Big pot Oak - another year

Since April 2003 I have been growing this Oak in a large pot. It's been a tough growing summer in sunny southern England. It's late summer for my large Oak and it's looking a bit untidy from all the mildew burns on the leaves. Even with careful watering I still had a lot of leaf burn on many other species - just cooked because it was too hot - no problems with nutrients or salts. About the only thing that doesn't seem to burn is the Oak. Due to the shortage of rainwater during the peak of the summer it got a lot of London tap water and this doesn't seem to have made any difference either.

This one has increased greatly in ramification this year. I've been using guy wires to keep the branches heading in more or less the right direction. I continue to shorten all the top growth and allow the lower branches to grow freely. The taper is quite nice now - and the thick side branches are enhancing the movement in the trunk.

Using the same matchbox again 12 months later you can see that the base of the trunk has expanded significantly - its approx 6cm now. And its a bit exciting to see that there may be some bark forming at the base too.

I imagine that I see some good radial surface roots forming around trunk as well.

I went to great expense (£3.95 ) and bought a soil pH checker. When I first checked the Oaks pot the pH was close to 4 - which can't be good even if the plant likes acidic conditions. I got some lime which is useful for increasing the pH and also adds calcium and magnesium to the soil. The soil is now a much friendlier 6.5 and I know that all the important macro-nutrients are in plentiful supply.

I'm find that every time I walk past it now I want to transfer it to a bonsai pot and start working on the twigs. I also know that I need to keep its roots under control and the longer it stays in this pot the more difficult it will be. Over the last 18 months it has increased in trunk diameter from 3cm to 6cm and its is tempting to let it expand another year and risk the root problems.

Its been interesting to learn that there are other bonsai growers out there going through this same process with Oaks. I hope to get to see how they have been going with their attempts.

Milk as a fungicide

A week ago I sprayed my Oak trees with a dilute solution ( about 1 : 8 ) of skim milk to try to treat the very heavy powdery mildew which had infected them all. It was killing off all the new growth coming through in the late summer.

After waiting a week to see what happened I had a look at my Oak leaves which were sprayed as an attempt to treat the heavy powdery mildew. I am so extremely surprised at how effective this has been. The underlying damage to the leaves is obviously still there - but the mildew is almost entirely gone.

This should extend my growing season a little and improve the vigour of the oaks greatly. 

This is a great treatment. I cant see any downsides.

Big pot growing experiment

In early April I planted a few trees into giant pots, as an alternative to field growing as I don't have my own garden to dig up and experiment in. This is the result after the first year. 

http://englishbonsai.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/move-on-up.html

I have been putting wire around the trunks as a Dendrometer so that I could have a good idea of the growth. Next year when they are settled I will be more scientific in my observations and keep more regular measurements.

It seems that the strong growth of wood begins in early April and ends in early September - before and after that there is still a lot of vegetative growth. This is outdoors and will be different under glass - early budding maples in cold shelters will have their major expansion earlier in the year.

Next year I will be sure to regularly water and fertilise during this critical period of growth (March to May). On established bonsai this is the time to go easy on the feeding to avoid big leaves and fat shoots.

This is an early August picture of the base of the oak tree. There is some good expansion already.

It already has a nice taper and a little movement in the trunk so it's not like a lamp post. I don't see many oaks with much movement in the trunk growing in the fields around home so I see no point in an oak bonsai that looks likes a pig's tail.

This picture was taken in early December after the leaves had dropped. I used a match box for scale (which is 5.5cm wide). There seems to have been another bit of growth since the previous picture. This is no surprise as it had been very active above ground.

The beech expansion was less impressive but still good. Its already quite a lot bigger than the oak - I think its a year older.

The beech does seem to want a little time to settle into its new home before it really gets going so I hope for a strong showing next year. My previously repotted beech trees have shown a pattern of growing a lot better in their second year. I suspect that this is due to the fact that the beech root system begins its growing after the budding - so potentially the new growth is a bit starved in its first year.

Given the behaviour of the root systems it is my opinion the trees must be potted and settled by mid March.

On both of these trees (especially the oak) I have been constantly pruning to keep their apical dominance at bay. I am specifically encouraging the lower side branches on both.

So far it all seems to be working.

Oak Rescue

Here is my first oak at the beginning of the year - 6 or so years after I found it coming up in my vegetable patch. It was starting to look quite pleasing to my eye. A little skinny still but a few more years will fix that. It's the first oak because there are 3 more that have come after it that are gaining weight in the field and big pots and will be a lot better at this age.

The evening after this picture was taken we had an unpredicted but very heavy frost. I now realise that the skinny pot had also made the roots very vulnerable to the frost. The foliage was quite badly damaged - but not as much as a maple which had all its leaves killed.

I took the tree back under glass until the frosts were gone. It then went into a sheltered location outside. It had lost its vigour - no new growth happened - but there were still many good leaves. At this stage I was already applying foliar fertilisers and Rhizotonic.

My cat is peculiar little beast. She came running into my study yelling loudly for me to come and look. She then ran straight out and showed my the poor tree lying on the paving. Quite how it was wrenched out of its pot and thrown several feet I don't know.

I could see that there were very few live roots left - burned away by the frost I think. I got a little hope from a few new white roots visible on the edge of the root ball.

Somehow I just couldn't keep the tree upright. it got walked into and collided with for no good reason several times - no matter how far out of the way it was. This was making me very angry and I decided that action was needed if  it was going to be saved - and that I wanted to save it. I ordered a new pot for it. 

The tree needed to be in an environment that was going to encourage it to grow roots and recover. 

The drainage layer is hydroponic clay pebbles - with the usual mesh over the holes. Then I placed a layer of coconut fibre. As an experiment I also bought some mycorrhiza specific to oaks which I sprinkled on the layer where the roots were going to sit. This would put it in direct contact with the roots.

I have been using a lot of coconut fibre (coir) for vegetables and some other growing projects - my chilli plants this year have been the most productive ever in this growing medium and the results are very good for other species. Other growers also report that it is similar to sphagnum moss in its ability to stimulate roots.

In my limited experience so far the organic growing media tends to attract fungus gnats in great numbers. I am in the process of trying out several cures. 

The constant mist technique is used commercially for rooting cuttings. I tried to follow this methodology and mist the foliage as often as possible - aiming to keep it constantly moist. I also used some foliar feed and applied Canna Rhizotonic to the foliar feed.

I would advise you not to use fish emulsion as foliar fertiliser as during the summer it will attracted a great number of flies.

I also used Canna nutrients specific to the type of coco soil I was using and some additional Canna Rhizotonic to additionally stimulate the roots and relieve stress.

It took a long time but I have got new growth again. I hope this has put enough energy in so that it survives the winter.

I shall be more careful next year.

Summer Lammas growth

Ive been enjoying a few more days away from work - a well timed gap between projects as I am able to water more often during this spell of hot weather we are having. The weather seems to have kicked off an unusual spurt of growth in some species - specifically the Beeches and Oaks.

I have written before about the Lammas growth - but this year it is very pronounced. I’m guessing that the nice weather has helped the trees to achieved their energy targets for the next winter and they have surplus so they spend it on new growth.

These Lammas leaves in the second flush seem to have come out very quickly and aren’t as nicely formed as the spring leaves. The Beech leaves are a strange colour and the Oak leaves can be slightly deformed having fewer lobes and unusual veins in the leaves.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lammas_growth


My small first generation Beech which I potted for fun is coming along really nicely. It is by far the most vigorous of the current generation of Beeches I have. Almost every branch tip is giving growth. I’m nibbling away at the apex buds to keep its apical dominance at bay. These seems to be leading to the lower branches getting some growth as well.

On larger pot grown beeches I’ve nibbled back everything on the crowns to keep them in check. They will grow very thick branches up top if allowed - which leads to an ugly knob forming and no taper. The plan is to allow unrestricted growth on the side branches - especially the lower ones - to allow a good taper for form. Wild Beeches don’t have a great deal of taper but it will look nice - and nice even side branches are easy on the eyes.

In theory I am interrupting the apical mechanism by nibbling off these apex shoots which generate the Auxins hormone which is inhibiting the lower buds from growing - which should give me good sideways growth.

The Oaks are also doing the Lamas thing. I’ve allowed one of the Oaks to grow unchecked and its growing at a massive rate - this one is due for some strategic pruning soon. For taper I am also trying to keep the top end of the oaks in check and get the side branches working.

This Oak wanted nothing to do with hormones and simultaneously elongated everything.

 

These are my first generation of field / large container grown trees. They contain many mistakes and I see them purely as a learning exercise. Useful for acquiring technique - something large and cheap to try stuff out on. I don't expect and good bonsai material out of these - although the little beach is looking nice. 

I planted what I would call second generation trees at the beginning of this year. I’ve allowed them to establish roots and will do some early wiring to the trunks to get something interesting happening there - none of that hyper contorted leaping dragon nonsense - just a bit of interest.

As usual the cat has been overseeing matters.  

Oak progress

This is my first Oak - discovered coming up amongst the tomato plants in the vegetable patch about 6 years ago - the work of a forgetful squirrel.

The next 4 Oaks are growing in containers out back - also from acorns. Nice little trunks on them already. I think i shall try for larger containers for them this year.

I think the warm March got it going a little early and a few late frosts really hurt it. I became concerned and brought it in under glass to help it out a little as we have had a few -4 ( friday 4 april  according to a local weather station ) nights lately. Under the more comfortable circumstance it has begun growing energetically.

I have done some light wiring - but they new shoots are very delicate and the leaves are brittle and will crack and break easily. I find the Oak is a bit easier to wire when its hardened off a little.

I have some black slime growing on the soil surface ( i call it pot snot ) so i will remove some of the top layer. There is also a lot of moss and it makes it hard to water.

This oak is rather pot bound now. The roots and soil are quite rot free so they will have to soldier on for another year. The soil mix is finely graded Akadama and fuji grit - and the Oak has loved it. The Oak is subjectively easier to grow than pines and is more tolerant of watering and fertilizer.


Here is the little Oak today. Once mother nature gives the signal it is one of the fastest growing trees i have ever seen.

There are probably 10 times as many growth points this year. I am hoping that this first flush of leaves will be smaller than last years.

A lot of wire is going to be used to tame this one.

Oak buds are out!!

 I was out on the lawn today with the cat doing my daily check of all the trees when I noticed that the Oak was extending its buds.

I've cut it back quite a lot over the winter and done some light wiring to keep it all going in the right direction. With experience growing this species I'm learning the correct shape and size. Its important to match the size of the ramification and length of the nodes with the leaf size. I've also done a better job of aiming the new growth this year.

Really suffering with water stress on the maples after they were repotted. The new growth has been explosive and the poor trimmed roots just cant get enough water up. The terminal buds are aborting on a lot of branches - which leads to very ugly nodes later on. I took them outside and hosed them down to cool them off and give extra moisture. Almost like treating a recently collected tree. Shade and loads of water on the foliage.

Luckily the roots are growing almost as quickly as the foliage and the pot will be full of them soon - if not now already. This one seems to be throwing out big thick white roots - whereas the Deshojo roots are finer. A lot to learn about this subject. The pattern of drying on the Akadama is quite noticeably different to a month ago so the roots are spread much wider already.

New oaks

I was really annoyed about loosing that oak that i bought. Ive been looking out for some trees in the area to collect - but there really aren't any. So the only choice was to grow from scratch. No idea how i ended up there - but i found that i could buy seedlings of native trees from the Woodlandtrust - so i ordered myself 4 oak seedlings and waited patiently to see how long it would take and what they would looking.

They came in a plain unmarked box - and seemed to last very well in it. The poor things languished in there for a few days until i got back from work.

They come in these root training cell pots. There is a reasonable amount of soil and a good helping of roots in there. They have gone straight into some medium sized pots of good soil and after a week are all looking very perky and show signs of a bit of last season growth.

Repotting a small Oak

The buds on the Oak were starting to swell. So it was time for repotting. I'd placed the tiny oak ( which was growing in a peat seedling cup ) in a small pot with an inner lip. It proved very hard to extract. It had been in this pot for 2 years.

I'm going to discard that pot as its so hard to get anything out of it.

Once I'd got it out of there is discovered that the roots were 6 foot long and had been doing laps of the pot. This type of root is very different from other species i had worked with before - and it was extremely pot bound. Interesting that the root growth had been as vigorous as the above ground growth which had been rather extreme during the peak of the growing season last year.

Any of the new acorns ( 12 being prepared now ) that germinate this year will immediately go into larger pots based on this knowledge.

I lack experience with repotting roots like this - so I decided to be cautious and not cut back the large long roots too much. The placement in the pot was defined by getting the large root system into the pot and unwinding them. this may be a mistake - we will see what it looks like when i repot it again in a few years.

The pot is a little to large - but I'm aiming at massive growth over the next 2 years so i need plenty of headroom.

The soil is filtered Akadama and fuji grit ( 70 / 30 aprox ). I'm hoping the fuji grit stops it setting like concrete. The good akadama is cheaper than local hydroponic alternatives and is very effective. So why not ?

The cat was very interested in the process and lent a hand as usual. 

Oak

Now that we are through the dead of winter i have begun to work on the plants again. they've had a nice break and are ready to gear up for another good year.

The little oak had its trunk chopped. I took about 60cm off the top and sealed it off.

I left a few centimeters above the next apex bud for it to die back a little. Its probobly going to have this procedure performed a few more times in its life so no need for surgical precision at this time.



















I'l give it a week or two to get over the fright before i move it to its new pot. The oak is the beginning of the chain of the repotting season as i have several plants that want new pots this year and they will all be inheriting pots from their older siblings.


This one is going to go into an akadama / fuji grit mix. It was in a 3 part mix of sharp sand , john innes and horticultural grit - which worked extremely well and may have contributed to its explosive growth. I think i will use that soil mix again in the near future.


The work on oaks will continue with planting of a few more acorns. I got lucky and picked up a few acorns for quercus brantii while walking in a restaurant garden - so il see if i can get them to germinate as well.

Oak Training - Part 1

Now that the giant shoot on top of the oak has been trimmed off i waited for the buds near the apex to swell and get growing again. This new side branch is going to be trained into the new apex.







While the new green shoot is nice and soft tie it up to a piece of the old trunk. I use a bit of very soft lead soldering wire for this. Be gentle - don't go straight up immediately - try to feel how stiff the little branch is and get an idea of how much it will yield without buckling.





This plant is very apically dominant . I was hoping that the trunk chop would direct a little growth lower but nothing is going on down below. Maybe defoliation would get the lower buds and branches going again. I have no experience defoliating Oaks - but i may experiment next year on this one as it is young and vigorous. Otherwise the heavy pruning on top and leaving the bottom unchecked should maintain the balance. This will be an interesting battle over the next few growing seasons.

On the bright side - the lower trunk growth is very good.

English Oak - Part4

The little tree is coming on well with about 1mm of girth added to the base of the trunk.



I hadnt expected it so early on in the season - but the second flush of growth has begun. I'm glad that the apex is the strongest growth point at this stage as well.



I'm keeping this one on the chempak high nitro for another few weeks as im looking for a lot of growth this season.

English Oak - part3

Here is another image a week later of the little oak.


Its doing very well - Im hoping the buds are going to form some nice small branches where they are.

Oaks usually have a second round of growth later in the season so I hope these branches will be in good shape by the end of the season as well.

With the amount of foliage and new branches I'm hoping it will put on some good girth on the bottom as well.

At the moment its on a weekly dilute ( about 75% strength ) feed of Chempak high nitro ( 25+15+15 ).

As you can see im using some normal aluminium wire to shape the heavy branches - but on the light delicate shoots im using lead soldering wire to encourage them in the right direction.

English Oak - part2

Here are a few more picture of the oak. The growth is rapid as it comes to life in spring again.



Ive selected the buds i want to develop and pinched the others. This young tree was very densely covered in buds so i had plenty of choice. Its very enjoyable growing like this - not needing to wire ( much ) or trim to get shape - but rather to rely on organic growth to get a nice shape developing.



Ive been giving it a little bit of high nitrogen fertiliser - chempack high nitro. the growth seems vigorous so far and im hoping for a big year from the little oak. As you can see in the background - the high nitro is giving rampant growth on the maples.

Im hoping the combination of increasing the number of limbs and the amount of foliage will increase the girth of the trunk quite a lot this year. Ive got some lead wire on the bas to keep track over the season.

Quercus Robur

The acorn that sprouted in my vegetable patch is comign along nicely. its a tough little tree. It had a good season last year and is positioned well this year from some good ramification. its enjoyable to grow from see and be able to shape the tree from the beginning.


ive begun to pinch off some of the buds on the trunk where i dont want new branches forming. The apex is in great shape to put out the next layer of branches and continue upwards. as you can see there are several buds up there that will have to go. il just rubbing them off early in the season so they dont get too much energy diverted into thier growth.


as you can see - i am spoilt for choice for buds right now. the tree feels like its moving towards a formal upright style.