AusBonsai

Hi guys,

Im extremely hopeful my Bougey can be transformed into something resembling Bonsai.

I dug her up about 6 months ago from my olds back yard. They had poisend it, chopped it, and killed it several times but she would always come back. Finally I became interested in Bonsai about a year ago and after a couple of hours of hard digging,she was free.

Firstly, im under the impression I should wait to October+ for the warmer weather. Especially as I (think) I will be doing some major work on her. I wanted to cut it to some resemblence of trunk, and repot it in something a little more pleasing on the eyes. Do you guys think it will withstand a good cutting up and how will the open wounds handle? Would they really need to be covered?

If anyone has ANY advice or even a chop of what you think should be done to my ol Betty, I would be much appreciative.

Thanks for reading

Welcome to Ausbonsai BB88, plenty of choices with that one mate ,but i'll leave that to people who know more about them than I, enjoy the site,

Messy one that one

Bit hard to tell exactly where to go from the pics. You need to clean out all the different lines. Most of the growth looks as though it would be classified as branching. If you want to keep multiple trunks, only keep those that are growing from the base, ie. connected to roots, and maybe 2 or 3 if possible. Otherwise it should be cleaned right out to try and leave a main line and grow new branches from that.

Good place to start as Bougs will certainly give you quick results. Welcome to AB.

Tony

Cheers Tony, so it is safe to say I can really go to town on this one? Am I going to have to be weary about the open wounds as all side will really be opened up?

Also am I best to use a hack saw or is that a bit extreme?

And am I right to take it out of the box completely when cutting her up to see exactly what part is alive, and where the roots are? Also enabling me to repot at same time.

And is it safe for her survival doing this major work now in August, I live on the Gold Coast so its not too cold or frosty?

If anyone has any advice and can answer my queries you’d make my day!!

Cheers
Ben

hi mate,

this one should come back well.

when I was a kid we lived about 45 minutes outside of Darwin in a place called humpty doo. had 5 acres and there were several very large boug (I was only a kid and didnt know bonsai at the time). anyways dad was mowing all the time as the grass grew like crazy all the time, he kept getting jagged by the boug. anyways it didnt take long before he cracked and wanted to get rid of them, he tried everything from cutting to nothing, they grew back stronger, poison, this worked for a while but it grew back again, drilled holes into the trunk and poisoned, still didnt work. took to it with an axe, smashed it to pieces, few weeks later it had new buds. so he thought burning it, poured a whole heap of petrol on it, ran a trail and lit it, it went up in smoke thats for sure, he thought he got it for sure that time, not long after this he was mowing again and not thinking bout it went past the the bougs and got jagged again. man he was not happy at all!

these things are tough as, and in the end the boug won the battle as a few months later we moved back down to Adelaide. he let the new owners of that property deal with them lol.

you could imagine the look on his face when he came to my last rental property I was at last year and seen four or five big bougies, and then the styro boxes with all the cuttings, cripes, he wasnt happy. especially when we had to move in under his house for a while inbetween properties and the bougs came with me lol.

I think you have had some good advice here, try and work out where the trunk is from all the branches, remember to keep some for jin and shari work, but give it time, they wil bud out all over the joint with time.

good luck and welcome to the forum

thanks Jamie I can certainly relate to your story and I def get the point, I cant wait to get into it this w.e and will keep this thread posted.

cheers

Hi Bonsai Boy
This looks similar to mine that I dug out last year

Mine has 1 root base and several trunks growing from it

I have reduced the number of trunks and is growing well. ( I will get a Photo if I can). Beware of rotten woods on them as they rot easily and dead wood must be protected. I I use earls wood hardener on mine to stop them rotting

Jin and Shari not really applicable to tropical trees if you ask me, so cut an dead bits back and seal them.

For this tree, remove and dead woos first, then look at what is left. Is there nice trunks with interest? ( bends, Taper etc), If so then how can they be used in the final design?
is there multiple trunks moving in sympathy with each other, or do they go different directions? if Different, then look at the ones going wrong and ask what will it look like with them gone.

I treat Bougies like figs, and when the overnight temps get above 15 deg or so, then work can start on them. ( you can clean out dead bits tho at anytime).

Looks like you will have fun with this one

Ken

To be honest, having another look at the pics, I woud not cut the stump into sections as you will only have live wood and growth on one side, and lots of exposed wood to rot

Ken

Hi Kcpool,

so i should use earls wood hardener only on the exposed, dead wood?

Does it need treatment for the exposed alive wood? and im really just planning on cutting it into some resemblence of a small tree, rather than a stump of wood.

I think the hardest part for me will be deciding what is to go and what is to stay, especially deciding whats actually dead or alive..

Im tossing up whether to take it to the local bonsai nursery to get some advice, although I really dont want to.

bonsaiboy88 wrote:Hi Kcpool,

so i should use earls wood hardener only on the exposed, dead wood?

Does it need treatment for the exposed alive wood? and im really just planning on cutting it into some resemblence of a small tree, rather than a stump of wood.

I think the hardest part for me will be deciding what is to go and what is to stay, especially deciding whats actually dead or alive..

Im tossing up whether to take it to the local bonsai nursery to get some advice, although I really dont want to.

Do the scratch test on the stumps and see if under the bark is still green, if so then that one will be alive so a potential keeper.

Use earls only on the dead wood you wish to keep. ( if any), Mine had lots of broken bits and bark torn off that I treated to stop it rotting out.
if you cut back hard, then use normal cut paste on the newly exposed sections

Clean out the dead bits so you can see properly, then take a photo against a plain background of each side of the tree and post here.
Take the pics from just above the soil height so we get a good look at the base and trunks and then we will really be able to help you decide.

Ken