AusBonsai

Hello folks, thought I would show my nice pick up yesterday, a Sheoak growing out of a bank on the side of the road, I thought I should rescue it from the council slasher or tree poisoner, should be a good specimen if I can get it to grow some roots, unfortunately I was not too careful when collecting it and didn't get many roots. The tree is about 120 cm high with about 6 cm trunk at base.I have used Pearlite and Cocoa peat for bottom soil, and covered the roots/trunk with attapulgite, and I will feed it with seasol regularly, hopefully it will survive, i think it was blessed ( there was a small pray-mantis on it today when I potted it up ) so it should come back. Any tips folks??.
James

gday mate

nice bit of stock there, the base and roots have a penjing feel to them, are you planing on keeping it this height? i would be tempted to chop it 30-40cm above the base and see what pops then when the new shoots harden off cut back to a new leader.

thats if you arent gonig for a literati tree

jamie

Hi Jamie, yeah mate I am going to do a literati but not sure about the height yet, just want to wait and see if it lives or not.
cheers mate
James

the few cassa i have collected (well got me cousins to dig them ) i have given them a long long soak in a seasol/superthrive bath. the ones that came out strongest were in the bath for a couple of weeks, i have kept them pretty moist at all times, they love the water, the bigger one i got which is about 6-8cm trunk has started shooting so i got around to some preliminary carving the other day

if you are patient enough they will bud out all over the trunk

jamie

It's got some nice movement in the trunk for a sheoak. Hope it survives.

Actually been thinking about the style and now think an informal upright may suit better, any ideas ??

Nice movement that could be great for literati like jamie said. However, I think it may not be sheoak. could you post a close up shot for the folliage? I forgot the name but it looks like a common species found on QLD roadsides that has small yellow flowers.
DK

kvan64 wrote:Nice movement that could be great for literati like jamie said. However, I think it may not be sheoak. could you post a close up shot for the folliage? I forgot the name but it looks like a common species found on QLD roadsides that has small yellow flowers.
DK

The third last photo shows some of the foliage, but it is definitely a sheoak.

Hi James thats a good looking hitch hiker you picked up .A man after my own heart , cant leave them to be slashed or sprayed .Good job Alpine

Is roadside collection legal? I wanted to dig a few recently but was worried!

I don't collect natives from the roadside, especially as our road is a Landcare reveg site! Very few even from our property, except when they are in a roadway or somewhere difficult and have to be removed anyway. Airlayering seems to me to be a way to get good sized reveg trees of local provenance to plant around, can even pick male or female cas as needed, so is currently one idea I am working with. I am also growing from seed, but it takes a lot longer to get a tree big enough to survive without watering that way.
I do pick up the seedling olives as I know they will be cut and poisoned yearly, and have talked to Landcare about it. Essentially they are pleased that I am saving them much more work down the track if the things manage to get big. The council only grades the road occasionally, trims dangerous branches maybe once every two-three years, so no threat of poison or slashing.

James is in an entirely different situation, if he felt that the tree was really in danger from the council I have no problem with him picking it up.

senseijames wrote:Actually been thinking about the style and now think an informal upright may suit better, any ideas ??

it all depends on what you see for it mate! what i see there with that base is a penjing style tree with the root system, have you thought about a raft???? you could get some seedlings/struck cuttings and graft them into that long root and great a very respectable raft from it