Little Bucida Spinosa 3

[Baku1875]

Had this little guy in safeTsorb, fine akadama, sand, cocopeat, and a small drainage layer of pumice in a 5 inch diameter plastic pot. It was nowhere near as vigorous as my other 3 bucidas, so it's repotting time. Thumbs down for safeTsorb and high akadama % mixes for South Florida

Raked the root ball periphery a bit, reduced about an inch from the bottom, poured some pumice and fir bark chunks, topped with some akadama around the future nebari area, and sphagnum moss so it can tolerate the extreme heat of the summer. I hope it likes the pumice, I'm gonna put tea bags with dr earth pure gold on top with some orchid fertilizer with micronutrients once it settles down and shows signs of new growth(I found that mix to help my ficuses and fukien tea in inorganic soil)

He's going in partial shade for 1-2 weeks then full sun again. Wasn't a bare root so it shouldn't be too stressed. Some yellowing of leaves, a few new buds and leaves, I think the old soil wasn't breathing enough.

Wired the right branch down and to the right a bit, and the right middle branch to create some separation. Later in the season I'll see what I can do with the top and left branches. Let me know if you guys have any suggestions. Out of my 3 little bucidas and my 1 big one, I think that they all have cascade potential, this one looks like it can become an informal upright, maybe if I expose the two legs at the base more it can be an exposed root. Let's see how it grows this summer.

It was a small seedling in the pot from when I bought my bigger bucida about 7-8 years ago. I'm not sure how, but it has two leg shaped trunks that come together, it wasn't intentional. Seems like it was an exposed pair of roots?

 

[Baku1875]

360 shots and top

 

[Millard B.]

Here in South Florida Bucida spinosa is listed as a native species, in all my travels I've only seen one tree growing naturally on Craig Key at the Mile Marker 72 bayside, in the Keys, just past Islormada, growing just above the high tide line on a giant piece of limerock that water it gets is the occasional rainfall. I've made a special mix for my Keys Trees- Card Sound Narrow Leaf Buttonwood, Coccoloba viniifera and diversifolia, and Lignum vitae. I add to my regular mix about 1/3 b volume 1/4" limestome ricerock, I think the pH level is closer to natural doing this. I also put my Xylosma bahamensis in this same mix, very happy!
Last summer my good friend was selling off the pre-bonsai off 6 acres of stock when after selling all the good trees, brought in a 30 yard dumpster to remove all nursery related items, he asked me to take as much as i had space for at my nursery at my house. I found an overgrown section towards the back that had many Bucidas and Dividivis in 7 gal and 15 gal grown out of the pots, thru the ground cloth into the ground. I sawzalled many 7 gallon Bucidas growing in 20 year old 'pudding" decomposed soil. I barerooted about a dozen , killing about half. Just recently I noticed 5 of the rescued trees are a cultivar of Bucida spinosa "nana"- Extra Dwarf. The internodal spacing averages between 1/2" and 3/4" and most leaves are about 1/3 smaller. Regular Bucida spinosa has internodal spacing closer to an average of 1".As soon as the trees recover from their spring leaf drop and start the red growth these cuttings will go on the mist tables, the best time is when we have 80f plus nights for best percentage to root. My friend Allen shared with me his Grandfatherr's method of starting hard to root tropicals, Using Pro-Mix potting soil, he fills 60 cell trays, slightly tamps the soil, not too hard, then turns the 60 cell tray upside down on a piece of Durock cement board, then cuts each cutting at least 4 internodes long, applies Dip-N-Grow rooting hormone at 100% undiluted to the end of each cutting. Then he sticks each cutting into the drainage hole of the 60 cell tray and puts each tray into a mist house with 30% shade cloth. A 120 volt 24 hour timeclock controls a second 10 minute timeclock that has a 120v AC to 24 volt DC transformer that controls a 24 volt DC water solenoid that comes on twice every 10 minutes for 6 seconds from 7 am to 7 pm. The inverted 60 cell tray seems to retain more heat than rightside up trays. The only drawback is that the drain hole has to be cut slightly to remove the rooted cutting, either up or down. I think that it would be impossible to grow too many of these Extra Dwarf Bucibas!
The Bonsai Societies of Florida Memorial Day Annual Convention will be May 26, 27, and 28 at the Florida Hotel in Orlando again this yea. I will be a vendor there again selling my homemade stoneware bonsai containers. It is good to be around like-minded people!

 

[Baku1875]

Here in South Florida Bucida spinosa is listed as a native species, in all my travels I've only seen one tree growing naturally on Craig Key at the Mile Marker 72 bayside, in the Keys, just past Islormada, growing just above the high tide line on a giant piece of limerock that water it gets is the occasional rainfall. I've made a special mix for my Keys Trees- Card Sound Narrow Leaf Buttonwood, Coccoloba viniifera and diversifolia, and Lignum vitae. I add to my regular mix about 1/3 b volume 1/4" limestome ricerock, I think the pH level is closer to natural doing this. I also put my Xylosma bahamensis in this same mix, very happy!
Last summer my good friend was selling off the pre-bonsai off 6 acres of stock when after selling all the good trees, brought in a 30 yard dumpster to remove all nursery related items, he asked me to take as much as i had space for at my nursery at my house. I found an overgrown section towards the back that had many Bucidas and Dividivis in 7 gal and 15 gal grown out of the pots, thru the ground cloth into the ground. I sawzalled many 7 gallon Bucidas growing in 20 year old 'pudding" decomposed soil. I barerooted about a dozen , killing about half. Just recently I noticed 5 of the rescued trees are a cultivar of Bucida spinosa "nana"- Extra Dwarf. The internodal spacing averages between 1/2" and 3/4" and most leaves are about 1/3 smaller. Regular Bucida spinosa has internodal spacing closer to an average of 1".As soon as the trees recover from their spring leaf drop and start the red growth these cuttings will go on the mist tables, the best time is when we have 80f plus nights for best percentage to root. My friend Allen shared with me his Grandfatherr's method of starting hard to root tropicals, Using Pro-Mix potting soil, he fills 60 cell trays, slightly tamps the soil, not too hard, then turns the 60 cell tray upside down on a piece of Durock cement board, then cuts each cutting at least 4 internodes long, applies Dip-N-Grow rooting hormone at 100% undiluted to the end of each cutting. Then he sticks each cutting into the drainage hole of the 60 cell tray and puts each tray into a mist house with 30% shade cloth. A 120 volt 24 hour timeclock controls a second 10 minute timeclock that has a 120v AC to 24 volt DC transformer that controls a 24 volt DC water solenoid that comes on twice every 10 minutes for 6 seconds from 7 am to 7 pm. The inverted 60 cell tray seems to retain more heat than rightside up trays. The only drawback is that the drain hole has to be cut slightly to remove the rooted cutting, either up or down. I think that it would be impossible to grow too many of these Extra Dwarf Bucibas!
The Bonsai Societies of Florida Memorial Day Annual Convention will be May 26, 27, and 28 at the Florida Hotel in Orlando again this yea. I will be a vendor there again selling my homemade stoneware bonsai containers. It is good to be around like-minded people!

amazing technique with the upside down tray setup, seems that it would also help prevent the mister from over saturating the soil, I'm going to try a variation of that with a small mister in my grow shelf.

I have had my bucidas for about 7-9 years (cant pinpoint the date that I got them), but it was always hard to get them to root from cuttings.

I will let you know if my air layer survives from the apex of my bigger bucida. I really appreciate the input!

 

[Baku1875]

I wish I got into bonsai years ago, especially the styling and design part, but bucida spinosas have tons of styling potential IMO.

Correcting taper by wiring the thinnest high branch vertically and chopping trunk, the fan shaped ramification pattern can be detail wired to individual pads, verticals could be used to change direction using clip and grow, etc.

I haven't started detail wiring, but when these pads get nice and dense I'm gonna try a few things and see how it goes.