AusBonsai

This tube stock was purchased on a whim (don't recall date but sometime last year), trunk chopped to encourage branching and while watered, rather forgotten about since. In my defence, last year was hectic in my sport, working on my trees is my "chill out" so they really only got minimum maintenance as a result of our packed schedule.

I've always liked Bottle Trees so this comp should be a good opportunity to focus on the trees a bit more and try to set this Brachychiton rupestris on the path to becoming a tree to enjoy. The long slender leaves don't look like they will lend themselves to reduction very well; I'll have to do a bit of research and see what can be done with it.
Now to see what can be done with this little one...(and what a great excuse to buy another pot!)

Jan

They're very forgiving, I've found, of neglect and no fertilising....the leaves don't get much smaller either, so it's best as an oddity or a larger tree. Good luck!

Hey Jan,
Looks weird & challenging - I like that!

Took this one out of the tube to see what was under the soil level - bit of a surprise, it was a much thicker under the soil, in fact it looks to be swelling into the classic bottle shape. Bonus! It had fine roots emerging from the swelling but some very robust roots at the base. Decisions, decisions - I decided to remove the fine roots, trim the tap root leaving some of the new robust roots, add native slow release fertilizer to the mix to move things along and pot the plant higher in a new pot. The weather is cooling of an evening in the Highlands so it is in the mini glass house (Ex fish tank) to help it to recover and grow on late into the season. Fingers crossed!
Jan.

Well, it survived the root prune and repot and has started to make new shoots as the Southern Tablelands days, and evenings, start to warm (just a bit). Where it was making two shoots from the same point I have rubbed off one and put charcoal spreaders in place to try to get a bit of shape into the tree. I would like to keep this one fairly short and stout in the longer term and need to get a bit of ramification sooner rather than later.

This little one is powering on in its fish tank/glass house environment.
The side shoot has shot away so I have loosely wired the new shoot and the original shoot with the apexes down to try to encourage side shoots at the leaf junctions. Back to it's glasshouse spot to let it keep steaming ahead.

This one is growing so vigorously that I've had to take the wire off before it cuts into the plant! It obviously loves the Fish tank/Glasshouse!

I've only given it a quick trim as I was watering but I can see on branch is already thickening, wanting to be the new leader. I've pulled it down from vertical for the moment but will have to wire some movement into it before it gets too thick. Hopefully, pulling it down will encourage it to shoot out more branches on that trunk to get this one looking more "tree-like".

This one was growing so rapidly that I decided to chop the dominant branch. It wanted to grow too long,with the same diameter and too straight. It was just not going to work for the look of the tree that I had in mind. I feel sure that ti will re-shoot and go gangbusters again. Hopes for multiple shoots for a bit of ramification.

Jan

I've just picked one of these up as more of an accent plant because I couldn't resist. Will be keeping an eye on this post for tips as I have want to keep my small too. Good luck

Pruned again - it is determined to grow thick but looks to be relenting a bit. I have bent the branches down to encourage it to shoot at the leaf junctions Just for a lark I put the pruning off-cuts in as cuttings; who'd have thought it, they look to have struck as they are putting on new growth. I will be interesting to grow these on and see if they develop the bottle shape from cuttings or only when grown from seed.

Jan wrote: ↑May 7th, 2020, 11:44 am interesting to grow these on and see if they develop the bottle shape from cuttings or only when grown from seed.

Very interesting little side experiment! Let us know what happens.

This one has survived the winter, admittedly it was a relatively mild one for our area. I'm looking forward to some movement in it as the weather warms up. Once it is up and running I'll keep nipping off the tips to encourage ramification

The "cutting" (offcut that I bunged in to see if it would strike) is also looking green and healthy.

Tough winter for this one, something took a fancy to it and ate all the green leaves but it is having another go this spring - note the green shoot on the trunk. I'm hoping for some green shoots on the upper branches so I don't have to start the ramification process over. As a matter of interest, the most promising of the cuttings (side project) died off but the smaller one is still going great guns.

Three new shoots on this one and further down the trunk, excellent.

I'll be able to start building the branching lower on the trunk - should be a better option in the long run.
While the leaves being eaten back and the top dying off could have been a disaster the resilience of the plant shooting back has been an unexpected boon.

As a friend of mine says, "Apply minimum input, and sometimes the results exceed expectations".

New shoots going gangbusters...