Melaleuca Bracteata Revolution Gold

[teejay]

I've been playing around with this species as fair bit lately and I found another in my local nursery. After the cleanup and re-pot comes the long wait for some thickness.

[brenden]

Hi Teejay,

Goodluck! As you know I am experimenting with this tree also. Not with the landscape any more, but on a different path. It seems this project has slid into deep darkness. Nonetheless...

Let's share our experience (and pain!) with this little fella. I seldon this forum anymore so if you want to keep in touch feel free to PM and i'll shoot over my email address.

Since my first posting of a M'B' I bought at a nursery it has started to grow some branches.

Original photo (24th Feb, 2009):

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Picture taken 3 minute ago: (16th Mar, 2009)

DSC05013_rd_.jpg

Close up of new growth:

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So what you see is from 20 days growth.


Brenden

[teejay]

Yep, that's my experience! They bud back fairly regularly which makes it a lot easier.

Another one of mine, which I'll dig a photo of up soon for you, has been growing and THICKENING up like crazy in the past three months due to a heavy feeding regime I've got it on. My plan with the above is to do the same and then give them both some ground time. In the end I may create a group, or not, we'll see.

In the above one I just loved the little S-bend I could see (through the bulk of inappropriately placed branches) on the trunk and couldn't help but get it, even though I must wait a long while for it to become what I want.

[LLK]

Another one of mine, which I'll dig a photo of up soon for you, has been growing and THICKENING up like crazy in the past three months due to a heavy feeding regime I've got it on

That's my experience also, those trees need about double the amount of fertiliser I give to other plants, though natives generally like more than most exotics. What kind of fertiliser do you give, teejay? I get good results with Dynamic Lifter, alternating with Hortico.

Lisa

[teejay]

G'day Lisa.

They are hungry little buggers aren't they. I give these ones (that I'm trying to fatten up) three things, native osmocote, a pellet feed made by Ted Poynton especially for natives every month and phostrogen liquid feed over the foliage and onto the soil every week at the recommended container plant rate. Since I've been doing this (especially the phostrogen) they've been growing like mad! Wires bite in after two or three weeks and off they come!

[LLK]

Hi Teejay,
Sorry for not replying earlier, but I had some thinking and trying to do.
I was surprised by the feeding regime for your Melaleuca bracteata, in the sense that you used Osmocote for Natives one the one hand, which contains no phosphorus, and Phostrogen on the other hand which is relatively high in phosphorus. I wondered why a complete, balanced fertiliser wouldn't do just as well. Of course I don't know what Ted puts in his pellets, so the sum total of what your Mels get is still a mystery, but since it works so well, it must be the right thing.
But phosphorus for natives?? I've been bonsai-brought-up to keep away from it,
Anyway, I've read quite a few of your posts on BonsaiTalk over the years and it's clear that you know darn well what you're doing, so I decideed to use the Phostrogen on my own Mel. bracteata, which was recovering much too slowly from a severe pruning, and it sure worked, you could see the difference in a few days. Later I also applied some Epsom salts, which also helped and the tree is now well on the road to recovery. When it's a bit further along, I'll post a photo.

Lisa

[Pup]

G,day guys I have just read this post. Golden Gem and Revolution gold are gross feeders.
I have had one for 20 years now and it was fed on nothing but Phostrogen up till 5 years ago.
I then started alternating with Miracle gro for Azaleas Camellias and Natives.
once a month Phostrogen and miracle gro so the feeding is fortnightly.
Lisa I have found that the 4.4 phosphorus in Phostogen has never been a problem even with Banksia.
What I have found that Dynamic lifter will send the soil Alkaline. That is something the natives I grow do not like.
Blood and bone is a good organic if you want to use organics. I have found slow release fertilisers such as Osmocote to be too unreliable.
They are heat and moisture driven, as we in the west get a lot of dry heat and in extreme fluctuations like yesterday was just 23 c today is already that at 9.30 am we are forecast to get to 34 c where we live you can add 3-4 to that. I would imagine Healesville would to be dry and a tad on the warm side in summer.
I hope this helps you in some way Pup

[teejay]

Lisa:

To be honest I stumbled onto Phostrogen for natives. I was using it last year to feed exotics I'd put in the ground and after reading the low phosphorus level on the label I used it on a Euc Nicholii with no ill effects so I wasn't surprised when I read here that Pup has been using it for a long time on his natives. The phosphorus level is, as Pup said, quite low and my natives love it!

I've read quite a few of your posts on BonsaiTalk over the years and it's clear that you know darn well what you're doing

shucks... but I think you've confused me with someone else, I'm quite the amateur.

Pup:

I'm starting to share your view on osmocote, I've only applied it at potting. You're right, the climate you describe is all too familiar.

Cheers again.

[LLK]

Thanks, teejay and Pup, that is all very interesting and helpful. The whole question of fertilising, how, when and why, can become quite confusing, so it's good to follow the advice of people who get results - so long as their circumstances are the same.

Lisa I have found that the 4.4 phosphorus in Phostogen has never been a problem even with Banksia.

So much for the general, official recommendation to avoid phosphorus with the Proteaceae!

The phosphorus level is, as Pup said, quite low.

Well, that isn't quite what Pup said and actually it's on the high side compared with other fertilisers. Nitrosol (which I've been using a lot) only has 2.9. Soluble Aquasol has 4. And see the low contents in this range! http://www.sercul.org.au/docs/Fertilise ... 20nitrogen

What is interesting is the fact that Phostrogen is recommended as a fertiliser for acid-loving plants and so is Yates' Acitone, which I've been using for my pines and azaleas, and which has no phosphorus at all. Instead, it has sulphur, an acidifying chemical, which is necessary to make the iron available to the plant.
Phostrogen has phosphoric acid for the same purpose. Our bonsai soils usually have a high mineral content and probably tend towards the alkaline, so an acidifying fertiliser would seem doubly important (compared to garden soils). Please correct me if I am wrong!!

What I have found that Dynamic lifter will send the soil Alkaline.

The same is said of Blood and Bone and of Fish Emulsion, because of the calcium contained in the bones.

I agree with you re: the unreliability of Osmocote, Pup, but here in Canberra I can use it during the cooler months. In Spring especially it works well, and a lot of people also add it to their repotting soil mix at that time. However, I never use it once the warm weather starts.

OK, today our local garden centre had a sale with 25% off everything, and I bought a big packet of Phostrogen.

Thanks, guys.

Lisa

[teejay]

Well, that isn't quite what Pup said and actually it's on the high side compared with other fertilisers.

Yes you're right there. I was just highlighting the fact that it's phosphorus levels aren't exactly through the roof in spite of having the name "phostrogen" (which I, for one, always found misleading ). From memory it's NPK is around 15:4.4:22 or there abouts.

[LLK]

Hi Pup and teejay,

I was just highlighting the fact that it's phosphorus levels aren't exactly through the roof in spite of having the name "phostrogen" (which I, for one, always found misleading ).

So did I - and still do, especially now that I know that in part its function is to make iron assimilable for the plant. There's a chance that Acitone without the phosphorus would work just as well, and that it's especially the iron that our trees benefit from. Still, I'm not going to try it out, since I'm happy with the Phostrogen. I took a photo of my Melaleuca bracteata today, to show how luxuriously the foliage is growing. Two weeks ago there wasn't a quarter of what there is now.
I bought this tree in '97 at the Koreshoff nursery, and all it said was that it is the golden form of M. bracteata. No name of a cultivar. Ever since I've had it, it's proved very difficult to keep the lower branches alive. The tree has had a new apex 3 x and been pruned a lot, especially in the upper regions, but those lower branches just won't stay alive. I'll end up with a literati soon!

BTW, everyone growing this tree, watch out for red spider mite once the foliage gets dense. Those tiny b...rs love it, and I've even had an attack in mid winter.

Lisa

[teejay]

That's a great tree Lisa!

That's interesting also about it's lower branches as I always thought they budded back quite vigorously, therefore I assumed (perhaps wrongly) that this wouldn't be a problem. I have noticed that all the vigor goes to the top though to the detriment of the lower regions, but with my very young trees those lower branches are still powering on.

(sorry about the delay)