AusBonsai

Hi all,

Here is a picture of a European beech group (fagus sylvatica) that was donated by Arthur Robinson in 2008. Here is the tree in 2007 still in WA. One of the large trees was dead and would have to be replaced before it could go on dispaly at the collection.

When I picked up this setting in Perth in June 2008 I also bought back a couple of possible trees to replace the dead one.Some seedlings of the same tree were sourced in Melbourne to give a bit more variety of tree size etc.

Grant.

Here is the group in May 2009. The dead tree at the front has been replaced and one or two small trees added. One small tree had been added at the extreme left but did not survive the very heavy root prune necessary to get it onto the slab.

How about that for autumn colour. So far so good.

Unfortunately spring 2009 was very wet and very cold and very long. We noticed that the group was late coming into leaf that year and when it did that some of the leaves were distorted and some went black and some buds died.

We treated the tree for root rot with Fongarid and made sure the rock slab was tilted at a large angle to make sure it drained well. It had been a few years since it had been repotted and so the mix it was in was too fine and staying too wet.

All the trees recovered just fine and we decided in early autumn to do a light repot to change some of the soil, check the roots for new growth and raise it up a little to ensure adequate drainage.

So in late March 2010 while the tree was in full leaf we did a light repot.

It was looking well but still with some trace of the damage some of the leaves had suffered. At the time we had not started using diatomite so I used crushed brick as the main comonent of the drainage layer. The crushed brick tends to absorb water but still stay dry; similar to Diatomite.

Here is the group this 15th April 2011

As you can see the trees are doing fine. In fact they were doing so well we had taken the opportunity to start reducing the height of the group and to start forcing it to bud back internally.

Some of the larger trees had become very heavy at the top with lots of branches coming from the same spot.

The replacement tree at the front of the group also needed lots of work for it to be shown with pride when deciduous.

We repotted the group again today.

Now that the tree is 100% healthy we took the opportunity to introduce some new potting media consisting of 40% Diatomite and 20% Zeolite etc.

We did a hard root prune and got out about 80% of the old mixes. We have now got a much shallower soil profile more in keeping with its shorter stature.

Over the next 5 years or so we will concentrate on getting the trees to bud back and give us new, shorter growth as well as bringing back more complexity of the twigs.

Gday all at the NBPCA,
May I ask, if you were happy with the last potting medium and the result was healthy trees with awsome roots as shown, why change the medium?
Was it only to get a lower soil profile?

Mick

Lovely trees BTW, I just bought a Fagus sylvatica last weekend, I may use it in the Shoin comp as one of my trees.
Any tips

Handy Mick wrote:Gday all at the NBPCA,
May I ask, if you were happy with the last potting medium and the result was healthy trees with awsome roots as shown, why change the medium?
Was it only to get a lower soil profile?

Hi mick,

The previous mix was only a temporary fix to solve the staying too wet, not really a complete mix if you know what I mean. The top of the soil mass was not really touched as it was an out of season repot.

The current mix is now throughout the bulk of the group and should give us an even better and healthy tree for the foreseeable future.

Mick

Lovely trees BTW, I just bought a Fagus sylvatica last weekend, I may use it in the Shoin comp as one of my trees.
Any tips

I was never able to grow Fagus in sydney and seed never germinated at my previous residence. You have to be carefull when you cut back! You must leave a stub so that it can dry out safely and not die back past the last bud.

And obviously it needs good drainage.

Let new growth grow to about 5 leaves and then cut back to 2 or 3 leaves. That will help it bud back.

Good regular fertilising regime.

Grant

Thanks for such a detailed post Grant, it certainly is a lovely group, the Autumn colouring is outstanding,
hopefully it looks better than ever when it fully recovers great donation from Arthur Robinson