crepe myrtle collecting

[matty-j]

hey everyone

today i collected a crepe myrtle there were aprox 20 shoots coming from the one point, i had in mind of making a forrest or clump style bonsai but found something much better

i saw it there growing in a large pile of excavated soil so i thought it cant be that old but i think it had been dug and dumped and kept on growing it had 2 root systems the old and a new one at ground level
i didn't get as much root as i would have liked i wasn't expecting a lower root system that far down fingers crossed it survives

the backhoe made short work of it tho

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any thoughts or comments are more than welcome

cheers
matt

[time8theuniverse]

Wow, looks good.

[alpineart]

Hi matty-j, nice piece of machinery and the only way to collect big trunks .

I have a Crepe Myrtle here i collected a couple of years ago , it hasn't sprouted yet so they seem to sulk after collecting or mine certainly has . Its still green from top to bottom , so i would simply pot it up and let it recover .

Very nice material and i hope it grows on for you , i see a lot down the street here that have numerous suckers coming up from the base and roots , only hope this season mine sprouts a shoot or two .

Look forward to seeing if and how long it takes to sprout or back bud into something usable .

Cheers Alpine.

[Webos]

In my experience, crepe myrtles will shoot from the top only. It is very difficult to get them to shoot low down on the trunk.

This one looks like a great broom candidate to me. I'd be cutting all of those long sticks a centimetre above where the bark changes colour and working from there.

Good luck

Adam

[kcpoole]

Lovely shovel! Can you come on my next dig?

Plenty of roots on that one no worries. Pot up and Seasol 3 times a week till it shoots. I caollected some last winter and they are roaring along.

Ken

[Damian Bee]

In my experience, crepe myrtles will shoot from the top only. It is very difficult to get them to shoot low down on the trunk.

This one looks like a great broom candidate to me. I'd be cutting all of those long sticks a centimetre above where the bark changes colour and working from there.

Good luck

Adam

I sometimes wish I could have one of your varieties Adam. Mine continually shoot from the base and roots, even a serious root prune I carried out sprouted shoots in the recent summer, (i'm now waiting to find a boy riding around my backyard on a giant white furry dragon with a dogs head (Never Ending Story )).

Matty, I dug one from the neighbours this time last year and washed off all the soil and pruned off a lot of roots. Through summer it powered although it was in a mix that proved to be too open or I could not keep the water up

No doubt though that the roots will be all in there waiting to be pot bound by the end of this year if I don't take and do a repot. This time around I will be putting some more crepe myrtle friendly ingredients into the mix.

Yours looks awesome , well done and good luck with it I think KC has the care sheet right for you Looking forward to seeing where it goes

[hugh grant]

Bloody awesome matt!!!!
thats a great trunk

[matty-j]

hey everyone

thought i would update!
when i was removing shoots and unwanted trunks i removed one with a few roots and potted it up and it is covered in buds!!!!!!
none on the stump that i want tho

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cheers
matt

[kcpoole]

Give it time
Mine are only shooting this week

Ken

[kuregtr]

Mine last week.

[PAUL2229]

nice myrtle mate

ive got myrtles along the driveway that haven't started shooting yet, im in Sydney.

[Boics]

Interesting how different the times are on tree's across our nation.
I would have thought with the NSW heat that you guys would have been well advanced?

Locally here in Melb..
2 of mine have already popped and one is in already in nice fresh new leaves.
I might take a quick pic tonight to post if I remember.

Cheers,

[matty-j]

hey everyone

we have buds!!!! maybe not where i wanted them but ill take what i can get

i did a scratch test and its still very green right up the top right at the cuts so hopefully soon it will shoot like crazy

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cheers
matt

[Beano]

Don't worry you'll get heaps of buds.

[matty-j]

just a update! this crepe has gone from strength to strength and put on a lovely show to boot
i removed all the flowers and gave it a good prune, it has lost a lot of dead wood there was a fair bit of soft wood in there, this weekend i will remove any soft rotting wood and hit it with some earls

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cheers
matt