Collected 9 big buxus today

[Josh]

I saw a guy advertising on gumtree wanting to get rid of his plants/trees from his yard. You dig you take for free. So a quick trip and home with 9 buxus. That was all I could fit in the car, heaps more there including a big 15' tall olive.
So here is what I got

IMG_0163.JPG

IMG_0160.JPG

IMG_0161.JPG

IMG_0165.JPG

IMG_0168.JPG

They are currently soaking in seasol over night and will be potted up tomorrow.
Any advice on aftercare very welcome please as these are awesome trees
1 do I cut them back much when I pot them up. Some have new shoots back in close to the trunk and some don't.
2 I will pot them into potting mix and soak with seasol for the next few weeks.
3 Anything else I should do
Any advice welcome as I have never collected trees this big.

Thanks in advance
Josh

[Trent McKenzie]

score

[alpineart]

Hi Kidsandall , mate i had several 40mm plus trunk plants 600mm high and cut them back real hard , the sprouted well but didn't back bud on any old wood . I trimmed the roots real hard to around 100mm in diameter and flat bottomed the root mass . In 3 years 5 of the plants died i have 3 left but the roots are struggling to grow on . I lifted them out a while ago and while the foliage is 3 -4 fold the roots haven't grown at all , in the second season and slip them into bonsai pots hence the hard root prune . Hope this helps .

Cheers Alpine

[AGarcia]

WOuld it be safer to cut back some of the green to reduce moisture loss?

AG

[Josh]

Hey trent< that's what I thought

AG.. That's what I was thinking but I'm spraying the foliage with seasol as well.

Thanks Alpine. Any ideas why the couple that died did die. Was the aftercare all the same. The roots are perfect on these cause of the plastic they were planted on. 2 or 3 big roots only going down, rest all small/fine feeder roots. I plant these in shallow crates possibly with something under them to stop downward growth. I might prune some hard and some by 1/3 and see if there is any difference in the survival. I don't really want to loose any but a mix of procedure might help loosing all of them
He had heaps of others that were a bit smaller but still worth it, I just didn't have room in the car and my wife doesn't know anything about them

Josh

[alpineart]

Hi Kidsandall , mate all were treated the same , i think the roots were cut back too hard . All were reduced from about 600mm to 250-300mm . The ones that were trimmed harder "roots and foliage" were the failures . Just take your time don't hook in like me , i didn't give a bugger just wanted them trained yesterday and had to conceal them from the wife .

Cheers Alpine

[Josh]

Hi Kidsandall , mate all were treated the same , i think the roots were cut back too hard . All were reduced from about 600mm to 250-300mm . The ones that were trimmed harder "roots and foliage" were the failures . Just take your time don't hook in like me , i didn't give a bugger just wanted them trained yesterday and had to conceal them from the wife .

Cheers Alpine

Hahahaha. yeah been there done that Alpine. Did you cut them back to no leaves. I have been told branches will not grow unless they have leaves at the end,They need the sap to keep flowing, although the last one I did I wanted a branch to die so I could jin it and it grow even though I cut it back to no leaves
Thanks for the info, appreciate it. I'll keep this updated and see how they grow. Not the best time to collect in this weather but when that's the only option what do you do..collect.

Josh

[Watto]

Josh - great score mate!. I have dug a few box over the years and have found them to be quite tough, although I have never dug in mid-summer. I would recommend cutting the foliage back by about one third, try and use all the roots, pot up and then just water and care for about two years.
I am guessing the shock of a mid-summer dig will required some time to recover. Remember that you will only want to keep two or so (the best ones of course) and eventually move the others on.
Good luck with them.

[Josh]

Josh - great score mate!. I have dug a few box over the years and have found them to be quite tough, although I have never dug in mid-summer. I would recommend cutting the foliage back by about one third, try and use all the roots, pot up and then just water and care for about two years.
I am guessing the shock of a mid-summer dig will required some time to recover. Remember that you will only want to keep two or so (the best ones of course) and eventually move the others on.
Good luck with them.

Thanks Watto, sounds good to me. The mid summer thing has me worried but worth a go. Who says I only want to keep one or two Just kidding, that was my thoughts to, figured I'd sell the rest to you lot
There are several with good trunk lines and the hard part is waiting to work on them itchy fingers and all but I will wait (smily for twiddling thumbs).
A day of potting up tomorrow

Thanks
Josh

[alpineart]

Hi Mate , no i left small shoots and leaves on the branches . Iwill see if i can locate the original pics , cant remember if a done a topic here or the blog . Cheers Alpine

[bki]

Alpine,
Did you use an open soil mix? Just curious.
BKI

[Josh]

Well, I finished potting them up at 10pm last night. Bugger this sore throat and head ache...

IMG_0193.JPG

IMG_0195.JPG

IMG_0196.JPG

These will now sit for quite a while till they are really settled in then I'll start cutting then back and try getting shoots back in close. Several of the bigger ones have shoots already starting in around the trunk which is good.

Josh

Ps. meant to say each tree had 4-6 inches taken of them all over

[bodhidharma]

Excellent score Josh and great after care also. They will have to be reduced a lot more yet but it looks like you have some prizes lurking in there

[Josh]

Excellent score Josh and great after care also. They will have to be reduced a lot more yet but it looks like you have some prizes lurking in there

Thanks Bodi, I have taken about a 3rd off the trees already. I feel I should take more off to reduce the effort needed by the plant but don't want to shock them to much by pruning hard. I took a centre branch out off a couple to let light in. Some of them have awesome trunks. Just got to put the itchy fingers away for a while to let them recover. Totally wrong time to rip out of the ground, drive 40 mins home, soak in seasol, prune hard, pot up and hope like mad they survive but hey, worth a try.
I will mist them with seasol regulary and keep well watered.

Josh

[Andrew F]

Go back for said olive.