Wild growing old Casuarina collected

Rory · Post by **Rory** » April 7th, 2013, 5:52 pm

I have thought it might be a good idea to take a look in my backyard and see if there was anything worth squizzing at, and turns out there are quite a few things worthy of collecting. My love of casuarinas are what started me thinking of it, because we have oodles of casuarina trees growing around us. We have a fairly large backyard, but it is sloped, so not worth terracing, but it's a virtual giant bonsai soup up there. The first attempt was this casuarina:

I am not holding my breath, because unfortunately this was my first attempt at collecting from the 'wild', so I probably didn't do it right, but I tried to dig a large rootball out, only as I was taking the root ball out, I noticed there were not many roots at all giving this guy food. There was only 1 slightly thick root going way to the side, about 1 cm thick, that I had to cut, but hopefully the little guy pulls through.

It is already incredibly thick at the base, but it spreads out twice as thick just under the soil line, but wont attempt any showing of that until years down the track, provided it survives.

Are there any recommendations on what to do to help it survive?

Should I add fertilizer? I am guessing, obviously leave it in the shade. We don't get a whole lot of sun up there at the back so it probably doesn't need much anyway.

Thoughts or comments are greatly appreciated.

MoGanic · Post by **MoGanic** » April 7th, 2013, 6:47 pm

Seasol!!!! Always!! Weak solution!!

Good stock too so you wouldnt want to lose out on it mate!

Good luck an keep us posted eh?

Mo

Rory · Post by **Rory** » April 7th, 2013, 6:58 pm

Cheers...dang, i'll have to get it tomorrow, hope the little guy holds in there. Yeah, I was amazed when I saw it, but we get funnel webs in the backyard so I was reluctant to spend too long rummaging around being extra cautious on taking it out. Not to mention, we get adders too. Nasty things those.

MoGanic · Post by **MoGanic** » April 7th, 2013, 9:46 pm

Adders?! Good job with that then! Id have moved out by now haha

I think shell be right for the time being mate, theyre a tough bugger! Heres hoping it doesn't get stupidly hot in the coming weeks!

Olivecrazy · Post by **Olivecrazy** » April 7th, 2013, 10:00 pm

They tend to do ok being transplanted i dug a monster last August an it sat there for while ut is growing ok now if you got a good root ball you should be ok

lackhand · Post by **lackhand** » April 8th, 2013, 12:15 am

Make sure you DON'T fertilize until it recovers. Seasol is a tonic more than a fertilizer and good for plants like this that have been stressed. Superthrive works too if you have it. Fertilizer on a plant that's struggling can stress it even more. Generally I would wait to fertilize for a few months, or until it starts growing strongly. Looks like a really nice start, I'm jealous! Wish I had something like that growing in my yard (though you can keep the funnel webs and adders).

Rory · Post by **Rory** » April 8th, 2013, 9:12 pm

lackhand wrote:Make sure you DON'T fertilize until it recovers. Seasol is a tonic more than a fertilizer and good for plants like this that have been stressed. Superthrive works too if you have it. Fertilizer on a plant that's struggling can stress it even more. Generally I would wait to fertilize for a few months, or until it starts growing strongly. Looks like a really nice start, I'm jealous! Wish I had something like that growing in my yard (though you can keep the funnel webs and adders).

Yes, thanks for the tip, that sounds like good advice.

Olivecrazy wrote:They tend to do ok being transplanted i dug a monster last August an it sat there for while ut is growing ok now if you got a good root ball you should be ok

Any chance of a pic

AusBonsai