AusBonsai

On a short dig today,biggest plant dug today is here below plus 12 saplings of other plants not enought time for a few other nicer plants.

I was told this tree was a Ornamental Plum,it never fruits,it has regrown after the complete tree broke and was thought lost,it has a few years growth now the tree stump is around 80 cms but eaten out on 200 degrees to south side of girth leaveing 160 degrees of stump to Northside,the south side is quite steep hill so the water gets into stump.

The tree has been attacked by ant and rot the tree stump/trunk is around 90% eaten away or rotted,the tree had a lot of flowers and some bud and small leaves.

The owner allowed me to remove 1/4 of the remain plant,i couldn't find roots on the piece I wanted and the next didn't have roots either so I grabbed the outside Northern section hoping it will be stronger.

I have placed the 2ft trunk that is a house brick wide at top and bottom but narrows around 1ft mark to a box of matches in centre and very brittle,it is sitting in a seasol in a large urn tonight.

A few questions on what to do as the tree has no roots!(living tissue is a few mm on outer trunk,inside is borer wounds,i could easy break any trunk with hands)

Should I cut it at the weak middle section than remove bark and scratch to green growth,than put on some Root cloneing powder and hope?

Will get a photo of stump/ bottom section in morning to upload.


Phone picture of top growth just on dusk and a second of flowers.

Today I emptied water and gave the wood a light rub to remove some loose material,i found 2 small roots at bottom of stump so some hope.

I removed all the flowers and placed into some more seasol before planning to plant into a large container in morning,some leaves have grown since this morning crossing fingers.

Added more photos, top post not correct as they say a picture worth more than a thousands words!

You can see material is quite eaten away.

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Size of photo,is wrong today.

I have sent half an hour working on hormones on scratched off bark from just above the narrow section around 2/5 from top to bottom this morning,i also painted wound paint on termite damage.

I have planted this up in a large square deep pot that has a large drain in front.(I will water it each time till I see a lot of water coming out)

I have bent down 2 branches and wired both bottom and top of wood to a point of just firm as over tightening may have snapped stump/trunk wood.

I have used scoria in bottom to allow air to get in from bottom of pot,a mix of 6 products(3 very light 2 light and 1 heavy) for 90 percent of mix,some hormone,with spag moss and potting mix as rooting agent wrapped in a biodegradable cloth,topped with a few cms of potting mix to stop the light mix from blowing away,i have left a few cms below growth as top to hope to get roots forming all the way down .

I'll give it a few months to see wether it live's, if it is growing strongly in twelve months i see if i can either reduce to weak point,or look at root grafting to get more roots.

I'm no expert but I would assume removing the flowers would help conserve some of the energy in the plant required to shoot out new roots.
Can someone please verify?

It 's a shame because they're beautiful blossoms, but it'd be worth to help keep it survive.

the flowers have already consumed the energy in creating them, so no harm to leave them.
if you wish you can remove them whenever you like to facilitate further work.

Ken