AusBonsai

Grainer wrote: ↑June 15th, 2021, 2:08 pm A little early to dig them.. good luck..they hate sitting dormant during winter... best time I have found is just at bud break when they are getting active.

I seem to have better luck digging them early. I put them either in my tiny greenhouse or just put a plastic rubbish bag around the pot and they start showing buds in a few weeks and have a bit of growth by the time spring rolls around. Last year I had a 5/6 survival rate for hawthorns dug in late autumn/early winter so hopefully I get similar results this year.

Hey Greg,

Are you using the Tony Tickle method of wrapping hawthorns in thin black plastic bags?

Matt.

Matt S wrote: ↑June 15th, 2021, 4:23 pm Are you using the Tony Tickle method of wrapping hawthorns in thin black plastic bags?

Yep that was my aim; I've found that I get good results with any sort of plastic, not just black - most of my recent collections are in my little tiered greenhouse from the big green shed which has a clear plastic cover, plus I have a few that I've put a white rubbish bag over. These get a bit of sun throughout the day, and the heat/humidity gets the trees growing new shoots within a few weeks so they end up skipping winter dormancy. Last year I brought the hawthorns out when things started warming up a bit in early spring and most had growth of around 10cm.

Last year I had a couple of hawthorns that I left out in the elements without any plastic covering and from memory these also skipped dormancy, but the growth was a lot slower than those covered in plastic.

I've been meaning to grab a thermometer/hygrometer to try and quantify things a bit but I'm not quite that organised.

This weekend was the SA Bonsai Society pine dig at Mount Crawford Forest. We were targeting radiata pine and there were plenty of trees to choose from - most of them completely straight, so a lot of time was spent wandering around trying to find a tree with a bit of interest. The weather was perfect and it's a really nice spot so it would've been a good day even without the digging.

Plenty to choose from...


Me trying to be artistic

Silly trees, the movement needs to be lower!

That's a bit better

The recent rains made for some easy digging

My collections aren't super exciting, but hopefully at least one survives so I have something to play with. This is my first go at anything pine so even if they all die it'll be a good learning experience.

Looks like a good days work. Mt. Crawford I assume?


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Some buds on the most recent lot of hawthorns in my little greenhouse.

In an effort to be more scientific (with bad flash photography and sample sizes of one) here are two hawthorns, both collected on the 15th of May, one which has been kept out in the elements and another which has been in my tiny greenhouse. The non-greehouse'd one is just starting to produce a few buds, while the greenhouse'd one has a decent bit of growth on it.

A neighbour was getting rid of some plants, so I stepped in and saved the stumps. All the cutting back was done so I just had to dig them out (easier said than done in clay). Two wisteria and a grape vine of some sort.

I have no idea how well the grape will transplant but I did manage to get a few fibrousy roots. The wisteria each came with some decent roots so I think they'll be fine.

Great score the grape should be fine they don’t need much if any roots.
Cheers
Kirky

It won't be long before you will have a yamadori nursery .
The SA contingent have set the standard for digging "stuff", I'll have to get cracking.

Watto wrote: ↑July 4th, 2021, 7:17 am It won't be long before you will have a yamadori nursery .

That'll always be the dream...

The work project that I've spent most of my life on this past year and a half fell on its arse, so to make myself feel better I went to dig out a stupidly-big olive. I don't even know why as I don't really have room for something like this so it'll probably end up on Gumtree!
First up was this little guy with some nice bark and dead wood.
Next was this monstrosity. I weighed it when I got home - 45kg. Getting it down the hill, over the creek and back to the car was fun.
Flat-cut
What was cut off
Potted up, never to be moved again

This almond (or whatever it turns out to be) is quite keen

This weekend I went for a wander with my faithful assistant. I didn't plan on doing any digging but had some tools in the car (just in case...) which was good because I found a few decent-looking desert ash trees. Fortunately my assistant doesn't mind getting muddy and helped me dig.

Great find cute assistant. Which one is hers? Never to early to get her into Bonsai
Cheers
Kirky