Nice! Any tips on how to manage these things? What species is it? I've been told to prune by twisting the foliage off at a node but I really think it depends on the species as to how they respond. They rival black pines when done correctly but I'm still learning. I have a good size C. Glauca that I'm trying to develop branching but it does not respond as well as Torulosa which I've also played with. I see incredible things from the folks in Taiwan using Equistifolia. Anyway, nice grouping, any info you can share will be invaluable
Hi Jeremy, I beleive it is cunninghamiana but I can't be 100% certain of that as I actually didn't collect itoriginally. This was collected over 25 years ago and over the last 5 years I have began the neverending taskof restyling it properly.
The process for growing Casuarina is daunting to many but not as hard as you think. The first thing you want
to do is grow a decent Trunk to the desired look. Once you are happy with the Trunk, the Branches are trained
as per most other Trees.It took me a few years to figure it out but as someone said to me
"train the branches as you would for a broadleaf Tree". So forgetting about the foliage altogether at the
moment and thinking about training "primary" branches and then "secondary" branches to desired thicknesses
with good movement and Taper. Still through this branch growing process the Foliage is nothing to be trained
but used for what it does-thicken the tree and keep it alive.
Ok so at this stage if you think of your Casuarina as a ""deciduous tree" with no foliage, you'll begin to
have a decent Trunkline and Good primary and secondary branching flowing from that trunkline.
Now when I'm working Casuarina I personally have learnt the Best way is to remove all the Foliage at the time
of major wiring and structure setting. This is why I refer lightly about thinking deciduous trees.
On a strong healthy Casuarina Foliage can be removed so as to eliminate unwanted cladodes(foliage), see the
"structure" and undertake wiring tasks. If you want a branch to keep growing strong don't remove the growing
ends of that branch. I have never suffered dieback as a result of "defoliation" and you get great new Young
healthy Foliage to work with.
Once the Tree is at a stage ready for "refinement" it is up to you which way to go.
The basic way of outine pinching or trimming the foliage to create the desired image or as you mentioned
the other way which was developed by the indonesian bonsai community.
To achieve the later is to delelop "tufts" or pads with the finer branching which you will grow from the
secondaries. Ramification of the tertiaries will lead to denser "pads" whilst keeping the general trunkline
clean from any foliage at all.
At this end stage you certainly should Not cut or break the foliage to create "pads" as that generally
leaves the foliage with deadends and rendering the "end" pretty much dead. Yes that's right the correct way of
shortening Foliage on a presentable Casuarina is to use the "Twist" method of trimming. With new or young
Foliage you can gently Twist the cladode in half where you want on the segmented joins. Holding carefully with
2 fingers and with the other hand twist the cladode apart cleanly. This should result in no deadends and also
an undamaged "leaf end" where it will reshoot. This can be done to all the new foliage to create the desired
pads and remove all old or unwanted cladodes. Once you understand that process you will be able to create
Casuarina with the as you say "look of black pine". To say one Species rivals another I can't agree as each
species is it's own.
hope all this helps you out some, regards Craig.