Pinus Radiata- First stock purchase

[Mitchell]

Well, it had to be done sooner or later. I had the itch and as you all know, sometimes it needs to be scratched.

Instead of heading out to the local bonsai yard, I decided to try my luck at Cumberland State Forest nursery for natives.
Some of the flowering Euc's were amazing! Alas the one I was after ($200) a massive stunted one, was a tad out of my price range. Awesome material though.

As we do, I was scanning the lot, looking for under potted/priced plants, due to have their prices/pots increased. I spotted some nicely priced radiata's 1.8m tall for $15.00. Of the eight left, this was the only one to have the branching start near the base, the rest had bare trunk for the first 40cm.

After I had decided to grab the larger plant, I also came across trays of radiata seedlings (can't hurt having sacrifice seedlings for branches/roots etc) 40 in each for $20.00, so I grabbed them too.


And thus starts my adventure into radiata pines, i'm already loving the pine scent, not so much the sap in my eyes though.


I'm reading every thread we have on Radiatas and would love to hear any suggestions of where the plant could go. Obviously needs the chop, but i'm still contemplating height. The trunk has some slight movement, but is mainly straight up and down. Might still have enough flex in it, to bend with a branch bender to get some movement going.

Seedlings are nice and bendy, so I may put a bit of movement in some of the ones i'm not going to use as graft medium.


Any thoughts are appreciated, good or bad.

[Bougy Fan]

Looks like a pretty good score Mitchell - and a good price. I have been thinking about radiata's for a while - my girlfriend wants me to do a largish one as a Christmas tree. Do you have any experience with them or are you giving them a go ?

[Mitchell]

Looks like a pretty good score Mitchell - and a good price. I have been thinking about radiata's for a while - my girlfriend wants me to do a largish one as a Christmas tree. Do you have any experience with them or are you giving them a go ?

Yes, I believe it would be more like $35.00 at a bonsai nursery.

No, it's a first for me mate.

[MattA]

Nice score Mitchell, radiata are a very under used pine for bonsai. They will take the roughest treatment, I saw a heap along a pipeline in SA that were constantly cut down to bare stumps only to reshoot & power on (some awesome material to collect for all you Adelaidians). Bend them to hell & back, needles reduce with ease, back bud well & in general they really are fantastic to work with.

Keep us posted on your progress with them.

Matt

[gazzatash]

Mitchell there is a really nice guy in Melbourne who has an unbelievable one.. his name is David N. He is on this site and you should PM him with a few questions. Or have a look back a few weeks and you should find his post somewhere. I have one radiata at the moment and im just letting it grow out at the moment and will try some shaping in the spring. Also down here in Canberra we have heaps of plantations and im thinking of going on a dig and getting a few doz to work on. You can really make them into an awesome tree.

Gazz

[craigw60]

Hi MItchell, I notice your radiatas have lots of growth down low that growth is very precious so make sure you encourage it. Get them spread out so the low growth gets lots of light. Radiata is great material you have made a very smart move.
Craig

[Mitchell]

Hi MItchell, I notice your radiatas have lots of growth down low that growth is very precious so make sure you encourage it. Get them spread out so the low growth gets lots of light. Radiata is great material you have made a very smart move.
Craig

Yes, that low growth dies back if it does not get enough sun light the previous season I believe. So your suggestion of spreading them out makes sense...

I especially chose the larger radiata because of the low growth. If this plant wasn't there, I wouldn't have bought the others without the low growth.

Thanks for your comment mate, I have also heard of the merits of radiata stock... Hopefully in 15 years the seedlings may make good bonsai, if prepared well now.

[Mitchell]

Thanks Gazz and Matt for your comments...

Have just cleaned it up a tad, removing dead needles etc... Just waiting for the camera battery to recharge so I can takes some more shots to get an opinion on branch structure etc.

[Mitchell]

Cleaned up, only removed dead needles.

Next step is will be getting it in the ground.

Would be very appreciative if some of our experts could give their opinion. I guess it is just a pole atm, though I am happy with the extensive lower branches to work with.
That quirky "S" needs to be worked out.

Probably am most interested to know

What style you could see the plant in?

Where would you chop?

Where do you see the front?

Thanks for your time...

[craigw60]

Hi Mitchell, Don't be in a rush to get ti in the ground. It would be much better to spend a year or 2 sorting out the roots and deciding on some sort of rough design before you plant it out. If you plant it out before you have sorted the roots you will more than likely have a big mess of a root ball when you lift it. You should also sort out some nice strong well spaced branches low down on the tree to use as sacrifice branches.
Craig

[Mitchell]

Hi Mitchell, Don't be in a rush to get ti in the ground. It would be much better to spend a year or 2 sorting out the roots and deciding on some sort of rough design before you plant it out. If you plant it out before you have sorted the roots you will more than likely have a big mess of a root ball when you lift it. You should also sort out some nice strong well spaced branches low down on the tree to use as sacrifice branches.
Craig

It is in need of repotting, so either the ground or a larger container is the go. I'll sort roots out as much as I can when I re-pot/plant.
It needs to come out of that pot now. The surface is a mat 1 inch thick of old slow release fert. If you flick the surface of the soil, it sounds like and empty cardboard box.

[Bretts]

Hi Mitchell, Don't be in a rush to get ti in the ground. It would be much better to spend a year or 2 sorting out the roots and deciding on some sort of rough design before you plant it out. If you plant it out before you have sorted the roots you will more than likely have a big mess of a root ball when you lift it. You should also sort out some nice strong well spaced branches low down on the tree to use as sacrifice branches.
Craig

It is in need of repotting, so either the ground or a larger container is the go. I'll sort roots out as much as I can when I re-pot/plant.
It needs to come out of that pot now. The surface is a mat 1 inch thick of old slow release fert. If you flick the surface of the soil, it sounds like and empty cardboard box.

Your biggest obstacle at the moment as Craig States will be the roots. The chance of survival from here can be a little dodgy although the last Radiata that I had in this condition survived (I wish I took notes) I would say that is not Guaranteed. This is the chances you take with cheap root bound material. I think your best bet is beat bash cut and tease that root ball into submission. Just like opening the foliage out you need to open the root ball out so roots near the base are free and able to grow free. Then plant in a pot in a very gritty free draining mix and water well with lots of snake juice.
I would not worry too much about what will be your new leader too much at the moment. Instead I would consider the best point to chop back for it's health. This in my opinion will be about half way down the tree.

Then if it survives this I would look at letting it recoup for two years. Maybe a bit of a tweak after a year but I would be looking at a two year plan to hopefully bring the tree to a point where a more normal bonsai plan can start.
The tree looks healthy enough but I would recommend treating with seasol up until the time you do this work it will help it to recover the harsh treatment it needs.

[Glenda]

.................. Then plant in a pot in a very gritty free draining mix and water well with lots of snake juice.............

Please excuse my ignorance, but what is 'snake juice'?

Glenda

[Bretts]

Snake juice, I think I mean Snake oil I am referring to the Auxin based transplant shock treatments such as Super-thrive, Seasol and Plant starter that many people believe are nothing more than snake oil

[craigw60]

Brett is so correct a kill or cure root prune is in order, then let the tree recover in a pot where you can monitor the watering feeding etc. Once the tree develops some good surface roots and a level of fibre then plant it out. If you do that when you lift it from the ground you are almost certain it will live otherwise its going to be hit and miss.
Craig