AusBonsai

rowan wrote:The ones I dig are in sand so it impossible not to bareroot them. I find that if I fill a pot up with their original soil and plant them in it and keep it wet to the point of risking rootrot they have a good chance of survival.

Thanks for the information Rowan.

I am sure there are plenty of members in sandy areas that will benifit from this information.

Jow wrote:

rowan wrote:The ones I dig are in sand so it impossible not to bareroot them. I find that if I fill a pot up with their original soil and plant them in it and keep it wet to the point of risking rootrot they have a good chance of survival.

Thanks for the information Rowan.

I am sure there are plenty of members in sandy areas that will benifit from this information.

Me for one Thanks
the ones I dug last year were in sand and yest they were barerooted as a result
the largest did not survive ( not enough water and too much root off to fit the pot I think).

I will try to keep more of both next time as the next ones I get I think will be more interesting

Ken

This is a link to iBonsai Club. Rather than air layer, the artist is attempting to approach graft roots onto his chosen branch. I think its a good idea because if it fails, he can just try again later and will not have scarred the tree like an airlayer ringbarking would do

http://ibonsaiclub.forumotion.com/t5963 ... rent#62014

Yeah i saw that, my main concern with that would be that when it is severed from the tree the parts that are not fed by the grafts may die leaving great chunks of dead areas on the tree. Definately worth a shot though.

I figure that we can set 20-30 layers in a morning, no worries, and if we get a 10% success rate thats still 2-3 trees that we didnt have to dig (big trees are tiring ). Though my guess is that it will be much higher then that based on the tests we have run.

Hey jarrod.

What medium do you use and how much do you use?

Straight spaghnum and for the ones we have done we use about a softball ball size wrapped up tightly. And just a powdered root hormone.

Thanks Jarrod.

Hi Jow
I love Radiata pines but only own one and I'm sure you've seen it. For me, my radiata looks its best when I've invested heaps of time into it and pinch and pull constantly through the year. I just find it grows like made and it is an older tree and it won't bud back on older wood. But anything new, grows quickly and vigourously. The years when I spend a lot of time on it, pulling candles, keeping the top part of the tree heavily pinched, wiring etc, the tree responds so well it terms of shorter needles and looks so good to show. The last 18 months haven't been a good year personally for me and the Radiata has been neglected somewhat and I can definitely tell the difference in how it looks now to 18 months ago. Hoping to show it at Bonsai Northwest Show in May but still uncertain as its not looking its best....well not in my eyes.

David

Hi,

I also like radiatas. I have a number that I bought for less than 2 bucks each about last Sep, tube stock. Were really crappy, with stringy dried roots growing with white tips but overall extemely dehydrated, took them out of their tubes and repotted into small pots. They started to come good and I started to experiment.

Wired gentle bends, severe Yamadori style bends, cable tied 7 together, cascade, platted 3 three. They have been ferilized with blood and bone, seasole, maxicrop, and are all going great with vigourous growth, have pruned them already a couple of times since September to stop multiple branches growing from the same spot, leaving sacrificial branches, long top branches, and generally growing them in some direction. Not to cancerned about it.

I've removed the wire as it was cutting into the bark but then re-applied it to some to let it cut in (they're seedlings and they will heal) and others to create some more movement (remember these are experimental seedlings) need to wire again or let free growth. These trees have gone through quite lot and are growing great, will repot them into larger pots this year, or if i can into growing beds.

I have another mature Radiata that I am starting to study the growth habit. It was puned and intial shape last Aug and developed lots of new growth, It was cut back hard. I cut the new shoots off about mid Dec. Started budding in a few weeks then growth seems to have slowed.
In early March i noticed a growth spurt and have for the last couple of weeks been thinning it out. In particular, (as a previous response) to thin out each branch and cut multiple growing tips to 2, in particular the top.. Am still doing this.

I've really enjoyed this thread

I'll post some pics when I can get my camera settings re-sorted....grrrrr

Dave would love to see a pic of your Radiatas

Regards
Rudy

Great thread. Thanks Jow for stating it.

I too am a fan of Radiata pines. They are strong, fast growing and easy to care for. I was just looking back through my pruning records to see if there was any pattern to my pruning practices. It seems there isn’t much of a pattern except that I too give mine a major thinning at this time of year.

I also thin out as required throughout the year and pinch strong new growth to maintain shape and encourage back budding.

Others have mentioned pinching “candles” on Radiatas which confuses me a little. I have never had candles on my Radiatas in the way that JBP and JRP get them. I just get small shoots. I have some pictures that show the sort of new growth that I have observed.

The pictures below are of my favorite Radiata. I bought it in late 2004. It was being sold as a Christmas tree in a bright red plastic pot. I look out for more each year but they don’t seem to be selling them up here (Brisbane) anymore.

Enough text, here’s some pictures …

I've just noticed that the picture might be in reverse order. Oh well ...

... a few more pics.

Hi all,

We have a Radiata pine on loan at the collection at the moment from Victoria.

It was first worked on as a bonsai back in the mid 1970s.

I pinched out the strongest growth in spring and pinched back lightly the rest. It then did nothing all summer but has just recently started elongating and budding. It is budding mostly at the tips but is budding back a little where needles were and one or two places on bare but not old wood. Would be best in %100 sun to help keep needles smaller. Spring growth was a bit woolly.

Grant

I'd just like to take the time to thank everyone for taking the time to add their experiences to this thread. We are really starting to build a good base of information about this species.

In the next few weeks i will be starting to document more closely the growth of my radiatas over the course of a season in the hope that i can discover something about their growing patterns. If anyone else out there has the time to do this as well that would be great in order to get a rounded idea of their habits. I will be doing this roughly and will just take the odd photo and note the date and short description of my observation. Possibly a once a month thing.

In the meantime please keep you observations and techniques coming as i know that i for one have gained a lot from this thread and i am sure that others will too.

Joe

Great idea Joe about documenting. I'm intending to do an article on the history of my Radiata but I won't have the details that you will have. Mine will be more of historical and then info on how I developed it once it reached my hands. Here is a sneek peek, with two photos of my Radiata, one from 1996 and one as at 2009. I have photos in between those years as well but that will be for the article.

David

I look forward to seeing you article David. Its a nice tree and i am interested to see how it was developed.

Joe.