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| I'm new to bonsai, but I thought I'd give it a try with some cheap/free materials. I went out to the beach and pulled a few Australian Pine saplings out of the ground. Most of them had a very long taproot, but one had only roots that went out to the side, and not down (must have been right on top of concrete). I shaped it a bit, washed the roots of soil and put it in a shallow pot with perlite as the medium. It has been living for almost 2 months, and growing happily. I think it will make a fine specimen as long as it gets enough sun and water. Since they're a legume, they have nitrogen fixing bacteria on the roots, and can live in very poor soil. I still fertilize once every week or 2 though. How well do you guys think this will work? I thought that since they're so invasive here, it'd be easy to get one to grow, and since they grow so fast, it'll make a nice specimen quite quickly. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by shanielynn 9, Englewood FL (My Page) on Mon, Aug 10, 09 at 1:39
| I also acquired an austrailian pine for the same purpose, the owner of the property was happy to let me try and dig one up. The woody parts of these trees becomes very rigid, very fast,and I have only read about bonsai successfully. The roots of my 'pine' were very easy to clean and separate. Pruning wasn't too bad, but I am afraid the woody parts will be my eventual problem. It's hard to shape something so rigid, and I just wanted to make sure I could keep it alive before toiling somemore... For staring with a sapling, I don't know how much to push the pot, soil, pruning issues. Hopefully someone can answer your questions, because I am interested in them as well Shannon |
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