Acacia melanoxylon. blackwood.

[bodhidharma]

I have had this guy for 3 years now and it has put on trunk size quite readily. I have also repotted it twice( February), with root work and have been wiring a little, it has branching (although minimal) and later in the year i will defoliate and see what happens. Early days but so far, so good.

[Matt S]

I once had a forest of these guys that I grew from seed. They were in individual pots for about 10 years before I grouped them together, and in that time they produced thick trunks with great textured bark. I was able to keep the leaves fairly small but if I pruned too heavily they would revert to the juvenile foliage. The main downside was the vigorous growth which meant a lot of work to keep them under control and they would lose taper really quickly if I wasn't on them constantly. The branches would produce unsightly swellings if I didn't keep on top of the new shoots that continually appeared at the junctions.

In the wild they can be short lived, sometimes only lasting 15 years. Mine all died at the same time, something caused all the foliage to revert to juvenile form and then they all tuned up their toes! Unfortunately I don't have any photos so you'll have to take my word on the fact that they looked pretty good. For me the best feature was the bark and strong trunks.

Good luck. I look forward to future updates.

Matt.

[bodhidharma]

In the wild they can be short lived, sometimes only lasting 15 years.

Hi Matt, beg to differ with you there as i have some fifty year old trees on my property and in right conditions they can live longer. I think it comes down to location and, being in the Central highlands, they have perfect growing conditions. My friend in Bullarto says he has 80-90 year old trees there but not sure on that score.

[shibui]

In the wild anything can be short lived but Blackwood is known as a long lived acacia. They can certainly regularly live well over 50 years.

[EdwardH]

Hi Bodhi
Any updates on your Acacia melanoxylon?