AusBonsai

hey everyone

i collected this mel about 4 weeks ago and its kicking on

hopefully its not just stored energy in the trunk so
this is the first mel i have ever collected
i chopped it about 2 months ago, when i saw a couple of buds coming through i collected it.
it only had the bud at the top thats growing as the new leader and the long branch on the left side in the first photo when it was first collected
all the rest started popping up in the last week or 2

rough dimensions
base 100mm
height 250mm
hopefully i can make something nice out of this one day
hopefully i have a lot more mels and natives in general in my collection

any advice or thoughts are more than welcome
does anyone know's what type of mel this is

cheers
matt

Great beginning Matt

Good height for the cut as it tapers well to there. Will need to let the top shoots grow free for a while to develop taper into them, but keep the side branches from getting too thick in the mean time. I like the second shot for the bit of movement it displays and where the branches come from, but too early to call a front yet. Nice base. I would say after 4 weeks it is out of the woods. No pun intended.

Keep us posted

Tony

Nice
I collected one similar ( not as thick tho), about 6 months ago.
Have done another chop on it to reduce the height from the original cut as it had not budded very low.
I will leave till spring now before doing anything to it except taking off any shoot I will not need.

Ken

I would hazard a guess at this being, Melaleuca alternifolia, and it is about 30/35 cm tall It is going to take quite a bit of time to get the taper you need.

Tony being a very good man at carving, would I know make a good job of it. I have a M, rhaphiophylla that has some carving, and does need some more which I will be doing with Tony at the end of the month.
Also a very careful and light tickle with a Blow torch to stimulate growth , and simulate a bush fire survival.

Mean time here is an idea for yours Matty J.

Cheers Pup Cheers Pup

thanks for all the replies it is very much appreciated

Tony Bebb wrote:Great beginning Matt

Good height for the cut as it tapers well to there. Will need to let the top shoots grow free for a while to develop taper into them, but keep the side branches from getting too thick in the mean time. I like the second shot for the bit of movement it displays and where the branches come from, but too early to call a front yet. Nice base. I would say after 4 weeks it is out of the woods. No pun intended.

Keep us posted

Tony

thanks tony! being my first mel i wasn't sure if it was prone to die back after a big chop so i left it a little high when i made the cut
which i'am very glad i did now because of where all the new growth has shot, i think if it was lower it would have been to short and fat.

kcpoole wrote:Nice
I collected one similar ( not as thick tho), about 6 months ago.
Have done another chop on it to reduce the height from the original cut as it had not budded very low.
I will leave till spring now before doing anything to it except taking off any shoot I will not need.

Ken

hey ken, in the 6 months you have had it has it put on much growth at all

Pup wrote:I would hazard a guess at this being, Melaleuca alternifolia, and it is about 30/35 cm tall It is going to take quite a bit of time to get the taper you need.

Tony being a very good man at carving, would I know make a good job of it. I have a M, rhaphiophylla that has some carving, and does need some more which I will be doing with Tony at the end of the month.
Also a very careful and light tickle with a Blow torch to stimulate growth , and simulate a bush fire survival.

Mean time here is an idea for yours Matty J.

Cheers Pup

P1150726.JPG

P1150731.JPG

Cheers Pup

thanks pup for the id and photo's!! where do you keep pulling all these awesome tress from i think i'm living in the wrong state

one of the horts at my work told me to give it a touch up with the blow torch or get some leaves and burn them in a bucket apply to the surface and then water it in, this is meant to do the same sort of thing have you tried the watering in style before
i thought about doing this a while ago but was a little unsure if it was a good idea because if i tricked the plant into thinking there had been a fire and putting all it energy into new growth and not roots and dying
but i think i might give it a go

cheers matt

Nice tree mate! A great find and I love the base. Looking forward to its progress.

Hugh

G'day Matt,

Great stump! I'd select your new trunk line from one of the shoots and just let it G R O W straight up and thicken. When the new leader has thickened to about thumb thickness, cut it back again and continue the process. After 3 seasons you should have a reasonable trunk line with good taper and you can then concentrate on growing branches.

Here is a M. quinquenervia pretty similar to yours that has had 2 previous chops as described above. It had the 3rd chop last night.
Looking forward to seeing yours progress.

Regards,
Steven

matty-j wrote:

kcpoole wrote:Nice
I collected one similar ( not as thick tho), about 6 months ago.
Have done another chop on it to reduce the height from the original cut as it had not budded very low.
I will leave till spring now before doing anything to it except taking off any shoot I will not need.

Ken

hey ken, in the 6 months you have had it has it put on much growth at all

cheers matt

Not really. has shot out lots initially, but I cut off a lot of the original shooting when I decided to chop again lower
I will get a photo and post when I can.

Steven wrote:G'day Matt,

Great stump! I'd select your new trunk line from one of the shoots and just let it G R O W straight up and thicken. When the new leader has thickened to about thumb thickness, cut it back again and continue the process. After 3 seasons you should have a reasonable trunk line with good taper and you can then concentrate on growing branches.

Here is a M. quinquenervia pretty similar to yours that has had 2 previous chops as described above. It had the 3rd chop last night.

2013 February.jpg

Looking forward to seeing yours progress.

Regards,
Steven

thanks for the info steven
ill select the leader and remove any unwanted branches, i just need it to grow now

hugh grant wrote:Nice tree mate! A great find and I love the base. Looking forward to its progress.

Hugh

thanks hugh

kcpoole wrote:

matty-j wrote:

kcpoole wrote:Nice
I collected one similar ( not as thick tho), about 6 months ago.

Have done another chop on it to reduce the height from the original cut as it had not budded very low.
I will leave till spring now before doing anything to it except taking off any shoot I will not need.

Ken

hey ken, in the 6 months you have had it has it put on much growth at all

cheers matt

Not really. has shot out lots initially, but I cut off a lot of the original shooting when I decided to chop again lower
I will get a photo and post when I can.

thanks ken looking forward to it!

thanks for the info steven
ill select the leader and remove any unwanted branches, i just need it to grow now

Hey Matty

I would not remove any growth yet, wanted or not. The tree is best let to grow free for a while to gather strength and momentum. Unwanted stuff can be removed later mate.

Tony

great advice thanks tony!!
sometimes i just to excited

Hi Matty
Remembered to take some photos today.

the entire root mass came out of the sandy soil in 1 clump and I had to trim it all back a little to fit in the pot. This year I will repot and clean out the roots somewhat


Ken

thanks ken

are you planning on chopping lower in spring

Just a quick update on my Mel! Its coming along nicely and is really starting to look healthy and gain some vigour, I want to repot this Mel into a diatomite mix because there is still clay in the root ball, when is the best time do do so?

Any thoughts about what i should do next would be great
Cheers
Matt

Looking good... Starting to catch some of your excitement!
Just got to get in to it and do something.

Cheers
EZ