Broken Pot Repotting

[Waltron]

Not happy! For the first time since starting bonsai some 10 years ago I smashed a pot. I didn't drop it, I broke it trying to pry it off the severely pot bound root ball of my Eucalyptus Rubida, the tree/pot combination of my avatar. It is not an expensive pot by any means, but in my eyes it was a perfect match.

Smashed pot1.jpg

Thing is, every tree that I have grown in this particular potting medium has developed a really thick, dense mass of fine feeder roots - perfect - but my trees have moved from being under a maple tree into a position of 7+ hours of direct, unimpeded daily sun and so this year I've changed to a medium that I think should hold a little more water (a bit nervous about summer).

Roots1.jpg

And to rub salt in the wound, I've considered purchasing similar pots by Tracy(?) of Murrungbung on a number of occasions, but I never did because they were perfect for this tree and this tree already had a pot (there's a lesson in this I'm sure).

Anyhow, I don't have many spare pots laying around but I found this one I bought from the BSV show many years ago. It's a little shallower than I"d prefer, but I suppose the tree doesn't look too bad in it.

Rubida Ground1.jpg

The progress of this tree from the photo in my avatar until now is 2 years.

Now to get a decent camera so I can take decent photos... and a computer at home...

[Boics]

Awesome tree.
Don't take this the wrong way but your Avatar never gave this tree the credibility it deserved.
I'm a big fan.

[Waltron]

Thanks Boics. Yeah, I used the image as a test to see what would fit and then kinda just left it there, it was taken after I cut it back hard to put it into a bonsai pot for the first time.

[Kevin]

Hello Waltron

I too think this tree's a ripper.
I also like your bench set up and nice stock in the background.

How old is this eucalypt?

Thanks for showing.
Kevin

[Waltron]

It's about 8 years old I think from tube stock.

[Boics]

While we're being constructive and having a nice time in here I'd love to see a tack sharp photo against a suitable background.
I get the feeling we'd all appreciate this tree even more with a great photo.

[AirControl]

You can always glue the pot back together.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[delisea]

Hi Waltron,
There are not enough good eucalypt bonsai's on this forum for my liking. This is one of the best I have seen here. Can give us a run down on its development, I see some wire marks, but it also looks like more recently it has been clip and grow.
Cheers,
Symon

[Waltron]

While we're being constructive and having a nice time in here I'd love to see a tack sharp photo against a suitable background.
I get the feeling we'd all appreciate this tree even more with a great photo.

Unfortunately the fence is the best I've got at the minute. I've just moved and it'll be a while before I get everything sorted.

Hi Waltron,
There are not enough good eucalypt bonsai's on this forum for my liking. This is one of the best I have seen here. Can give us a run down on its development, I see some wire marks, but it also looks like more recently it has been clip and grow.
Cheers,
Symon

Initially I let the tree grow wild for a year then chopped it hard, I repeated this for about 3-4 years but always in a pot because I've never had room for ground growing. At it's tallest it grew to about 1.5 - 2m. I tend to let my trees grow freely for a while and then cut them back hard and/or to shape. At this time I remove branches I don't want and wire others, then I let it go again and repeat. So they are both wired and clip and grown.

There is a photo of it here before it was put into a bonsai pot.

One of the problems I think E. Rubida has is that it doesn't appear to lose its immature leaves while kept small, and the immature leaves grow is such a way that isn't very ideal - opposite and with the petiole not extended past the base of the leaf. I'm not really sure of the best way to deal with this yet as It would be too labor intensive for me to pinch out the growth continuously which is what I suspect Bodhi does to achieve this.