AusBonsai

This is a sucker I dug up almost 12 months ago that has come back strong despite have barely any of it's own roots after digging. Can anyone identify it's species? It does not match any of the species I know or have been able to find photos of.

Apologies for the first photo, it must have been a bit breezy, but it shows the shape and colour of the tree.
Thanks
Naym.

The leaves remind me a bit of B. integrifolia but I couldn't be certain, I'm only learning about Banksia's still.
Grant would have a much better idea..
Cheers

Looks like B Integrifolia to to me as well.
I have only 1 now as my big one died this year du to fungus I think

Ken

I agree it is Banksia integrifolia but you are seeing some semi juvenile leaves.

Color doesn't look good! Is it too wet, not wet enough, poor soil, wobbly in pot, never fertilised etc?

Check out my article on Banksia integrifolia in the native section viewtopic.php?f=66&t=812

Grant

Hi Naym
As Grant says, leaf colour is a bit off.
If the suggestions he gives don't ring true, you might think about 'iron'. Banksias, and some othe species, do sometime suffer from a shortage of iron. this can be corrected by applying 'iron chelates' that you can buy from your local nursery. It only takes a very small amount to set it right again. You may never have to worry again, or it might come back in a year or five - at least that has been my experience.

I agree, your plant looks like B. integrifolia.

Cheers
Kunzea

Thanks for the help everyone.

Regarding the colour. This tree literally had only a handful of root hairs when I severed it from the parent and I left it just as a stick with a few leaves. It survived the end of last summer and the winter (doing nothing) and all that growth is from this season. It's also not in a very good soil (poorly draining) it could be too wet, or too dry or swinging between both. Also I have only just started feeding it, weaning it on slowly. Something I read around here a while back has it stuck that in my head that banksias overfeed if they have not been fed before/recently.

All of this means I'm not surprised about the comments that it looks bit sick. However it is still pushing out a lot of growth and I'm hoping it will improve when the above is rectified.


NBPCA: I'll check out your article. I may have read it before, but will read again now that I know what species this is.

Kunzea: You comments about iron made me laugh. Yesterday I was pulling down an old gutter and a shitload of rust flakes came down, some of them into this pot. I picked them out thinking I didn't know if iron was good/bad. There is undoubtedly still rust powder in the top of the soil, maybe it will help. I have no idea how accessible iron as Fe2O3 is to banksia trees

Naym wrote:Thanks for the help everyone.

Regarding the colour. This tree literally had only a handful of root hairs when I severed it from the parent and I left it just as a stick with a few leaves. It survived the end of last summer and the winter (doing nothing) and all that growth is from this season. It's also not in a very good soil (poorly draining) it could be too wet, or too dry or swinging between both. Also I have only just started feeding it, weaning it on slowly. Something I read around here a while back has it stuck that in my head that banksias overfeed if they have not been fed before/recently.

All of this means I'm not surprised about the comments that it looks bit sick. However it is still pushing out a lot of growth and I'm hoping it will improve when the above is rectified.


NBPCA: I'll check out your article. I may have read it before, but will read again now that I know what species this is.

Kunzea: You comments about iron made me laugh. Yesterday I was pulling down an old gutter and a shitload of rust flakes came down, some of them into this pot. I picked them out thinking I didn't know if iron was good/bad. There is undoubtedly still rust powder in the top of the soil, maybe it will help. I have no idea how accessible iron as Fe2O3 is to banksia trees

Hi,

Yes start it slowly with a mild liquid fertilizer(Maxicrop is around 4.6% nitrogen) and then build up to a stronger liquid(Nitrosol/Powerfeed at 10 to 12% Nitogen). Also introduce some slow release(Osmocote is 16 to 18% nitogen) as top dress and when you next repot.

Grant

Hi Naym, is this tree by chance growing in ordinary garden soil, from one of the photos it looks like it. You could repot it into some free draining soil at this time of year without a problem.

Cheers
MM

Hi Naym
Unfortunately Fe2O3 isn't very accessible to plant roots. You need the expensive chelated iron form, alas.
Kunzea

Thanks again guys.

Grant: That's pretty much my feeding plan. Glad I had the right idea

Mojo: The soil is lower grade than garden top soil (well my garden). It's mostly council footpath soil. I'll reconsider repotting but it's not the time of year I'm worried about, it's that I want to avoid damaging what few roots it will have before it has recovered/strengthened a bit more.

Kunzea: I thought as much. Is there a risk of overfeeding iron as with other nutrients?

Hi Naym
I dont' know about oversupply issues. I've used the amounts recommended on the label, and then small amounts in water when the snails had eaten the label - the bottle is over 20 yrs old.
Here are a couple links that might interest you:
http://bexar-tx.tamu.edu/HomeHort/F1Col ... /MAY25.htm
http://www.jhbiotech.com/plant_products/chelation.htm
Cheers
Kunzea

Thanks for the tip Kunzea. Here is a photo of the same tree 2 weeks after a does of chelated iron.
Already a big improvement.

Hi Naym
They are looking very good. Glad the chelated iron did the trick.
Thanks for letting us know it worked.
K

There seems to be a few under fed Banksia out there. It really does pay to fertilise them regularly and vary the type every so often.

Grant