AusBonsai

hey everyone

so i want to start growing some of my trees in the ground in colanders but i was wondering when is the best time to do so?
i have 2 maples that have just started to shoot new leaves but i want to trunk chop as well.
can i chop, bare root and NOT ROOT PRUNE or is it too late?
i also have a few eucalyps than i want to put in the ground as well along with some figs should i want until next month for the ever greens?

any help would be much appreciated

cheers
matt

Hi matty-j , go for it , most deciduous that i have hacked don't mind a trim during the growing season so now wont do a maple any harm . People employ pinch and grow or clip and grow which is basically what you are going to do . A trunk chop is not too late , if you have some shoots/buds below the chop i wouldn't hesitate .

Cheers Alpine

I'm with Alpine.
I have done maples later than this in Sydney with lots of shoots and no issues before.

Ken

thanks guys much appreciated!!!

this weekend ill be working on prepping the grow bed and getting some trees in there

cheers
matt

Here's what you do
Transport them to darwin and then you can put them in the ground in basically any day ending with Y

well ive been a busy boy today prepping the grow beds the smaller one was very easy just a bag of compost and was good to go.
the larger grow bed on the other hand had lots of work to do removing the trees was the first step, then trying to remove all the roots was a nightmare
i dug down at least 300mm everywhere turning all the soil over then used a mattock to break it all up and removed as much of the old roots a possible, tomorrow i will be adding 4 or 5 bags of compost and mixing it through
there is still root all through the soil will this be a problem? i will be planting all trees in colanders with a quality mix
the first 4 tees to go in were to Japanese maples, trident maple and a liquid amber

any advice on anything ive done or should do is very much appreciated
cheers
matt

Hi matty good work thus far-personally I don't imagine the roots will cause problems-maybe the opposite-they should just break down over time adding nutrition to the soil. Are you planning on mulching the grow beds?

Hi Matty-j , nice setup , just wondering why the colanders are being used in the first place ?. The grow bed you have set could accommodate 9 plants without interruption from each other and be lifted at the end of the growing season and root pruned . The only advantage i can see is that they could be rotated to give even growth , but one season wont have a major impact on the growth habit in the early stages of development in any case .

Cheers Alpine

There's a topic on here about ground growing in colanders. I'm guessing the reasons are outlined in that.

Hi Beano . mate i'm aware of the use of colanders for growing JBP . Kusida Matsuo a pioneer Japanese Black Pine grower used them , but his stock was several years old and his method was to use 2 colanders one inside the other not in the ground and watering was up to 3-4 times a day over fertilizer baskets to power feed . The Japanese growing season is also a lot different to ours , maybe you could point me in the right direction as too the topic you refer too .

Cheers Alpine.

I can't seem to link it here with tapatalk, but if you search for "ground planting in colanders" it's called that. Ray M started the topic. I don't have any ground so I have a tree in a plastic basket inside a styro box. It apparently allows you to lift the tree several times in a growing season but leaves the inner root ball untouched. You trim any roots outside the colander and this process acts to simulate the production of new fine roots speeding up development.

I am not sure if the tree develops faster than it would if you just used the colander as an air pot, but I think in theory it should due to access to more water and nutrients?

thanks for the feedback alpine

this is the link to the topic that beano was referring to viewtopic.php?f=9&t=14986

i saw this thread and was very interested, i have also spoken to ray at the school of bonsai about it a few times and was sold on the idea
one of the main reasons that i liked was the control of root selection when pruning with out bear rooting eg if i lifted the pot i could trim all the lower downward growing root and leave the uppermost roots grow freely and thicken the base, root flare and nebari, they are all planted onto cd's to try and keep a flat root system.
the reason i only planted 4 was because i only had 4 large colanders, i was lazy and didnt go and buy some smaller ones, if i have i probably could have got 9 in there
in my defence i dont have that many trees so i'm not to concerned at the moment, i can always move them to the larger grow bed at some point and fill the small one
i'm going to be planting some figs when the weather warms up i will do some with and with out colanders and post my results

cheers
matt

Isitangus wrote:Hi matty good work thus far-personally I don't imagine the roots will cause problems-maybe the opposite-they should just break down over time adding nutrition to the soil. Are you planning on mulching the grow beds?

i havent thought that far head yet

Hi matty-j , i did take a look at the topic and have read Mr Kusida Matsuo's method of growing pines in twin colanders . Just wanted to know why you chose this method over open ground .Thanks for the reply .

Cheers Alpine

Nice growing area matty. Are you still going to the school of bonsai?
I haven't been back its a bit too far for me to travel.
I think using collanders it a good idea. I use the short wide ray nessi / orchid pots with lots of drainage holes.
I don't even need to bury these and trees roots can escape and take off. I got some good results last year.
This year I'm doing the same with the addition of sheets of strong plastic mesh placed under the pot. The idea being the strongest roots will get choked by the plastic mesh and help keep the roots more balanced. I think this will be very usefull with tridents because I always end up with 2 /3 very large roots and the rest weak.
Nearly all my trees getting this treatment are layers screwed to a peace of ply wood with roots arranged.