One of many

[Craig]

This is a Melaleuca rhaphiophylla growing in a soon to be cleared paddock,it's not the same one i'm about to show but it is growing in the same paddock.This is how they look, barely alive, hardly any water until winter and the cows still chew them.

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I don't have any early pics from collection but the tree below was collected this year at the end of February/ early March.
It was planted into gravel and water and allowed to recover, it did not take long at all, I left the new shoots to extend without any pinching at all.
This is the Mel on the 5th of May 2012

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A couple of weeks later i trimmed all the foliage back real hard to encourage the tree to back bud further,

and this is where it starts ,

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The smaller trunk has amazing features which may not be visable in the pics, It is the trunk I was going to use, cutting the other free. However I could not yet bring myself to cut it,

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I really wanted to make use of the 2 trunks without splitting them apart at this stage, so I decided on a plan of attack.

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New roots

Since when I collected the tree it was growing leaning right over to the taller trunks side, I went the other way
Below the Red arrow shows the direction of main trunk, the green line was the original soil line and the blue line is the anticipated new soil line.There would be no way to get it into a pot so I removed the bottom section, which had not bothered to grow new roots.

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i decided to go with a more upright position.

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the trunks have some shari and deadwood, still quite hard to see in these pics.

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the tree should be starting to shoots in a week or so and I expect it will grow fairly vigorously. I have a plan for it but always love to hear what others may do, so comments welcome as allways. Take care

[billa]

wow very cool. thanks for sharing. I love seeing step by step photos from collected trees!!

May I ask how soon after you dig her up, do you put her in a pot? You go from ground, to large pot, then to bonsai pot?

Does the time in each stage differ as per species or are there like general time lines?

What would happen If you went straight from ground to bonsai pot?

Excuse the questions but I really need to know before I potentially kill what would be an otherwise nice tree!!!

[Craig]

wow very cool. thanks for sharing. I love seeing step by step photos from collected trees!!

May I ask how soon after you dig her up, do you put her in a pot? You go from ground, to large pot, then to bonsai pot?

Does the time in each stage differ as per species or are there like general time lines?

What would happen If you went straight from ground to bonsai pot?

Excuse the questions but I really need to know before I potentially kill what would be an otherwise nice tree!!!

G'day billa, mate as you say different species different treatment. If you collected a tree with good roots and branching which only needed light work for a few years to bring it into shape, then yes you could put it into some good bonsai medium and a pot straight away.

With a tree like this one it's different , the tree needs time to grow some decent new roots for a start or stability will be a problem and the trees health may remain borderline. This one was only collected about 3 mths ago, now it is into some soil for the next growing stage , I can't see it going into a bonsai pot for a while yet,.

***Rhaphiophylla's when collected , from what i have noted,

The roots die back ,especially smaller ones. Meaning it takes some time for the tree to recover while growing new roots.
They are alot like Junipers in the fact that they have live veins which supply different areas of the tree.
The bark stays on the tree for quite a long time after the cambium beneath dies.This means that the live veins can not be seen clearly at all.
Old branches on collected trees are usually mostly dead with only a live vein running along it.This is a reason that when a branch is cut hard(especially past green) it doesn't always live.
They like to shoot underneath existing branches , especially if that branch is weakening or dying.

Points to be considered are ; because the Rhaphs have/can have live veins both through the trunk and it's branches and the fact that the small roots die back, while the tree is trying to grow new roots and reshoot at the same time ,the live veins become smaller(slowly dying aswell) the tree becomes weaker faster rather than quicker. This is the problem when collecting them.
i personally have found success with the gravel/water method. i believe having a constant supply of water combined with no soggy soil around the recovering roots(the soil holds too wet and soggy against them and rots them quickly) is the key to 100% success when collecting this species.

still alot to learn.

Every time I work on a Rhaph I get alot more respect for them, they are unpredictable in all their glory.