AusBonsai

Very nice crabapple . Well done

Time for an up-date on this tree. After I broke off the new branch I decided I would try a thread graft (thanks Grant) and so potted it into a bigger growing pot and then grew a new branch.
It is now ready to go into position in the spring.
Wish me luck?

Are you waiting till the growing season Watto?

I'm following Grant Bowie's advice Ryan and will be doing the task in August. Fingers crossed.

Watto wrote:I'm following Grant Bowie's advice Ryan and will be doing the task in August. Fingers crossed.

I've just found Crabapples in our local nursery but they sound like difficult trees for beginners!?!??


Cheers
EZ
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I've just found Crabapples in our local nursery but they sound like difficult trees for beginners!?!??

Not hard to grow at all really. I have several.

siddhar wrote: Not hard to grow at all really. I have several.

How do they go in the heat? I live in Port Hedland and the weather that most are currently experiencing we have 8 months of the year (altho this year has been a little worse).

I love the picture at the front and it struck a note with me…

I have only 1 and it is fine in this weather so far
Located on my bench away from full sun and watered 2 times a day

Ken

I have one, in Brisbane, which I'm told is not possible but I'm stubborn and will insist on finding this out myself. The top died back for no apparent reason. I had chopped the trunk closer to the new leader about a month prior, sealed up the cut then it thrived for the month then the top just wilted one day despite much watering.

I scratch tested it and half the trunk had died with it. So I cut it right back to green half trunk area and grew another new leader and while I was away at Christmas for a week it crispied up again. I had written it off as it seemed for real dead this time, but I have just found a new sprout on the remaining trunk again. This is my last chance I think...

You might find that the crabapples in a nursery have been grafted - if you look down at the base you will see a nasty hook shape that's very difficult to grow out or disguise. They don't grow easily for amateurs from cuttings, but you can get a grafted tree and layer above the graft. It will take time.

Local natives in the nursery might cope with the heat better, and won't be grafted.

Best of luck.

Gavin

I have also layered a crabapple, found it easily, to grow well. Our climate is very dry with high temps in summer. Whilst i had it in the pot i found it to shrivel new growth through summer. & Once i put it back in the ground it never looked back. I still am finding it to grow slowly though. I think you should place yours in filtered shade to stop the tops drying out. Good luck mate.

looks like I'm going to add one to my collections of torture-victims… erm Bonsai hopefuls...

Popped down to our local nursery (where I said I found crabapples) and they all seem to be grafted …

I take it that that wold not be suitable for Bonsai stock?

I would suspect that the graft would have a negative impact on any work done … and I can't see that any of the pictures above have any obvious grafts either …

Am I worrying about nothing?

You can have grafts in bonsai. You just have to pick one with a good graft. Depending on the graft type, they may be very obvious or pretty subtle. Citrus trees seem to be always grafted as ?side grafts, while other trees can be cleft grafted (my liquidambar gumballs were like this). The cleft grafts I have were pretty well done so aren't hideous, but they can cause trunk swelling in the graft area which can be ugly. The guy from bonsai growers australia said you can even up the bulge by sticking the tree in the ground for a few years to allow the rest of the trunk to thicken up to match the bulge size.

The other issue with grafts is that you won't want any growth below the graft. So if it is a fair way up the trunk then you will have to have a tall bonsai, a big bonsai appropriate to the height, or air layer it closer to the graft while keeping a short segment of the root stock. There is a post on the forum where the person air layered just under the graft, resulting in a very nice tree (it was a plum) - viewtopic.php?t=8387#p92856