AusBonsai

Hey Bretts
i have my eye on a firethorn that is sceaming to be liberated mind you it is no where near is as good as yours . do they shoot back from bare wood
or do they need some greenery to shoot ?
Cheers

They have shot back very well for me so far. They just love it here

Thanks Bretts ,now I just have to wait till october

I mentioned else where that in trying to find space in my yard I put this guy into a smaller pot. Hosed off all the old soil out of the roots took of as much as I thought I could and it still would not fit where I wanted so I gritted my teeth and took a little more off.
Then I thought about reducing the foliage to balance but as it had been reduced late summer thought it would be ok. Put it at the front of my benches and after a few days of watching it closely thought it was fine.
Then I noticed a few of the older leaves had started to dry out
At first I thought it was just water left on the leaves in the cold of the night but over the next couple of days it was evident that it was in trouble with more and more leaves drying out.
I moved it to the shade house and felt very bad that there was a good chance I was going to lose this tree. Over the next couple of weeks 90% of the leaves had died. I knew there was still hope as the leaves where not fully dead. Also I gave myself a reality check no use getting upset over theses things as it takes all the fun out of bonsai if we kick ourselves too hard for these mistakes.
I had done all the right things. I had a tester firethorn that I collected and had always used it to experiment on before I worked the better trees. It just so happened that I made my first mistake on my best firethorn
Well I am very happy to say that I think all will be well. Over the last few days I have noticed tiny new buds appearing again
Phew
Here is a pic just after I repotted and I will get a snap of the damage done tomorrow. This got me keen to be more drastic in the reduction of stock at the first instance of collecting. Even if they are very good specimens I am thinking it is better to get this drastic root work and stuff done and dusted at the time of collecting. At least for these hardy varieties anyway

Edit: I think the tree would have done better withy the root reduction if I had reduced the foliage and put the tree in the shade house instead of being so exposed. I thought it was a little early as well but other fire thorns have since started to shoot so maybe it wasn't

This got me keen to be more drastic in the reduction of stock at the first instance of collecting. Even if they are very good specimens I am thinking it is better to get this drastic root work and stuff done and dusted at the time of collecting. At least for these hardy varieties anyway

I came to this conclusion many years ago too, Bretts.
- Took my first trees from the growing beds, reduced the roots just enough to fit into a poly box ( scared of killing it) then grew new apex and branches etc. Came time to put it into a pot and the roots wouldn't fit Had to cut off all those lovely new fine roots to get it in and the tree had to support a lot more shoots as it grew another new set of roots
I now cut roots back very hard when the trees are first dug as the top is cut back hard then too so there is less work for the reduced roots as they recover. Result is 100% survival and much better nebari and root system
This is for deciduous species but appears to work for figs and olives too. I'm still experimenting with pines, junipers and natives but tend to leave a bit more root on these.

Hey Shibui,
I also remember something Deborah Koreshoff said in her book about collecting natives. She suggested that it was not a good idea to spade the roots of a native in the hope that it would grow more fine roots ready for collection. She believed that this just weakend the tree. I think I get the theory behind this that a tree growing in the ground is strong and vigorous and you are best to just do the deed utilizing the stored energy in the trunk instead of slowly weakening the tree.
Another thing I think of is something I read about the conifers that used to be collected in the mountains of Japan. They where said to really be "glorified cuttings" they came out with so few roots.
Again the after care would have been what saved them. Using various techniques to keep the tree alive until it was able to replace it's root system.
Alot of things to consider

So as promised here is the damage with this firethorn And the new buds starting to come out Think it will be ok now but still have to