Banksia spinulosa literati experimenting

[Justin M]

Hi all,

For your interest, I got this little Banksia spinulosa (var cunninhamii I think, don't quote me on that) about a year and a half ago at my Council nursery. I've been keen to try a literati from it, and have been having a bit of a play. First of all would like to thank all the contributors to this forum (those mentioned in squizzy's "the Banksia workshop" and squizzy also!), the learnings for banksia have been super useful.

Pretty early stages (and I'm a novice anyway), so far I've just been growing in a pot in native potting mix. Still haven't decided which branch will become the main trunk, I kinda of have three front runners. I've found that it has responded well to a trim, i.e. I cut back a couple of branches back past the greenery and they shot new shoots. Like Grant Bowie described in the B. integrifolia post, wiring down a branch past horizontal seemed to make it lose vigor, i.e. leaves yellowed as opposed to those left reaching for the sky. So I might be a bit more careful with other shoots and clip and grow more. Though of course something else could be going on. I'm in Wollongong and have it in full sun, keep it watered, and it has still grown a bit through winter. In fact it's grown pretty quickly since I first brought it home (didn't take an initial shot I'm afraid!) I'm a bit nervous about what to do fertilizer wise as I'm unsure if there are proteoid roots going on, so may start with some native fert soon. Or do a repot and introduce organic liquid fert gradually.

Anyway early days but wanted to make a post now anyways instead of waiting 5 years for a progression series.. it might not survive that long

I hope the excitement of Spring is getting the locked down through

[shibui]

Great to see others playing with banksias. Spinulosa has not done particularly well for me but I have seen some really great ones at shows so well worth trying.
You have already found that it responds well to pruning.
It is really easy to check for proteoid roots. Just tip the whole root ball out of the pot and look. Most will be right on the outside of the root ball so are very obvious. Even if there are proteoid roots you can start with some low P fert and gradually build up fert strength over the summer.
While you have it out of the pot check how root bound it is. My young banksias fill the pots in just one season. Many of my early trees died in spring and I blamed all sorts of things but eventually worked out that they were so root bound by spring that it was really difficult to get water into the soil. As the weather warms demand for water increases but the soil is too full of roots and the trees end up dying of dehydration during the first warm weeks. i now try to root prune or pot banksias on each spring to make room for more fresh soil and room for new roots to grow.

[Justin M]

Thanks for the tips Shibui! I have read some of your hard lessons learnt from Banksias dehydrating due to excessive root growth, and yet still haven't pulled it up for a look in over a year! Now sounds like a very good time to do so. Thanks again, will hopefully have some glorious progress shots to put in here over time