AusBonsai

Hi Guys,

I am fortunate enough to be able to remove 4-8 Azalea's among other plants from the church that i attend as we are doing some renovation work, and re-doing all the gardens. I volunteered to do all the removal of the existing garden so that myself and tex048 and another member of our church can hopefully use them for bonsai.

All plants in the garden are anywhere from 15-30 years old because the houses there in front of are 1980(ish) brick homes. I've attended our church for 12 years now and the garden in question hasn't changed from when i first started coming along and the plants were established then.

Any ways this is going to be my first dig and I was wondering if there is any advice that would be handy to know before i start this weekend. Stuff like tools (shovel obviously), what soil to pot them in, post dig treatment etc

Thanks in advance guys.

Ps I'll also make sure to take lots of pictures throughout the day.

I'm interested in reading the repsonses to this post as well.

Good luck and pics are ALWAYS welcome!

A mattock is you friend on these digs! http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattock

howdy Ware
I have dug a few Azalea up to 50 years old with Great success, but just have not taken too many photos of the process

Cut back all the top foliage as far as you need, You can go back to bare wood if you wish, or leave a a few longer stems to provide different heights of foliage.
With a Mattock, Dig a trench around each tree (6-12 inches out), anbd down to the bottom of the root mass. Usually about 8 - 12 inches.
With a Saw, Shovel, Mattock Crowbar, dig underneath the root mass and cut off any large roots heading to china
Keep the root ball together for about 6 - 10 inches around the base if you can, and then lift the tree out of the hole

I usually wash out the native soil and pot up into Kanuma but use whatever you have.
If the stump is large, you can cut it apart to split up and if the stump is a solid mass of timber, I also reduce its thickness by using an electric saw.

check out this post here which shows one I collected a few weeks ago. viewtopic.php?f=3&t=953&p=97397&hilit=d ... lea#p97397
this clump was cut up into about 7-8 different sections and the wooden lump on the bottom has reduced in height by sawing thru it horizontally.

Take photos of the process for us please

Ken

Thanks for that post kcpoole. That was a great post and shall put it to good use. I shall try my best to document everything so hopefully it can be a good edition to the forum to help those wanting to do a dig. I'm pretty excited and hoping for some good trunk stock

Just wondering if anyone else has any good advice before i start the dig tomorrow

Yes, i do. Take along an old sheet and a spray bottle with diluted seasol in it. Once the tree is out of the ground you will need to transport and i have found a tree can dry out hindering its recuperation. Once out rinse the rootball and then spray some seasol on them and then wrap the rootball in a wet clothe (sheet) and tie it at the trunk. Not so much stress on the trees and yourself

thanks for the advice gentlemen!

Hi guys,

Just wanted to say a big thanks for the advice given regarding my dig yesterday. we dug up 6 azalea's of different sizes over the hour and will grab some more next week if they haven't been bulldozed
It was about an hour digging and 2-3 hours trimming roots and potting up. I took photos of everything except the dig itself because we were racing the light on Saturday afternoon.

Any ways below are my photo and explanations so hopefully what i learned can be shared and help other people in the future

The tools:

2 shovels, mattock, hedge clippers, saw, pick axe, seasol.

My dad & I used the shovels the most as Azalea's do not have too many think roots but a cluster of fine roots. When we were digging them up we mattocked around the tree and then used the shovels and drove them down at 45 degree angles under the trunk. Once we had dug right around the tree we used the shovels to leaver the tree out and break any roots heading south. There was some jumping on shovels at this point and a lot of rocking back and forth


Here is one of the Azalea's we pulled up that my dad will be planting straight into his garden. It was a massive cluster and has a nice pink flower. This was quite a battle to get out of the ground also! The following photos are the stages of getting this guy into a foam box special to recover before going into the garden.


Roots were cleared of as much old soil and given a tight army style hair cut to fit in the box. The soil i used was just an Azalea mix from bunnings. I figured it will do and didn't have the time of knowledge to make my own mix and at $9 a bag i wasn't complaining.


waiting for soil.



This was a little guy we pulled out and i thought it was a good picture to show how much of the root ball i kept. I found the Azalea roots to be very fine as i said above so we i was taking out existing soil i lost a fair bit of roots. Hopefully not too much but i guess we will wait and see.



The following 3 images are the trees that hopefully will survive and one day go from being a plant in a foam box to a bonsai!


This has stunning vibrant pink flowers and with the position of the trunks i think could make a raft style bonsai or forest.


The base of this azalea has an amazing twin trunk and i think once i pick 2 leaders or cut it right back will turn out pretty good.


This was the oldest Azalea we pulled up and in multi trunk around was a beast. I'm really hoping this one pulls through but its root ball was solid and i had a lot of trouble getting all the dirt out.

Anyways i hope this was helpful and if there are any questions i can try and answer them, I'm no expert but learned a lot on my first dig.

Wel done ware
Nice score and very well worth the erffort
You got plenty of roots and the Buzzings mix will be fine.

Keep them in a Semi sheltered spot for a few months and you will be rewarded with shoots everywhere soon

Love the stump on the last 2, they look great

Ken