AusBonsai

OK people. Saturday is the yearly olive dig for my club Oyama. Can't wait, so get ready cause I'm gonna dig out a monster and tell you all about it! to the ride! I look forward to posting some pics!

Go Andrew, hope you find a monster.

Can I come?

LOL have fun

ozzy wrote:Can I come?

Sure, but I'm not stumping up for your air ticket! This one is in South Africa, so I thought from a practicality perspective you lot were probably not worth inviting! I'll be sure to take some pics and post 'em!

Here's a little teaser of the tree I am planning to dig . . .
It is 75 cms at the base, so I'm expecting a sore back on Sunday! Also has some killer deadwood.
Nice twin trunk . . . .
Bring it on . . . . . .

Nice one ... watch out for Lions

Jeez that is real nice andrew
Cannot wait to see it Out of the ground and tidied Up

Ken

ozzy wrote:Nice one ... watch out for Lions

Lions are not the problem, other bonsai guys are!!! Time to charge my cattle prod!

OK boys and girls. Here are some of the pics. Actual dig photos to follow when I get them from my friend's camera.

We got to the site at about 8:45am and started immediately. This tree was sitting on a rock slab with a few big roots going out to the sides, so a chainsaw and about one hour later and she was ready to rock 'n roll. It is about 80 cms across at the widest point of the root bole, 2 meters wide and about the same high. I estimate it to weigh in the region of 150kgs to 225kgs.

We took out about four or five large trees through the day and there were some lovely smaller ones that came out as well. It was a great dig all in all as everyone pitched in to help everyone else with their quarry!
Of course once I got the tree home, I realised that I was going to have to figure out a whole new way of moving it around, so we had to rely on good old physics. The weight of the tree times one meter was luckily a bit less than the weight of my buddy times 3 meters! This meant that between two of us, we managed to lift it enough to slide a 100cm diameter tub underneath. A few pieces of plywood in the base of the tub to distribute the load and that did it.
The end of a long day's work and it is in its new home for this week in a bath of Red Bull & Vodka to help with rooting. I used cheaper vodka just in case you are wondering

I'll post some more photos of the dig when I get them, and then next weekend, I'll hire a chainsaw and give it the chop at the bottom, rooting hormone powder and into river sand for the long wait! I'll take a few more pics then too. Just to get the juices going, here are a few pics of the deadwood!

"bath of Red Bull & Vodka to help with rooting. I used cheaper vodka just in case you are wondering" was that for you or the tree?

Psymo wrote:"bath of Red Bull & Vodka to help with rooting. I used cheaper vodka just in case you are wondering" was that for you or the tree?

Both

Psymo wrote:"bath of Red Bull & Vodka to help with rooting. I used cheaper vodka just in case you are wondering" was that for you or the tree?

It usually works for me!

Hey Andrew Very nice
You do not even ahve to carve the bugger! It' already been done for you, awesome tree

Ken

That is a monster love them olives

And the ideas start to roll in - Here's Idea #1 compliments of Graham Potter. He claims not to be very good at this kind of thing, and whilst the detail in his foliage clouds needs some work, I think it is a definite good start! Graham has only seen the one photo, but in his defence, I have only taken one! Once it is potted up and fully rotateable, I'll take more . . . .

Till then, thoughts?