My collected wisteria

[PeterH]

Recently there have been a few collected wisteria being posted. I thought I would share mine.

The story goes. 7 years ago we moved into an older house full of various types of plants.
It was so over grown we decided to remove 80%.

I ear marked trees I wanted to Bonsai and left the rest to a friend with a chainsaw. After when tidying up I found this stump and realized that I had picked out the wrong climber to save.

I dug it up and put it into a pot. 3 years later I started work on it and found it infested with borers. I spent the next 2 years removing the borers and all the rotten wood.

As you can see it is completely hollow, I still check it for borers and treat the wood with lime sulphur.

I hope to find a pot for it this year.


Peter

[Loretta]

What ever it is (with a face like a dolphin) you were obviously meant to make the mistake...for you to go to so much trouble to save it I would say it was meant to come to you. Maybe this is going to be your pride and glory in the end...it certainly has an interesting trunk
Loretta

[Jake]

i love the trunk on it, it has a fair bit of character

[Mitchell]

WoW!

How much of that deadwood is created by the borer and how much work did you do yourself?
If the borer made the majority that is an excellent example of what is capable through natural means.

I have been particularly interested lately, in natural deadwood features and techniques for creating it. ATM I am researching induced rotting and ant colonization, borers would be exciting to look at also.

[MattA]

Peter,

What a beautiful stump to be left with after all its gone thru. Have you regrown all the branching since you dug it? It looks strong & healthy enough to let it flower this year, do you know what variety it is?

Mitchell, ants could be an interesting one, I regularly collect trees with hollows that are colonized by ants, i am not sure if they are eating the rotting wood or just taking refuge in the protected enclosure formed by the remaining wood.


Matt

[PeterH]

Mitchell,

The result you see is from the removal of the borers,so yes, what is left is due to borers. It took me 2 season to remove them.

MattA,

It is the Japanese variety and yes the branching is all new. It was only a stump when dug.

Peter

[Mitchell]

Peter,

Mitchell, ants could be an interesting one, I regularly collect trees with hollows that are colonized by ants, i am not sure if they are eating the rotting wood or just taking refuge in the protected enclosure formed by the remaining wood.


Matt

Matt,
I have a fair amount of experience with borer ants, through macro photography and I keep them as pets. I have a colony of such ants on my shelf, which I removed from one of my ficus, theres about 150 workers. From my experience they move into dead wood, then travel down it and make their nest close to the live material. I would hazard a guess to say they like the moisture/humidity for their eggs. I believe they cause some damage to the tree, but if what Peter has shown can be achieved perhaps something to think about.

Peter,
Interesting! What fine work they have done and you have finished!

[MattA]

Peter,

You have done a fantastic job with this beauty, I would love to see it in flower, if you let it.

Matt

[bonzaidog]

Pete...next time you move ....post an ad. here!... ....Dog.

[Bretts]

Hi Peter
I think that is the best dam material I have ever seen for Wisteria. That is an absolute show topper. The only thing that could make it better at the moment is if that front branch was a back branch. I guess you mind is cranking over how to solve that!

I have dealt with borers a couple of times. As they only eat rotten wood I figured the best way to get rid of them was to just carve them out. First one took me two attempts the second all out in one go. I would be interested how you went about it.
Mitchell The grub borers are ugly little buggers and although they are meant to only eat dead wood I would not be keen to encourage them. Maybe I am a little discriminating in that though

I got a wisteria when my mate put in a pool that may have been even better than this Peter. But My mate chopped it of about a foot above soil level before I got to it and when the dozer ripped it out it had a elephant leg tap root. Chopped that of with the chainsaw was left with a decent array of lateral roots and it recovered fine. But the amount of dead wood top and bottom(to the diameter of stump) rotted away until 3 years later I am left with maybe two thirds of the outside in two bits.
It finally comes out of the recovery pot this spring. I am really looking forward to seeing what is underneath and what I can do with the two hollowed sections.

After battling trying to save deadwood on a hardwood tree like a hornbeam(specifically one that had the borers). wood hardener lime sulfur. I have finally given in to the advice I was given years ago that deadwood will always rot away eventually. I now think it is a futile fight and let nature take the lead.

[PeterH]

Bretts ; I used a chisel to chase the hole out until I found the borer. Any soft wood was also removed. I then used diluted lime sulphur and soaked the wood as much as possible, without letting to much get on the soil. This took 2 years of looking for the tell tale signs of the borers.
It has not flowered since it was dug up.

Peter

[PeterH]

This is an update,

Because it is the first time it has flowered since being put into a pot, it may make our club show next weekend. It will depend on how long the flowers last.

Regards,

Peter

[bodhidharma]

Beautiful Peter my flowers are still not out but i will have lots also. I hope it hangs on for you and the show. It should as they can retain flowers for three weeks barring strong winds

[MattA]

I bet your loving seeing it in flower for the first time, barring wind & rain they should be at their peak for your show next weekend

My wisteria are long since finished, the new growth is close to needing a trim already

[PeterH]

Thanks for the info,

Bodhidharma and MattA,

I am trying to keep it out of the wind and the rain. And yes, MattA It is great to see it flower for the first time.Cross figures it will make it to the show, but I do have alternatives,just in case.

Regards,

Peter H