AusBonsai

I thought I would start a thread about some of my stuff . So to start .
I am growing a lot of my natives (50 or so) in 'pond pots' . During the summer I sit them on gravel beds and let the roots escape into the gravel bed . This technique is similar to RayM's ground growing in collanders . If I had seen his thread earlier I might of gone down that track .
You can tell when the tree has grown roots into the gravel bed by the rapid growth it starts to put on . I prune the roots that have escaped when I think it's getting to carried away . And at this time of the year I do all of the escaped roots whether they need it or not . My growing season is short in the mountains (this season the last frost was the second week of December and at the end of this week we are forecast to get down to 1 degree ) I need time for any new growth that happens with my pruning to harden off before the cold weather really kicks in .
During winter I put them in a cold glass house and . When I chop the tops I like to leave some insurance ie extra branches till I see the new leader start to grow . I reckon I might have some trees worth showing in 5 years or so . These tree's are all seed , cuttings or bought tube stock . The Mel in the photo is tube stock with two seasons growth .

That is fantastic. Where do you get your pond pots from? They look great for growing on. Some good stock coming on there.

Josh.

Thanks Josh . I get the pots from a hydroponic shop , I have seen them for sale on ebay . They cost just under $3 for a 200mm pot . They are uv stable , the first ones I bought 3years ago have not deteriorated at all in full sun

Looks very interesting! did you fabricate those trays or are they a salvage job? Look like SS...

GO SNO!!!

It's not easy down there. And that's good growth for a season in a pot. Five years should certainly give you something interesting to play with.

Are you up for the Native Symposium?

Gavin

CoGRedeMption they are a salvage job a couple of them are the tops off old bay marines and one is a refrigerator door .
Hi Gavin .what do you mean down there ? .
Gotta love these natives ,as soon as it warms up if you can keep the water up to them they just take off . Unfortunately I have prior engagements for the symposium other wise I would have been there with bell's on . I learnt a lot at the last one and this one with the focus on eucalyptus and podocarpus is one right up my alley . I tried to work out how to get out of my prior engagement but I love my mum and she would not impressed .
Cheers Sno

Sno wrote:CoGRedeMption they are a salvage job a couple of them are the tops off old bay marines and one is a refrigerator door .

Lol thx for that.

Sno wrote:... but I love my mum and she would not impressed .
Cheers Sno

yer, gotto! Those Ladies are awesome!

Great Idea Sno. Love it. I might give those benches a go myself!.

Rick

I have been growing this Banksia marginata from memory for about 4 years . It was one of a batch that I grew from seed collected from a local colony growing up the road from me . The trees I collected the seed from are growing at an altitude of 1450 m . Most of the trees that I grew from the seed are now landscape trees in my garden . They are about 3 m high now .
This tree sits on the fence at the back of my vege garden . It is growing in one of those segments from an old worm farm . I have trunk chopped each spring quite hard . And it's starting to get a nice shape with a wrinkly textured bark from the tight turns . This year I am growing sacrifice branches all the way around the base to try and get a thicker base happening , from memory it's on a tile . I think that the worm farm pots are great ,plenty of room , great drainage and really durable . Any tips on growing this species I'd love hear .

Forgot to mention this leader on the tree was the spare . This years original leader was growing strongly when I got hammered by a hailstorm and it got knocked off . In spring when i chop this fella it back buds like crazy I rubbed everything I didn't want off and only kept the sacrifice branches on the base and a new leader plus the spare . The growth direction has now changed slightly because the spare bud was to one side but it's nice to think that nature is helping me create something .

We have found that B. marginata does not like to get dry. Like all banksias it produces lots of fine roots and need repotting regularly or there is no room for water to penetrate the rootball. Only one of my original ones from local seed has survived but I have started others in the meantime and now have several Tasmanian forms as well.

I have heard at a seminar that inland marginata has some differences to the coastal form, notably that the inland ones, especially younger individuals) can grow back after fire but the coastal ones rarely do. I believe that someone was doing genetic comparisons with a view to possibly making them 2 different species.

Thanks shibui .Thats interesting about the difference between the coastal and inland species . The area I collected the seed from had a reasonably hot fire through it a couple of years before I collected . The trees in the area ranged in age . The biggest damage seemed to come from the feral deer that had moved in after the fire . The stags like to rut on the banksia's .
I have tried a few nursery bought stock and they have not survived any hard root pruning in the same year as I have worked on the top . I am going to treat them like junipers and only do major work on alternate years .

Over winter I wrapped all my 'pond pot' grown stock with some of that insulation bubble wrap stuff and slipped them into a 200 mm pot . The idea being to minimize the amount of freezing to the root system . As the weather has been warming up I have been taking off their winter coats . Some of them had roots growing out of the sides which I trimmed off with a razor blade. Weather forecast is snow down to 1000m tomorrow but hopefully shouldn't get a frost .