AusBonsai

internode wrote: ↑February 26th, 2020, 9:33 pm Hi Keels, hate to dishearten you, no encouragement for Bonsai culture from me Im afraid, this family resent root pruning, are quick growers but sadly short lived. Nice addition to the native garden, unlike the River Red Gum, unsuitable for both. Quite a few other Aus natives much more deserving of your time than the wattle. Nonetheless it would an experience for you to give it a go. All the best.

GavinG wrote: ↑February 27th, 2020, 11:58 am ... take it gently but don't be put off.

Also there are some lovely small-leafed Eucs at Cool Country nursery that might give more joy than the larger-leafed River Red - E. crenulata, E.bridgesiana, E. parvula, E. dalrympleana, E. stellulata - plenty to choose from.

Gavin

Starfox wrote: ↑February 27th, 2020, 6:49 pm For what it's worth I'm fairly sure I have one of these in training, at first I thought it could be a longifolia or melanoxylon but the flowers on the parent tree match more with the saligna and the wattle key tends to back that up.

I can only share my experience with it and to be fair it's mostly positive.
So my neighbour has one and it has clearly spread all around via seeds as it is highly invasive here and one day I ventured into the vacant block next door with the idea of digging one of the small ones that had popped up. It turned out to be more ripped out of the ground than carefully dug up and I ended up with 3 small plants to pot up.

The first thing I noticed was the roots released an unpleasant smell of onions which is apparently normal when under stress. I potted them up and just let them sit, over winter they started to go downhill and I basically gave up on them but come spring one plant started to reshoot from the base. It kept growing for the season and seemed healthy enough so I swapped the potting mix for a more DE/lava rock mix and wired it a little. Last year(I think) I decided to reduce the roots and put it in a shallow, black, plastic training bonsai pot. No smell of onions this time and the start of some fine feeder roots too.

It responds to pruning with back budding but then again it responds to warm weather with back budding so you should have plenty of options.
Wire it wire early while it's flexible because once the wood sets it sets solid. I have wired a full loop in my trunk which didn't seem to bother it either.
The leaves or more correctly phyllodes are big and ungainly, more so on young growth. From observing the mature trees it seems they will likely reduce size more with letting the foliage fill out and age. Not sure defoliation would work for reduction as it will just throw out big juvenile growth again but would encourage budding.

If i can keep one alive after all I have done to it then it seems tough enough. I was hoping for flowers this year but unless I see flower buds forming soon then I think I have missed out again. In a month or two I'll reassess the roots and see if it needs to be repotted again or can wait another year. It grows quickly and appears to be bulking up a little in the small pot as well.

So I'd keep at it, you never know what you might end up with.

Starfox wrote: ↑February 27th, 2020, 7:34 pm Well not a lot to see as it is still a young plant but this was it in June last year after I was sure it recovered from the repot. Not overly sure where it is headed, going for a tall and skinny kind of look. The lower branch is mainly a sacrifice and maybe a future jin. I want to close the loop off and extend the leader up a bit more then have a kind of weepy look to it with the foliage at the top.
It threw out a bunch of side branches since that photo that in retrospect I should of removed to keep the leader growing but in the last 8 months the trunk has doubled and started to grey/blacken up losing that brown colour.

Still like I say not much to see, nothing special anyways.

IMG_5714des.jpg

boom64 wrote: ↑February 27th, 2020, 7:35 pm Hi Keels, Here is a photo of my A.Longifolia .Have had for several years ,a collected tree so I think it must have a bit of age. .I root prune every year in summer does not seem to resent it.Has been kind to me and flowers every year. This year I have overpotted it in the hope of putting on a bit more growth. Hang on to the Salinga it looks like you could get a pretty interesting tree out of it. Nice angles to work with and a flower is always a bonus. Cheers John.