm in my favourite camping spot. I love and have always marvelled at the sheer beauty of our Australian trees.

Rory wrote:If that is eucalyptus saligna, I actually found it quite easy to maintain them.
I found it reduced the foliage relatively well. Although this was usually because I had cut back the entire tree quite regularly, like once every 3 months.
It can be prone to bulging in multiple branch points. And in fact that is an interesting thing about eucs.
Some of them are so prone to bulging and others rarely bulge even from multiple bar branches.
I found it to be quite hardy and a fairly good candidate from my experience.

However, it wasn’t very tolerant of bugs and myrtle rust. I just got disinterested in them because of the lack of vigour from so many constant wallaby attacks. But other than that, if I was you I’d give it a go for sure.

Hi Rory,

Thanks for the advice. I love driving / walking around Sydney and seeing these trees.

Kevin wrote:

DavidJames wrote:Thanks for the advice but I think this one might be a casualty already.

Hello David,

I wouldn't be so sure at the moment.

When developing Euc's for bonsai we grow long and cut back hard to get movement and interest into the trunks.
I would cut this hard now below the lowest evidence of borers or about 100mm - 200mm above the ground. In Sydney i have found my Euc's do continue to grow throughout Winter.
The tree should send up multiple shoots over winter and in a few months select one shoot to be the new leader and either remove the rest or keep a few to develop into the new design.
Growing Eucalyptus as Bonsai takes several years of growing long and cutting back repeatedly to achieve a desired trunk thickness before developing the canopy.

Getting the tree back to good health is also a priority and i would continue feeding over the next few months.
I would leave the repotting of this tree until mid spring to late summer.

These are just my thoughts from my limited experiences. There are many talented Euc growers on AusBonsai.
Have a look in the Eucalyptus Forum section for some inspiration.

Kevin

Thanks Kevin, That is exactly what I did. I will keep the thread posted with the outcome. Good or bad.

dmjames wrote:Thanks for the advice. I've already cut the tree back to the point of lowest infection by the borers and burnt the infected material. I'm looking forward to the journey with natives. Yes I am a newbie in bonsai but I've decided, I don't really want to walk out in my backyard and feel like I'm in a Japanese Garden, I want to walk out and feel like I'm in my favourite camping spot. I love and have always marvelled at the sheer beauty of our Australian trees.

I couldn’t have said it any better myself!

Just take note that it’s going to be damp for quite some time. It’s now not going to use up the water like it was before.
It’s going to stay damp for longer so just make sure you only water it when it’s starting to dry out.

If you want to cut back roots, don’t do this until at least after summer.
Eucalytpus saligna was pretty good at producing lateral roots as well as the tap root.
But this often depends on how the nursery upsized them.

Rory wrote:

dmjames wrote:Thanks for the advice. I've already cut the tree back to the point of lowest infection by the borers and burnt the infected material. I'm looking forward to the journey with natives. Yes I am a newbie in bonsai but I've decided, I don't really want to walk out in my backyard and feel like I'm in a Japanese Garden, I want to walk out and feel like I'm in my favourite camping spot. I love and have always marvelled at the sheer beauty of our Australian trees.

I couldn’t have said it any better myself!

Just take note that it’s going to be damp for quite some time. It’s now not going to use up the water like it was before.
It’s going to stay damp for longer so just make sure you only water it when it’s starting to dry out.

If you want to cut back roots, don’t do this until at least after summer.
Eucalytpus saligna was pretty good at producing lateral roots as well as the tap root.
But this often depends on how the nursery upsized them.

Thanks Rory, I will leave this alone as far as repotting goes, it percolates well and is in no way a bonsai so I will just let it roll in its pot for now, I'm just looking forward to the shoot back and what gifts it gives me.