Digging Up a Banksia

[daniel-sun]

Hi All,

This is my 1st post.

I live on a block that has plenty of native trees that have bonsai written all over them. I haven't dug a tree out of the ground before so I thought I'd give it a try.

I found a banksia that had already been pruned, either by design or by nature, so I dug it up and put it in a large ceramic pot. I also gave it a decent prune as well. The main aim is to see if it lives. It's about 4 feet tall at the moment. I didn't know if I should cut the trunk so it is just a stump. I thought that might be too much for the tree to handle.

If it lives, I'd like to cut the trunk down to about 1 foot tall but I don't know when is the best time to do that.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

(Sorry no pic at present)

[Pat093]

hey mate

im not an expert but the general things i do is reduce foilage, keep moist for 3 to 4 weeks, and most of all dose with seasol before anything. and leave as many feeder roots as possible.

Goodluck

Pat

[Andrew F]

Id probably give the tree alot of time to recover before chopping it, how much of the roots did you disturb???
Reason i ask is because i may be losing a Banksia serrata due to rough handling when digging it up, like pat said give it a drink of seasol, whats the soil like????

[Matthew]

i have 20 or so in grow beds so im also wondering best time to root prune?
Ive heard bankias in the wild have low collection succuss rate and im not sure if there protected? ie no digging

[daniel-sun]

Thanks for the advice.

It was growing next to a massive rock and there wasn't much of a root ball. It was more of a root-stump. There were a couple of roots growing off it but that was it.

I looked up a website somewhere that said they weren't proteted but I haven't got a definitive 'ok' to dig it up from anyone.

[MrMiyagi]

I am also in the blue mountains with the same idea danielsun, and funny we have both just joined from the same area using names from karate kid! let us know how you go with it all.

[Andrew F]

Thanks for the advice.

It was growing next to a massive rock and there wasn't much of a root ball. It was more of a root-stump. There were a couple of roots growing off it but that was it.

I looked up a website somewhere that said they weren't proteted but I haven't got a definitive 'ok' to dig it up from anyone.

Hi,

Its not a matter of whether the trees protected but whether or not its on protected land i think.

if you decide to dig it up try to be meticulous with the roots, even if it means spending an hour getting the tree out of the ground.
Dont forget pics.

[daniel-sun]

I am also in the blue mountains with the same idea danielsun, and funny we have both just joined from the same area using names from karate kid! let us know how you go with it all.

Ahhh Mr Miyagi! Been wondering where you got to

I grew up with the Karate Kid and I often say the word 'bonsai' the same way Mr Miyagi did in the movie. In fact I often quote Mr Miyagi when tending to my trees ("No thoughts, just tree").

My Banksia is still alive 4 weeks after digging it up. We have had plenty of rain in the Mountains over the last 4 weeks so it's going ok.

The soil I used was a mixture of the soil from the area I dug it out of (50%) and a typical bag of potting mix (50%). I haven't added anything else to it.

I took a pic but it was on my phone and is 1M, so it wouldn't upload. I'll include a pic once I can reduce the file size.

I'm eying off some other potential experiments so if I dig any others up I'll take pics of the whole process and post them.

[Grant Bowie]

i have 20 or so in grow beds so im also wondering best time to root prune?
Ive heard bankias in the wild have low collection succuss rate and im not sure if there protected? ie no digging

I have dug up many Banksia growing in grow beds without loss but collecting from the wild is a lot less reliable.

Grant

[shibui]

I have dug up many Banksia growing in grow beds without loss but collecting from the wild is a lot less reliable.

Grant

Any ideas on what time of year is better Grant? I also have a few in the growing beds ready to be dug and was aiming to lift them during November.

[Grant Bowie]

I have dug up many Banksia growing in grow beds without loss but collecting from the wild is a lot less reliable.

Grant

Any ideas on what time of year is better Grant? I also have a few in the growing beds ready to be dug and was aiming to lift them during November.

November would be good for digging up field grown in your area.

I find Banksia in particular grow so well and quickly from seedling or cutting that I haven't bothered trying to collect them from the wild in a long time. They grow quickly in field grow if you want to fatten them up but you can lose taper.

Grant