$5 starter fun - Liquidambar forest planting

[TimIAm]

I recently bought a bunch of starters and this plant was the last one I haven't planted out. It was definitely ready for a new pot and has almost doubled in size with the Spring sun in the last couple of weeks. I've been going a bit crazy recently practicing taking cuttings, a skill I've never done before and I thought I would turn this one into a bunch of new plants. However, I've gone through what most beginners do and already ended up with more plants growing than I have friends so...

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I've never done a forest planting before. The idea I came up with is to propagate into the finished design. I mean, it's a $5 plant, if I kill everything well at least I got an evening's entertainment and probably learn something in the process. So, out with the Clonex, in with the soil mix...

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Cuttings of various sizes, ready to go.

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One design element I wanted to try was to sink the original plant. I know it lacks the girth, but the idea is to have it eventually look (kinda) like a rotting log with a couple of small trees growing out of it. Right now, it just looks like a bunch of leaves on the ground, but you gotta start somewhere right

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After playing around with placements. Trying to keep space, negative space, some sort of apex, some sort of path etc. as you do. This is what I ended up with. I wanted the ground to look lush and scrappy. Kinda like hiking through Ourimbah State Forest... ugh the leeches

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I didn't have a figurine handy, so grabbed a random green Pokemon from my son's toybox. So that's that. I'm sure I had more than $5 fun. So if it all up and dies in the Sydney Spring Sun, it's all

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[legoman_iac]

Looks good, though to me, the centre looks more like a nice spot for a hammock, than a path. Haha.

Keen to hear how this goes!

- Daniel

[TimIAm]

Here is a year update for this group...

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For 5 bucks and a pot that wasn't being used, I'm getting plenty of enjoyment out of this group and I believe this is going somewhere.

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The pot is definitely not the best choice for where this group is heading, but for now everything is growing nicely. So, it will be staying in this pot, while it's happy and I will think about a new pot when it's time for re-potting. For now it's all about letting it grow.

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I've put some light, thin wiring on some of the slightly thicker trunks. Mainly to keep some separation and let light and air get in. The smaller 'trees' on the edges will eventually lean slightly outwards to create a spreading canopy but I won't be putting any wire on those until maybe spring next year.

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The goal is to have a combined canopy. I will eventually remove the very low branches which are now just there to assist growth, to create more space in the 'understory'. Then add ramification towards the top.

[Dean.C]

The combined canopy is a pretty good idea , it reminded me about a bunch of Ash trees i have in a pot at the moment - it seems to look a bit like your future design in it's wild spring growth . I'll post a photo later if you are interested .

[TimIAm]

Thanks Dean. Would be keen to see your trees

[legoman_iac]

Trending at just a little over 1.36 cents of entertainment per day, that's a bargain!!! Liking the progress.

Curious, did you trim back leaves last year, when you cut/clonexed? Any losses from the propogation, or things you'd do different next time?

I've had a few liquidamber, the leaves tend to ramify themselves, would expect half that size in a year or so.

Thanks for sharing!

P.S a ninjago, or even lego medieval knight would look right at home there, though you won't get those for under $5

[TimIAm]

Curious, did you trim back leaves last year, when you cut/clonexed? Any losses from the propogation, or things you'd do different next time?

I usually leave a single leaf and one which is small as possible (this group I didn't cut any leaves). I'm not sure if having the leaf there does anything to add to the survival chances, more of an indicator. My personal experience, the longer that last leaf takes to drop the happier the cutting is to continue living. There are plenty of internet videos that talk about things rooting in 6 weeks, but the biggest key to success for me has been patience.

- Don't dig around or pull up a cutting to check on it, unless it has new growth
- Don't pull up a cutting after X weeks to have a peek at how it's going, because you were told it would be ready in X weeks
- Don't repot a cutting in the first days after it has new growth. Because this inevitably means changing the position it was in and the type of sunlight it was getting. I've had good cuttings die because I put them out into the sun after they put out new growth.

Although warmth is key, I've had better success putting my cuttings in a seed raising tray in majority shade. Sydney is warm enough. This group planting spent the first 6 months in part shade, you can see it has lots of moss growing.

The largest cutting was the one that died, I replaced it with another cutting same species from another tree.

I'm sure my kids wont mind if I borrow a Lloyd or Garmadon, maybe in next year's update