Bonsai Myth Busters

[Luke]

hello hello hello, just thought id make an open topic for anyone who has busted a previously told 'rule/myth' and succeeded.
cheers
luke

[Luke]

'for example',,, iv grown an azalea in nothing but perlite and peat moss!!!! i was told that was not possible.

[anttal63]

ya cant bare root aussie natives!!!

[Luke]

ya cant bare root aussie natives!!!

iv been told that too. i cant really understand why our trees would be any different to exotics! as long as the temp and moisture conditions are right... shouldn't make much difference. i have yet to bare root any of my natives so i do not know for fact.
luke

[anttal63]

i bare root all mine, i know it for fact.

[Pup]

Australian plants do not make good Bonsai. Cant collect them

Neither do Pinus pinea.

[Leigh Taafe]

A friend of mine bare roots and washes Japanese Black Pines with a hose as he digs them from his growing field - I guess this busts the myth of keeping some of the old soil!

[hugh grant]

I collected a little wattle and it seems to be doing fine now after it struggled a little though probably because I did bare root it and cut the tap root aswell. But it might be deffierent for seedling suze natives.
now I have to test weather a larger wattle will be able to be collected and survive hopefully it will. But I'll probably do this in autumn, I think it's a better time for collecting trees, but natives I don't know I'll just haveto give it a go and see if they survive like the seedling did

Hugh

[Greth]

A lot of trees live in association with soil bacteria or fungi, but dunno whether they would be dislodged by barerooting or even washing, and they prob aren't always necessary, but beneficial.

[Mojo Moyogi]

You can't grow pines from cuttings only seed or by grafting

MM

[Jarrod]

I'm with you on that one MM.

You can't use dynamic on pot bound banksias. (this one I still don't suggest)

[Spinner]

Tree roots 'breathe' in terracotta pots.....

[Webos]

Bonsai Seeds!!!!

[Bretts]

A friend of mine bare roots and washes Japanese Black Pines with a hose as he digs them from his growing field - I guess this busts the myth of keeping some of the old soil!

It also states in Deborah's book Bonsai: Its Art, Science, History and Philosophy. That you can't bare root Hornbeams because of a mycorrhizal fungi. I had previously gotten the hose onto the root base of a couple of my large hornbeams to get rid of the last of the field mud caked in tight. Although the trees where growing fine you might imagine my fear when I read the tree can die two years later after bare rooting Thankfully those years have past without an issue.

I really don't know where this came from as it is not mentioned about Hornbeam in any other text?

[ozzy]

It doesn't matter how long you blast you're roots with water for, you'll never get rid of every single microscopic organism