how did you get it to this stage???
Aaah, trade secrets grasshopper - if I told you, I'd have to come up to Townsville and silence you
Actually, it's no secret at all. This was an urban yamadori removed in 2005. This guy had two big clumps of the stuff in his front garden and was fed up hacking them back, only to have them re-shoot (and sometimes the shoots would come up somewhere else along the rather large root spread).
We had to take part of the fence down to get at the things, and then we also found a concrete 'wall' under the surface right against the clumps. They were sods of things to remove - it took us the best part of two days and a lot of sweat and blood. It was rather warm at about 34C with high humidity, and we really sweated over the things
Eventually, after cutting off dozens of large roots, and trying to sever the roots directly under the clumps, we put a chain around the things, hooked to the back of a ute and drove off! THAT made them move!!!
We found out from the owner that they were planted in 1955 - the first plants to go in the new garden when the house was built. That now makes them 55 years old.
When we got them home, we took to them with a chainsaw, axe and crowbar and split the clumps into sections. I have three of them, and at the moment, this one is 320mm across the base, 600mm tall with a spread of 800mm tip to tip. One is 380mm across the base, 450mm tall with a spread of 880mm. The other is 550mm across the base, 600 tall with a spread of 800mm. There were virtually no roots left on these - we had to take most of them off to fit into styrene boxes - my largest one that measures 550mm across the base went into a big black plastic tub. The rest of that year, there was very little growth on them and I didn't know at that stage whether they were going to make it or not. During the next growing season, they all started to put out some growth, but were very slow in doing so. I re-potted them all in 2007, after I got some Bonsai pots to put them in. Last year, they all had a pretty good canopy developing. When they all come into full leaf this year, I think they are all going to look pretty good.
I've re-potted them over the last few days into a mix of 50/50 Diatomite and potting mix - and the largest one has been put into a shallower green glazed pot, but the other two went back into their original Bonsai pots.
I don't have photos yet of the other two since their re-pot, but below are some progression photos of all three.
First is one of the clumps still in the ground.
CrapeDig1.jpg
Second is one after we got it out - notice the chain!
CrapeDig1b.jpg
The next two were after we cut the roots right back - what you can see on the bases is just about solid timber.
CrapeDig1c.jpg
CrapeDig1d.jpg
Next is the largest one in late 2006.
DWo.jpg
and again in Oct 2008.
DW16Oct081b.jpg
Again in Sep 2009.
DW13Sep091a1.jpg
The next smaller one in 2007.
DY1c.jpg
Next one is the one from my scissor lift - also in 2007.
DX1b.jpg
Finally, two more of the 'scissor lift' one - but closer up.
DX15Aug101a.jpg
DX15Aug101b.jpg
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and what a field trip 
) If I get stuck I'll let you know.
