Eucy stump

[MattA]

This is one of the first Eucalypt's I dug when I started getting back into using natives for bonsai 5 years ago. It originally stood upright & after 3 years the new trunks had started to catch up with the base and I was ready to give the tree its first 'styling' cut, repotting at the same time. All went well with budding in all the right places and even more on the exposed lignotuber.

As the growth started to extend, disaster! First the back trunk started to die, then the left hand trunk. As the last trunk started to show signs of decline I woke to find a nice neat hole or 3 in the trunk (a borer of some description), you can see one of the holes in the overhead view. I thought the tree would die entirely but moved it into my shade house & just kept it watered. Over the next 6months the bark on the exposed sections started to crack & peel and I really had given up hope. Then one day i saw a sign of life, a small shoot starting to show just at soil line! Eventually 4 trunks shot from the base and slowly made some growth but was very slow & weak.

During late winter I noticed a slight decline in the colour of this eucs leaves so decided to repot into akadama. I had nothing to lose but a tree that i had already given up for dead once and if it lived it would be a good test subject for the aka. It budded quickly and has since slowly ticked along. While not much to look at its encouraging for me to see this baby continue to survive, hopefully it can start to thrive again like it did before.

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Matt

[rowan]

Please keep us updated on this tree, I am interested to see how it does in the medium.

[kcpoole]

Shoudl do well in Akadama
I have had one in it for a while and looks fine, but most of mine are in Diatomite which they just love

Ken

[Mitchell]

What a great piece of stock to work with. I'd love to have a natural shari Euc in my collection.

[MattA]

From the initial response of this tree and another I also planted into akadama I expect good things over the coming season.

Mitchell I would have much prefered to have had the tree as it had originally regrown but am happy enough that it lives & wants to continue growing thru out it all.

Matt

[MattA]

A month on & this baby is really starting to get into gear.

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This is another Lignotuber that has been interesting to have on my bench. Collected just over 2yrs ago it budded all over as they usually do, lt got 2 sets of leaves then stopped and sat for 2yrs. Given it hadnt done anything in so long I decided to repot into akadama at the same time as the other stump. Not one root, what growth it had was from stored energy. I did not touch the shoots it had and over the next month about 3/4 of them died off and I thought it would be heading to the fire pile. Then early sept new buds started to appear, slowly at first, now it is really gathering speed. I cant be certain without taking it out of the pot but the growth gives me hopes that this baby has finally made some roots.

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I think the growth rates speak volumes for akadama, tho having said that I get just as good growth from 50/50 soil/gravel. How it stands up over time & the differences in the rootsystem will be my final deciding factors. I will definitely use more for collecting if this is the results it produces. Will need some more testing over time & species to see if there is a benefit to outway the cost.

Matt

[MattA]

Another month on & WOW