corymbia wrote:Grant/Kunzea may be able to help me. I have a callitris glaucophylla that I have been growing as bonsai for about 10 years and I am unable to get it to back bud or shoot back on old wood. Following pinching or even pruning it just keeps growing skywards. I fertilise it well with native Osmocote but it badly needs repotting. Any suggestions?
Jan
The Callitris glaucophylla is slow/difficult to bud back but will do it.
Callitris glaucophylla budding back.JPG
The picture above shows where I cut it back hard in the top 1/3rd of the tree and it budded back nicely and elongated.
Try potting on and fertilizing well; then cut back when it is hot to encourage back budding. It can bud back reliably on old branches but not on trunks.
Grant
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Hi Jan
C glaucophylla, as with several other callistris, don't back bud onto really old wood. You can get some budding on wood, and really mostly right at the base of, branches that are up to about 3-4 years old, while the bark is still thin and reddish coloured on the younger branch. I don't know of situations where buds have formed on the wood that is older than that, apart from those noted above which are at the base of 'younger' branches. Grant's photo shows the 'reddish', thin bark of the branch that is back budding.
Repotting sounds like a good idea now. These trees are pretty good at producing roots in a pot and so need cleaning out every 2-3 years, though they will continue to live in pots where the tree has become root bound, just not as happily.
New growth is certainly going to be 'skywards'. You can wire branches from young ones that still have green leaves right up to branches at least 1.5 cm thick, maybe more though I've not tried larger ones. The wood is generally soft, though it becomes brittle and care needs to be taken. With the thicker branches, the 'heavy bending' techniques of wrapping the branches and including strenthening and holding wires are necessary to stop them from cracking. the tree need regular attention to maintain shape as each growing season some branch or branches will take off if not watched. Regular pruning during the growing season easily keeps things in check.
If your trunk is now quite tall and bare, you will need to consider styling that incorporates that long bare trunk. There are things that can be done. I'm working on a couple of trees that went that way due to oversight by me. I've adopted a wild and exciting branching system, based on what I saw of some really ancient trees about 200 km north of the ACT.
Glenda
Great to see that someone is trying C. intratropica. I've not tried it, but there is no reason to expect it to be much different horticulturally than the other species. let us know what success you've had with pruning, back budding, repotting and styling.
I just spent the last couple of weeks touring around the semi outback and along the rivers Murray and Murrumbidgee whilst they were in flood. We had to detour once when the river was 35klms wide.
Anyhow Don says Hi.
Don says Hi.JPG
I saw some amazing Callitris in really tough country and will post them over a few posts.
A natural triple trunk.JPG
Grant
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The stands of Callitris were both the blue and the green. They were growing on red sand dunes between Wentworth and Broken Hill. Last year they would have only got about 3 inches 75mm of rain whereas this year they git about 19 inches or 475 mm of rain.
They are very tough but there were a lot of dead trees and no seedlings due to overgrazing by cattle; plus wild goats and lots of rabbits. Anything remotely green over the last 10 years would have been nibbled to the ground by all the beasties. Lots of seed on the trees however! Lets hope the animals have other things to feed on this year.
Callitris wood(Knotty pine) is termite resistant and was used for flooring and fence posts.
The trees grow to a certain height and age and then start to lose vigour and produce some amazing shapes as they get even older.
One of my favorites.JPG
Mature tree just passing from the vigorous upright into older age and character.JPG
The bark the bark.JPG
An upright style starting to lose bulk.JPG
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We also met a familly of birds called the Apostle bird. It has a lovely personality but is not a pretty bird.
An Apostle bird.JPG
Feeding the baby.JPG
The baby.JPG
The bright red mud nest.JPG
They are a beautiful bird and a very tight familly. There were about 7 in the famllly group and 2 were babies. They constantly chatter to each other as they walk around looking for food. They don't squabble over food. They were also very bold and almost tame; coming very close to us to have a look.
The nest was a work of art.
Grant
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If you want small Callitris glaucophylla's come to Temora. I can take you to where there are heaps along the side of the road. I have one I dug out the other day, replanted it back into my veggie patch. Tap root was about 30cm long and the trunk is long and spindly at moment, but will bend well. Just letting it establish itself in my Veggie patch before I prune.
Callitris glaucophylla.JPG
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I really like these trees after reading this thread. I had seen a picture of a young one taken from Bright in a bonsai book before, and thought...hmmm, interesting. But now I want to find out more about them!
Lovely photos Grant and lots of good info here from all that contributed...thanks!
How did you go collecting Bretts?
Brownthumb, that sure looks similar to an infant pine, I wish they were around the corner from my area.
Dario.
Gday Bretts
Any updates on the seed you collected. I collected some seed the other day from a Callitris columellaris and was wondering how you went with yours ?
Sorry Andrew I don't remember what happened with that seed. I might have ended up doing a Johny Apple seed with them
It's too bad your in such a hurry cause the stories I could tell you, Bushels and baskets of stories, hole crates full of stories. But if you can spare a moment I will tell you one story.
Just for the record I've dug heaps of black cypress pines in my area, red soil, like concrete but turns to clay after HEAVY continuous rain... 3 footers usually have a 4 inch tap root with plenty of fine feeder roots up top. Only lost 2 out of 30 odd so far.
ViBeS wrote:Just for the record I've dug heaps of black cypress pines in my area, red soil, like concrete but turns to clay after HEAVY continuous rain... 3 footers usually have a 4 inch tap root with plenty of fine feeder roots up top. Only lost 2 out of 30 odd so far.
The fine roots on/near the surface only occur after rain and wither during drought; so if you can time your digging then you could have good results.
