AusBonsai

Inspiring casuarina trees here. I recently killed a lovely little one. Either the wrong time to have re-potted/root pruned, or the severe, drying north wind day which dried it out beyond redemption, or a combination. When is the best time to re-pot?

Pup was doing his not long ago I belive.

What sort of species of Cas was it?

To know when to repot, watch the nodes on the *needles closely and when you start to see them swell (preparing to bud) it is time to safely repot. This is generally around early Spring (in Sydney) however the time will vary state to state. I have noticed some of mine swell and bud up to 3 times in a year over the warmer months.

*they are not actually needles but little branchlets! Unlike needles on pines, the new growth comes from the nodes of the branchlets.

I was chatting with Anttal63 yesterday who informed me that he has successfully bare rooted a Casuarina. It was dormant for a while and then 'popped' a massive amount of new buds. I previously thought that they should not be bare rooted like pines/conifers - another one of those misconceptions that we need to correct!

Those branchelets make them easy to prune

yes steve that was the literatis, it sookks for many months b4 popping. ON the other hand torulosa popped within a few days. the first time around was autumn 2.5 yrs or so ago. this time recently in spring. i will get threads up very soon but now i gotta get back to the banksia im bare rooting, wiil post that one too.