leatherback
The Treedeemer
Soon, all BRTs in Europe can be traced back to 3 seeds from Brazil, taken by a Flying Dutchman living in Germany!
BRT Babies sourced from @Leatherback
- Thread starter Mapleminx
- Start date
leatherback
The Treedeemer
how has it done?
Clicio
Masterpiece
leatherback
The Treedeemer
Mine too. Absense of any real sun for the last month+ and basically 7-8 hours of weak daylight are just not enough to keep them happy. I am waiting for early feb and a week or two of sunny days: They should start pushing then again.
ibakey
Mame
Somehow, mine is growing quite okay indoors. Well, not growing since winter but it retained most of its leaves throughout winter.
Hopefully it will start to grow soon and I can put it outdoors when the weather gets warmer.
Trying to get it to thicken up but I think its doing a pretty good job so far.
Any clue why yours is sulking, Mapleminx? Perhaps the grain size for your soil is too large? I used pretty small grained akadama and i water it pretty often. Perhaps, every 5 days in the winter and in the spring it goes to every 2-3 days following by summer is near daily.
Hopefully it will start to grow soon and I can put it outdoors when the weather gets warmer.
Trying to get it to thicken up but I think its doing a pretty good job so far.
Any clue why yours is sulking, Mapleminx? Perhaps the grain size for your soil is too large? I used pretty small grained akadama and i water it pretty often. Perhaps, every 5 days in the winter and in the spring it goes to every 2-3 days following by summer is near daily.
Attachments
ibakey
Mame
how are your cuttings doing btw?
Mine all did not survive unfortunately. So I only have the main tree. Its hard to get the cuttings to go. Whats your technique?
I read that some leave the cuttings in a cup of water diluted with root powder for a couple of days before putting it in the soil to improve chances.
It’s been doing really well in its current substrate all last summer. I am not sure why it’s back in sulk mode but I am sure it will snap out of it soon. Probably the light levels are not enough (right now I have some desert rose hogging my grow lights) I think I look forward to putting it back outside as much as the plant does!
Katie0317
Chumono
Everybody looks good. Across the ocean and the Mexican border.
I have two that are doing well. One does not have thorns and the other does. Obviously they love the heat here.
I'll post new pics soon.
I have two that are doing well. One does not have thorns and the other does. Obviously they love the heat here.
I'll post new pics soon.
Looks good!
BalconyBonsai
Yamadori
Mine has been growing quite well throughout winter. I have cut it back twice I believe since my previous post in December and it is still much more full than it was then.
I had a bit of a scare with one of my established cuttings from this one, where all of a sudden all of the leaves just dried up and dropped. I thought it was my fault for going a couple of days too long without watering. Then a couple of days later it started pushing out new shoots all over the tree and within 2 weeks of losing the leaves it was again looking pretty much the same as before. So I'm not sure if I did something wrong that made it do that, or if it just wanted to put out new leaves. The other cutting that I took at the same time did not do the same thing. But a Tamarindus Indica I have grown from seed did the exact same thing so I guess maybe it is something legumes do sometimes?
I had a bit of a scare with one of my established cuttings from this one, where all of a sudden all of the leaves just dried up and dropped. I thought it was my fault for going a couple of days too long without watering. Then a couple of days later it started pushing out new shoots all over the tree and within 2 weeks of losing the leaves it was again looking pretty much the same as before. So I'm not sure if I did something wrong that made it do that, or if it just wanted to put out new leaves. The other cutting that I took at the same time did not do the same thing. But a Tamarindus Indica I have grown from seed did the exact same thing so I guess maybe it is something legumes do sometimes?
Nice curvy trunk, I like it. Two of my BRT's did the same this year, all the leaves just dried up for no reason. Freaked me out, but they bounced back and are growing fine now.
BalconyBonsai
Yamadori
Thank you @Carol 83 ! I can't take credit for it though since that's what it looked like when I recieved it. I haven't done any structural work on it so far, only pruning to make it still fit in the space it has allocated. It tends to grow wide, not high, so easily starts interfering with its neighbours. Main focus so far has been trying to understand how to make it not die
BalconyBonsai
Yamadori
Anyone have suggestion on when to do harder pruning for BRT in temparate climates? I'm contemplating cutting of the top half of my tree and start a new leader, since I feel it is starting to get a bit thick at the top. This would remove a big part of the foliage so I want to do it when the tree would best be able to handle it.
Or should I not do it? My goal is to grow the trunk thicker so maybe it is better to just let it grow? But at the same time, I dont want inverse taper and I would like to promote some branches forming lower on the tree, close to the base, which at the moment, doesn't ever happen.
Any thought and ideas are welcome!
Or should I not do it? My goal is to grow the trunk thicker so maybe it is better to just let it grow? But at the same time, I dont want inverse taper and I would like to promote some branches forming lower on the tree, close to the base, which at the moment, doesn't ever happen.
Any thought and ideas are welcome!
leatherback
The Treedeemer
I would be concerned with the opposing branches lowest on the trunk. THat will give you inverse taper, and on BRT I feel more easily than other species.
I think I prune before I bring them in, and once or so in summer. I have not seen them be bothered by it.
I guess I would do a bigger prune in summer after a good push of growth has beefed up energy availability in the tree. Nice warm weather.
BalconyBonsai
Yamadori
Thanks for your thoughts! Regarding the opposite branches you mention, I have been thinking about those as well. Not sure what to do with them. I feel I dont have any other option but to take them completely off and hope for something new to sprout further down the trunk. But since the tree seems to not want to sprout low down on the trunk I am a bit worried it will only grow at the top. Do you see any other options?
Clicio
Masterpiece
Take only the left one out.
BalconyBonsai
Yamadori
Yes, that is an option but I feel that is the branch that most contribute to an increase in thickness in that area. So I feel it will continue to get worse if I leave it?
