AusBonsai

Howdy
Im down in tasmania on a family property. There is leptospermum as far as the eye can see. Tomorrow im gonna dig a nice one (out of season i know) and put it in a pot and take it back to sydney with me on the plane.
Anyone got any tips? Its got a nice thick trunk with heaps of shoots coming all up the base. Was thinking dig it tomorrow, leave it for a week in the green house then i fly.
Not an ideal scenario but im doing it haha.
Would love to hear from anyone who's dug leptospermum
Cheers

Do you know what species? Some are much easier to transplant than others.
L. scoparium is common in Tas but also seems to be one of the most sensitive to root work.
L. lanigerum also pretty common. In my experience it is moderately easy to transplant.
There are a few others in Tassie but I'm not as familiar with them.
Some species also bud really well on older wood or from the base after major pruning while others don't appear to have that ability so foliage is essential to survive.
In general, younger plants transplant much easier than older ones. I'm guessing if you're flying out the plant will be relatively small so probably on the younger side which should mean likely better outcome.

Everyone appears to have their own way to handle transplant which probably means there is a whole range of ways to do it successfully. I prefer to shake off most soil and transplant almost bare root. For flying I would dig, bare root, soak the roots in water then wrap roots in damp newspaper , moss, or similar then wrap the lot in a plastic bag - just roots for a larger tree or the whole thing for smaller ones as wrapping leaves will reduce transpiration. Bare root trees can manage without soil for a couple of days provided the roots don't dry out.
Pot up as soon as possible after you get home.
Keep it protected until it recovers. I suspect that Sydney should be OK for transplant this time of year. Experienced growers in Melbourne have told me that they can repot and transplant most natives all year.

Great info mate! Ill give that a go and let you know how i go. Cheers

Have you checked out the biosecurity/quarantine rules?

Phil Rabl wrote: ↑April 18th, 2022, 11:48 am Have you checked out the biosecurity/quarantine rules?

Why would you bother with all that crap?

treeman wrote: ↑April 18th, 2022, 12:42 pm Why would you bother with all that crap?

Right now, this side the rabbit proof fence, we're fighting an outbreak of shot-hole borer, so there's all sorts of restrictions on movement of plant material in the big smoke.

We're still trying to get an European House Borer outbreak controlled, more than a decade in.

Do I really need to mention dieback?

That's why we bother with all that crap.

P.s. I can only second the comments on L. scoparium root sensitivity. The last advice I rx'd was to keep the roots underwater at all time (this from a local nursery man who carried out his potting-on this way.)

If you think you or quarantine or bio security will stop most of the worst invasions we have, you may be a little naive.

Take Myrtle rust for example. Unless you come up with a scientific cure that is as infectious and as contagious as the disease, you’re only ever going to play catch up. Anything you try to do to prevent it, is merely justifying the warning articles and the efforts made to make you feel like we’re making a difference. At this point in time, it’s pretty much like the cane toad, it’s here to stay. Japanese encephalitis is the same. It’s only going to get worse. Nature will dictate the outcome, not a few conscientious individuals.

I don’t know anything about Tasmania’s quarantine rules, but pretty sure it’s fine to ship into most states, just not vice-versa.
I’ve had nurseries ship plenty of live material over the years to Sydney from Tasmania.

As Rory said, no restrictions on plant material going FROM Tassie to Vic or NSW as their strict quarantine has kept out pests and diseases we don't have but the sniffer dogs keep a close watch on plant material coming into Tassie from the mainland.

I'm more than happy to support and abide by quarantine restrictions. No sense opening up to free movement which will just speed up entry of new problems.

I moved to and from Tas for work a few years ago. I had a couple of sticks in pots back then - the Tasmanian biosecurity people said I could bring them bare rooted (I left them behind for a year instead: they benefited from my absence).

On the way back, as Shibui says, it’s much easier, but there were still some restrictions in 2018 - I think blueberry and something else. I doubt Leptos would be on that list. Check if in doubt, but it’s unlikely to be an issue.

Just to clarify. I only wanted info on how to help the plant survive. I know im not breaking any laws whatsoever by taking these trees from tas to sydney. Sorry to kick off a little debate

NickityNic wrote: ↑April 19th, 2022, 7:38 pm Sorry to kick off a little debate

Since you stirred everyone up can we at least see some pictures of these trees your planning on digging?

Leptos can be dodgy with a lot of root removal = digging from the wild. The best results I know come from bare-rooting, potting in pure pumice/grit/whatever, and leaving in a water bath, so that it's constantly moist from capillary action, but not soggy. 2cms deep should do it, if you keep your eye on it. Not a good season - better around September/October in the south. When you get a good system working, please tell us how it works!

Gavin

Okay so heres the 3 i got. They are potted in literally awful soil because we are out in the country and dont have anything else here. The property has literally 1000s of these on it so im mostly just experimenting here. Ive also cut a few down with a saw to various lengths and left in the ground to see if they will back bud as almost all have a beutiful round rooty nabari. If they die, ill try again and bring proper spoil from sydney. Im here every other month so im looking forward to tracking the progress.

Bare in mind you may not be able to bring soil from Sydney into Tassie. Might be easier to purchase some in Tassie before you get to your potted tree destination.
Great score really like the small one, hope the all do well for you.
Cheers
Kirky

I just checked and Kirky is correct. No soil of any sort allowed into Tassie.
Your collected trees will survive for a few days in any damp medium - soil, sand, sawdust, wet paper, etc. Then repot into better mix when you get home.
For a lot of species just wrapping roots in plastic with a tiny amount of water, just enough to stop the roots drying out , is more than adequate to keep them alive for a few days.

I'll be interested to see if these leptos bud on bare wood.
Have we decided on a species ID yet?