Eucalyptus melliodora

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EdwardH
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Eucalyptus melliodora

Post by EdwardH »

I repotted my E. melliodora today and really struggled with the roots. I had to take a recipro saw to it and to my surprise I found a root mass which was 20cm across and 3cm deep of solid wood. Presumably many roots fused together to form a plate. Has anyone seen this happen before?
2020 Dec Root ball.jpg
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Re: Eucalyptus melliodora

Post by greg27 »

That's a great looking euc. Was this collected, or always grown in a pot?
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Re: Eucalyptus melliodora

Post by shibui »

That's almost certainly the lignotuber.
Many Euc species develop a swollen woody area at ground level. I believe it is a storage organ that can help the trees survive fire, drought, etc. The lignotuber can produce lots of new buds if the trunk is damaged and can also produce roots when required.
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Re: Eucalyptus melliodora

Post by EdwardH »

Hi Greg27, it was purchased in late 2014 as tube stock so about 6 years old. I did an initial root prune to spread out the roots and potted it into a larger pot, then a still larger pot a few months later then into a tub to thicken the trunk in 2016. It grew over 1m per year so trunk thickened quite quickly. In 2018 I planted it into a rectangular colander 50cm x 30cm to work on a flatter root spread and the tertiary branches. This year it has gone into a smaller colander 25cm x 35cm to again reduce the roots and start working on reducing the foliage size. I am going to try Rory's trick of double defoliation so hopefully the leaves will be around the 2cm mark or smaller :fc:

Hi Shibui thanks for the info. I always thought that the lignotuber was a prominate bulge above ground like on a E. nicholli.
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Re: Eucalyptus melliodora

Post by shibui »

Hi Shibui thanks for the info. I always thought that the lignotuber was a prominate bulge above ground like on a E. nicholli.
It all depends how the seedling was planted. The lignotuber develops where the cotyledons (seed leaves) were on the seedlings. Usually that's right about ground level and as the tree thickens the lignotuber grows above and below ground.
Seedlings that are pricked out into tubes are often planted a little higher (or the mix compacts a bit) leaving the lignotuber exposed above ground level. As the trunk expands so does the lignotuber and eventually part of it will usually end up below the surface.
I try to pot up euc seedlings just a little deeper so the lignotuber develops just under the surface. It will then develop lateral roots like yours has done and will also give a buttress to the trunk and can be exposed later.
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Re: Eucalyptus melliodora

Post by Rory »

shibui wrote: December 31st, 2020, 4:21 pm I try to pot up euc seedlings just a little deeper so the lignotuber develops just under the surface. It will then develop lateral roots like yours has done and will also give a buttress to the trunk and can be exposed later.
Bingo. Me too. I have found exactly the same as Neil. The very best way to get lateral roots on a Euc is to have the lignotuber below or half way below the soil line. And with the top soil, I have a thin layer of slightly heavier potting mix to keep the lateral roots with access to a bit more moisture over really hot days.

Thats a great piece of material you have there. I love E. melliodora foliage.... very pretty. But the bugs and vermin love the foliage too.

I only had multiple defoliation attempts on very health material with a full head of hair. :yes:
Nowadays I just grow material with smaller leaves, haha. I'm still pursuing my last E. punctata that was given to me as a present, and so far its a constant struggle with the galls. E. nicholii is pretty much my main Euc now. The trick with Eucs is to not cut back as often, and really allow them to grow, cut back hard once a year, and nibble a bit a the other times of the year to keep in check.

But when you've got a good trunk like yours and are happy with the skeleton, make sure its super healthy before you start doing a lot of defoliation attempts. And bare in mind, I don't recall that I ever did a TOTAL defoliation. I don't recommend total removal of leaves on any native now..... except figs. But even then, I only partially defoliate figs in stages, so as to not leave the roots in a temporarily induced "over-potted" situation where there isn't much water take up from no leaves.
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Re: Eucalyptus melliodora

Post by EdwardH »

Thanks for the feedback Shibui and Rory.

I am also leaning towards species with smaller leaves. I persist with a few large leaf eucs simply because they have survived my experimentation for many years. Whilst the leaves have reduced significantly, to be honest they are too big, especially as I prefer to grow my trees under 50cm.

I usually do a buzz cut on my tress, i.e. leaving 1-2 pairs of leaves however as I had left this one too long I had to cut below the leaves to reduce its' size. I will keep your advice in mind and keep on top of the pruning.
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Re: Eucalyptus melliodora

Post by Rory »

EdwardH wrote: January 2nd, 2021, 9:08 am Thanks for the feedback Shibui and Rory.

I am also leaning towards species with smaller leaves. I persist with a few large leaf eucs simply because they have survived my experimentation for many years. Whilst the leaves have reduced significantly, to be honest they are too big, especially as I prefer to grow my trees under 50cm.

I usually do a buzz cut on my tress, i.e. leaving 1-2 pairs of leaves however as I had left this one too long I had to cut below the leaves to reduce its' size. I will keep your advice in mind and keep on top of the pruning.
:imo: My only tip is that when you have done a heavy cut back such as this..... Don't experiment with repeated reducing/defoliation for quite a while, (at least a year or so) because when you do a second reduction on a heavy cutback like this, Eucs have a tendency to die back when the new growth is cut back before its really hardened off. Then you can end up with total branch dieback or long dead-ended branches. Allow all the shoots to grow and harden until late Spring before you start selecting or removing branching/leaves after a heavy cut back with Eucs.

If you play it safe and patiently, that is going to be a fantastic piece of material :clap: Concentrate on slowly building ramification now, not leaf reduction... in my opinion.
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How to reduce moss from the trunk without damaging the bark: viewtopic.php?p=295227#p295227
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Re: Eucalyptus melliodora

Post by EdwardH »

Thanks for the advice, I shall follow your instructions.
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Re: Eucalyptus melliodora

Post by Phil Rabl »

I am keeping an eye out for new posts on Eucalypts for information that warrants being included in the summary of AusBonsai posts on Eucalypts. A post on 31 December 2020, Eucalyptus melliodora, caught my eye. Here is a link to the discussion thread viewtopic.php?f=78&t=29343. It begins with this question from EdwardH:

I repotted my E. melliodora today and really struggled with the roots. I had to take a recipro saw to it and to my surprise I found a root mass which was 20cm across and 3cm deep of solid wood. Presumably many roots fused together to form a plate. Has anyone seen this happen before?

Shibui replied:

That's almost certainly the lignotuber. Many Euc species develop a swollen woody area at ground level. I believe it is a storage organ that can help the trees survive fire, drought, etc. The lignotuber can produce lots of new buds if the trunk is damaged and can also produce roots when required.

EdwardH responded:

I always thought that the lignotuber was a prominate bulge above ground like on a E. nicholli.

To which Shibui replied:

It all depends how the seedling was planted. The lignotuber develops where the cotyledons (seed leaves) were on the seedlings. Usually that's right about ground level and as the tree thickens the lignotuber grows above and below ground. Seedlings that are pricked out into tubes are often planted a little higher (or the mix compacts a bit) leaving the lignotuber exposed above ground level. As the trunk expands so does the lignotuber and eventually part of it will usually end up below the surface. I try to pot up euc seedlings just a little deeper so the lignotuber develops just under the surface. It will then develop lateral roots like yours has done and will also give a buttress to the trunk and can be exposed later.
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Re: Eucalyptus melliodora

Post by Phil Rabl »

Sorry. My mistake. The previous post was supposed to go on the discussion thread on Eucs as bonsai: Summary of AusBonsai posts. viewtopic.php?f=78&t=28106&p=285657#p285657
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Re: Eucalyptus melliodora

Post by boristhebadseed »

Please note I am no expert and this is just my experience so far...

Attached is a Euc - Gunni I have been working on since about Jun 2016. It started as a pot bound tube stock of about 40-50 cm from a local nursery. The lignotuber was above ground at ground height. Due to a previous failure, in Dec 2018 I repotted it into a large/deep bonsai pot with the tuber in the same position.

Due to the long leggy nature of the growth and lack of branches, I took to it with a torch and singed all the leaves (to simulate a bush fire) which dropped in the following few days.

3-4 weeks new foliage emerged with new (and lower) branch options. Height was the reduced by trunk chopping.

This last week it was root trimmed and repotted into a smaller pot. Due to the better root flare below the tuber it was repotted about an inch higher it the pot, ligno above ground level.

I don't plan on flaming it again until next summer to again work on branching and ramification.

I think it is going well, but time will tell.Image

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