AusBonsai

Hey All,

Just after a bit of advice and realistic opinions on the survival of me last collection. About a years ago I chopped the top spreading roots but left the main tap root, I went back today and chopped the main tap root for collection. Being in a location where it is really fine deep sand it didn't produce to many fine roots but there were a couple. I have it in a 50/50 mix of it original sand and seed raising mix. I have given it a major soaking in Seasol and will repeat probably every 3-5 days. has about horizontal roots just below the soil surface all between 10-20mm thick. I scraped a thin section of bark off along the bottom of each hoping to encourage root growth?

This is my first banksia and don't know to much about there heartiness & willing for survival what are your thought and do you have any advice, I would love for this one to make it through. the trunk is about 150mm thick at the base.

Cheers All

Hi Ryan

Nice score. Good to hear you did the prep beforehand. I would say your chances are good. There are others here with more experience than me with Banksia, and you will get more info later.

Keep it protected from harsh sun and don't keep it too wet with repeated watering. Hopefully the foliage reduction was enough to compensate for the root loss, as it is still fairly bushy.

Good luck

Best Regards

Yony

Thanks Tony,

I was a bit worried about that, I think I might take a bit more off.

Ryan

Sorry hoping for some advice, I have pruned off about 80% of the foliage shown in the photo. I pretty much took most branches back to its 1st leaf since there weren't may fine roots present.

Sounds about right so now sit back and cross fingers.

Some people have cut all foliage off with some success but not me.

I did a very severe cut back of a nursery grown Banksia serrata about 6 weeks ago' put it into a very small pot for its size and it is fine. I left a moderate amount of foliage on and then about 4 weeks later it had grown so much I was able to trim a bit more off. 1 small branch turned black and dropped off but everything else looks OK.

It is budding like crazy and it is that foliage/branches that are the most valuable for the future.



Grant