Lepto Chaos

[MJL]

Today I visited a local native nursery, staffed by friendly volunteers. I couldn't resist a few more natives and you guessed it, I'll try a few more group plantings. Hey, it's only two more pots...eventually.

Leptospermum continentale and Leptospermum myrsinoides were the trees of choice today. To date, I have not had much luck with Leptos - I've killed my fair share. Sorry Lepto gods . So, this time I have wired them early but I am not going to get too vigorous with the roots when I repot; I'll slip pot them to settle them into a new home. Anyway, that's for later - today was a bit of fun wiring. The pictures tell the story.

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I note with the continentale's there's two multi-trunk trees that look good and may stand alone... the other three may be the group. I'l make that decision later.

Repotting is for another day.

[Rory]

Nice one Mark. Always nice to see people trying new natives.

If it was me, I'd repot and separate the roots now. I would try to slowly ease apart each root mess and spread them out early, (mainly having the hose on a weak stream and slowly separate the old soil and separate the roots without cutting off anything if you can manage it.

But if you leave them for a year or so, you then have the same tangled material which has then got even more tight and compacted.
In my opinion slip-potting is a last resort and kind of counter-productive, especially if the material is healthy.

This way you know in a month or so if they have survived, rather than finding out later on that years of effort and maintenance has been for nothing.
It is hard to properly maintain and water a lot of trees, so in my opinion its better to know sooner which ones are going to survive and give those better care and attention.

[MJL]

Ok Rory, will do. Your response is appreciated and my initial approach was informed by that wonderful thing called ‘fear’ . I must say, I felt immediately better when I recently repotted my kunzea group and improved the organisation/spread those roots too. That group has not missed a beat. I’ll get onto these leptos tomorrow, trying to spread but not cut roots.


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[greg27]

Nice, love a good leptospermum! I've got a petersonii and a 'lipstick' cultivar on the go currently, both tubestock. They both seemed to tolerate a 50% root reduction (touch wood) without breaking a sweat; so far so good. Looking forward to watching your progress on these ones Mark.

[MJL]

Cheers Greg. Thanks for the note.

Here’s a few additional observations that might help others too.

It could be said that I am wasting wire by wiring the whole young whip because I am really only interested in the movement down low. With other forests/groups - I end up cutting back a lot of the top growth/wires. That said, my situation is such that I (and my family) see my trees a lot (ie they are not easily hidden) .... so even in training - I want the setting to look half interesting. Further, even if I eventually cut back hard.... the wired longer branches help me visualise the future.

Also, if you look closely you’ll see the odd zip-tie. This was a tip I received from an experienced grower for when you push to far and semi-break a branch. You can put a zip tie around the break to help it heal. Cleary, that area will be weak in future and will need care but sometimes better than losing the branch. I often break young branches - carefully listening and watching for the break - then apply a zip tie if I’ve gone too far. This method allows me to get some more aggressive/less rounded movement which, in my eyes, looks more random when it grows out.

Anyway, these are a couple of my ideas and techniques- I have some knowledge but as always, I ask people to listen to more experienced growers than I for better tips and advice.





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[boom64]

Great little score Mark. Good advice from Rory , sort those roots out early...Any more trees at your place and you will have them growing on the roof. . Cheers John.

[MJL]

This is going to be a fun task .... the myrsinoides set looks ok .... the continentale somewhat trickier .... I’ll try to be gentle.


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[MJL]

I had a crack at the continentale ... I tried to be gentle but it was very hard not to lose too many of the fine roots. Still, as Rory said, slowly teasing the roots and then a gentle shower with water a few times and it seemed to go ok. I was thinking of isolating two trees for single specimens but they worked better together ... it’s funny, I started with a “what’s to lose” mentality and now ... I want them to survive.... I really like the movement down low and they seem to work together ... and I know that the roots are better spread for the work today too. Fingers crossed.


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[MJL]

Now the myrsinoides .... I’m not sure why I got ten... I prefer odd numbers. Oh well, I am sure l’ll kill at least one .... it’ll be an odd number at some stage ....

Anyway there’s is method in the chaos below ... they haven’t just been banged in there, hopefully some harmony exists when the it’s all said and done.

Now into some dappled shade for a while, then on the ground to grow hard and to lets the roots go nuts while still somewhat contained in the large grow pot. Hopefully this different approach (for me) doesn’t kill ‘em like I have in the past when I’ve trimmed roots hard.




Now I might have a cuppa and look at the tea trees ... there’s a dad-joke in there somewhere!



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[GavinG]

That's fairly drastic work for Leptos- I've found them a bit dodgy with hard root-pruning. One useful trick is to put them in a shallow water bath until the new growth starts - that helps. Good luck. Leptons are famously stiff when they thicken at all, so it's a good idea to get them moving early. Remember that every curve you put in will appear to straighten up over time, as the trunk thickens, so don't be afraid to put some real shape into them now. I just noticed in the really hot weather (38deg+) my L. horizontalis seemed a lot more flexible than it is usually (= not at all!). I didn't get to it unfortunately, because of the heat (!) but I'll keep it in mind for another hot spell - there'll be more, for sure.

Good luck with the feral forests!

Gavin

[Raging Bull]

Hi Mark, I can see that with your newly aquired Leptos you are going for that not often attempted "impenetrable thicket" style. It'll be interesting to see how it turns out.
I bought some natives yesterday for my Forest attempt. I'm also doing something a bit different... a group planting with several different species in the one planting. I'm hoping I'll be able to make it look natural. I'll post pics of the new plants as soon as I can get organised to photograph them.
Cheers, Frank.

[MJL]

Hi Gavin and Frank. Thanks for your thoughts and fingers crossed, the feral and impenetrable turn into something rambling and wild .... if... they survive!! And that’s a big ‘if’.

Frank - fantastic that you are going to try a multiple species group planting in the [A Forest Tale] competition. I think Rory (or someone) was looking forward to seeing people try that .... and I am too. Interesting times ahead for sure.

Indeed, I was thinking that my local volunteer native nursery have a range of different trees that require similar growing conditions ... maybe I’ll try that too. I won’t enter my own comp but I can have a laugh and some fun on the side too. Hmmm, maybe I’ll try ... or just maybe I am running out of space and I’ll leave that to others.


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