This is my first post sharing one of my trees. Any feedback or tips or comments appreciated!
The fruits of my first ever big dig up of a tree for bonsai. It's a mother of a peach that a lovely neighbour a few blocks away gracefully let me dig up from her yard (I also dug away a big bougy as payment for her, she was so glad to see that 'evil thing' go). I was driving home from work one day, mid-august, and i noticed these brilliant pink flowers all over a big peach tree. I pulled over with the intention of possibly clipping a few small cuttings from the overhang above the footpath, but then i noticed that there was a sister peach just a few metres from the main tree. I dropped a quaint letter in the letterbox asking if I could possibly 'relieve' my neighbour of the second peach.
She called me back with a yes, (wahoo!) and I went over for a light pre-dig to see what I was working with. And my hopes were shot down: The Peach had this huge side running root, the thickness of a forearm going up the side of the yard, no hair roots to speak of, and against all my bonsai urgings I didn't have the heart to kill it by removing it. So I decided to let the little lady stay in the ground. Sad and packing up my tools, I heard my neighbour say "wait, Is this is another peach?".
It was. Score! There was a third peach and my first dig up was again given the green light. So the next weekend i went with tools and spent a neat two hours digging, rocking, and lifting the peach out of her spot. GOSH you earn it, the awkward angles of sawing a root between two rocks, the blade jamming with soft root tissue and trunk pressure, my right arm was gonna fall off.
But I eventually got her out, with some nice hair roots, built a grow box and she's doing great since then. I don't have any major plans for her yet, except to let her health return and eventually do some carving. I've also read that the flowers only appear on longer shoots, so to get flowers in spring you sacrifice the compact tree shape, but we'll see.
thanks,
Jozaeh
The bright pink flowers of the original tree.
The peach in her spot before the dig.
After some scraping and dirt scooping. Hooray for fine roots!
I had forgotten about these old coke bottles! Just a hidden gift under the peach's soil.
a bit of size comparison next to my car.
I didn't realise just how much top canopy this peach was supporting. This took me more time to chop up into managable sizes and cram into my tiny hatch as it did to actually dig the peach up.
I was fortunate to get the peach with some good finer roots.
The peach in it's grow box, I gave her a good drink of seasol as well, and bagged her up to keep her protected (BIG thanks to Chris from Red Dragon Bonsai currumbin for the tips on collected material!)
A few weeks later and she was shooting out new buds all over the place.
and this is up to last week, the shoots are going strong, hooray for not killing her!
jozaeh.
Had to get rid of it as the tank will be going there.
. Oh well maybe just a carving opportunity 
