AusBonsai

hi everyone
i got this swampy from red dragon bonsai farm today,
i need some idea's on what to do with it,
any advice and feedback would be much appreciated as this is my first swampy
(the heights 41cms from the base of the tree)

Swampies make a great formal upright.

I'd take pic 1 and then choose your branching and start wiring. Such a straight lower trunk denies other styles unless you thought about a slanting or tried for a raft (might be interesting!). It will develop a big butressed lower trunk/nabari which look great.

Cool thing is they shoot on old wood like crazy as well and you can't overwater the buggers. I have a good sized formal upright that is bright red at the moment and I will post a pic of it if you want.

Tech

hi techpetal
yeah pics would be sweet
im going to let it grow in the pot its in through spring and fert it see how she go's

hi techpetal
yeah pics would be sweet
im going to let it grow in the pot its in through spring and fert it see how she go's

Nice swampy bud. I love swampies and they love our Qld climate. My advice.... Cut it in half Or lower. Get some awesome taper going on. I have one that i did something similar too, and its no formal upright. With out wanting to rain on a parade, yours isn't really straight enough (imho) to be a true formal upright anyway. Cut it down low and grow, grow, grow They grow mega fast anyway.
Mine was the size of my finger 12 months ago, adn si now the size of my wrist, almost.

what about literati?

nauticadlay wrote:what about literati?

Don't do it. I tried it before and it was very easy to achieve a literati form but so hard to keep in shape. I posted a thread here sometime ago.

Gotta agree with DK on this one. I wouldn't attempt a literati with it. I'd chop it back. Down to one of those lower shoots. Keep maybe one shoot as a new leader and one below it as a sacrifice branch to thinken the lower trunk some more.
After choppint it, perhaps wire the new leader up (how straight depends on what you want to acheive), and keep the sacrifice clear of other shoots and gie it plent of water and sunlight and let it go nuts for a while. Take the wire off after a month or so. maybe two. Rewire if need be

hi jake,

if you want to develop this as a formal upright it is still possible, it will just take some time as with all trees, the lower section is straight so what you need to do is this, which will also give you some good taper.
1. find a sufficient low shoot/branch that has hardened off, and angle cut it, as in the mudmap.
2. hollow out as much wood as you dare, try not to go to far in, you still want some wood and cambium, in doing this it will allow you to get a lot more movement in that area which you need to keep it a straight line
3. wire it up and make it as straight as possible, you should be able to get it flush with existing trunk line.
4. this shows what it will be like after it had this initial work done, blue line shows what it was.

doing it like this will give the tree a very straight trunk, and also give it some nice taper. and in time the scar will heal over and become smoothed out as the scar will be the back when it is ready to style.

in saying that the mudmay is looking at the trunk from side on view, the front of the tree would be looking at it from the left towards the tree. you must choose a front now, i would do that by the nebari as once you start this sort of procedure it is going to be hard to say you want to change the "front" as there will be a decent scar for a few years.

Jamie

thanks for the illustration jamie, it's a big help man.
i'm leaving it in a bucket filled with a little bit of water over spring, letting the truck thicken up a little bit more. should i add some seasol or some thing to the water to help it boom?
i still havn't decided if i want to go informal or formal upright with this one. i might grab another swampy out of the same batch and do one of both. should i leave it in water 24/7 or in one day and out the other, i have been told quite a few different things when it comes to leaving them in water...

-Jake

All of mine, except for that is too big for a tray, are in water 100% of the time. I use miracle gro on mine. And that's what I fed it for the last 12 months. Seasol every few weeks, miracle gro EVERY week. Happy, healthy and huge. Huge growth that is.It seriously got to AT LEAST 5x it's diametre. Mid you, it was small. That won't grow as much I wouldn't think. If they aren't too expensive it's definitely worth getting another couple! How much, if you don't mind me asking? I'm due a trip down to red dragon
Jamies idea will get you a good formal upright. I would definitely leave a branch below the cut though to use as a sacrifice, it really will thicken it quicker.

I paid $29 for that one, the others arn't as thick as the one i picked up but alot straighter. he has some nice big ones down there too not sure what price they are.
using jamies technique it would be trail and error for me as i havn't done it before, it worrys me a bit lol
i was originaly keen to do literati with it as i have seen a few nice literati swampys on google images but the amount of foilage they shoot it would be a mission to maintain i have read that on a few other forums aswell

-Jake

in the short time iv'e had it sitting in a bucket of water and seasol it's noticably thickened up im pretty happy with it, ill be leaving it for another few months. i'm now thinking of getting a few more different sized swampys and making a decent sized group out of them.. whats everyone's thoughts on making a group out of swampys?

Yeah man, a group setting could be cool. Might have to be a fairly big group though, as they don't like to stay small for long A smaller one of mine I wired a month ago is already starting to dig in a bit, so I'll be removing the wie this weekend and redoing.
Picked up another two small swampies the other day, cut them straight down to about 1/3 of their height. on the wekend I'll put them in big grow pots and jsut water and feed the hell out of them.

hey nathan yeh mate it would be a big group as the swampy ive got now is a decent size as it is. it surprised me so much how fast they fatten up.

ill add more photos as it keeps getting bigger. are the chinese swamp cypress and these swampys the same thing?