AusBonsai

OK, here's a question for you all. Would it not be better to keep the area above the washer out of the soil until the expansion has started to happen, and then carefully notch the bark and apply rooting hormone at the notches to get a nice even root distribution? You can then cover it with the soil to allow the new root growth. Just an idea. Comment?

Andrew any interpretation on a theme is welcome and yours is another slant on how we can achieve results. My view is whatever works, go for it. I think what you propose is doable and and should be encouraged. Thanks for your input.

Great results Ash, I applied the same technique to some J. maples and T. maples, but I think that yours have fattened a bit better.

How will you be treating them now? Will you remove the lower root system, or leave it another season? Trim back the strongest roots?

When I repot mine in the next few months I'll post some pics into this thread.

Scott

Scott, I will leave them for another season and monitor the root systems by controlling those dominant roots. While these are 'cooking' I have plenty of other trees to take my interest and to keep me really busy I will make another huge batch of fert. cakes. Tea with that anyone

What do you use in your cakes?

This year I used Soy meal and meat meal spooned into teabags.

Ash Barns wrote:Scott, I will leave them for another season and monitor the root systems by controlling those dominant roots. While these are 'cooking' I have plenty of other trees to take my interest and to keep me really busy I will make another huge batch of fert. cakes. Tea with that anyone

ill have coffee with mine thanks would this method work on figs aswell as i got a couple of small figs with no root flair
if i put a saucer or flat peice under the root ball would it flair out
cheers dean the terror

Scott Roxburgh wrote:What do you use in your cakes?

This year I used Soy meal and meat meal spooned into teabags.

I used a recipe based on the Deb Koreshoff one.

3 parts (scoops) soya bean meal
1 part blood and bone
1 part chicken manure (dynamic lifter)
1 part wood ash (charcoal)
1 part fish emulsion

(I had to substitute certain elements to suit what I had on hand.)

Mixed it up then added plain flour to bind it with a little water.
Packed the mix into a fert. basket then gently squeezed all round until it popped out.
Place them on a tray and put in the shed to dry out.

would this method work on figs as well as i got a couple of small figs with no root flair
if i put a saucer or flat piece under the root ball would it flair out
cheers dean the terror

There is no reason why the washer method would not work with any species of tree. I am only going with deciduous because that is my experience so far. In the case of your figs Dean the saucer method might not work as well because you don't have the swelling at the base to start with. Garotting the trunk should speed the process up a fair bit. Worth a try anyway mate.