CA Coastal Live Oak Cuttings, or Driving down the one o one

What is your favorite part of spring? For me, it's softwood cuttings. I am by no means a cuttings master,  but I have had my share of experience. I have made cuttings throughout the year regardless of the season and the ripeness of the branch. Most cuttings grew a few did not. The failure was not related to species. Usually, what happened os that I would prune a plant. Then I would try to root the cuttings. Most would make it but some would not. Yet, I would never have a 100 percent failure. I attribute this to the very mild climate.

I want to try California Live Oak softwood cuttings. I think that it will be successful. Here in southern California, we had lots of rain this winter. The Oaks have pushed out lots of new growth. I have access to many Live oaks so I can take a few cuttings from each and try my luck.

These branches are new and have not lignified. The branches are very flexible. The leaves have hardened though. I am going to take as much of the branch as possible. I am not going to cut any branch smaller than five inches.

For the planting medium, I am mixing vermiculite and perlite in a ratio of 1:1. I am using a taller pot so that I can bury the ends of the cuttings about three inches.

This is what the cuttings look like. It has too many leaves for it to survive. The leaves would cause all the cutting to lose too much moisture through perspiration.

I removed the growing tip and all of the leaves except for the top two. The top two just underneath where I cut the tip off.

Just before I put them in the pot I shaved an eighth of an inch from the bottom of the cutting. I did do it twice per cutting on opposite sites. Then I added rooting hormone and planted the cuttings and watered.

Even if they fail I'll be able to try in the winter one more time.

I am hoping for the best. I am trailblazing (That means I did not find any info on the web). Updates sure to follow. Cheers.

Update 05/01/2017:

it was a fail.

Spring time root pruning time.

Spring time, many plants have laid dormant for winter and now they're ready to emerge. On a past post I have shown you how i cut the tap roots off of seedlings. This post is about removing the tap roots from yearlings. The big difference is that I will not use any rooting hormone nor will I use a sandy middle (see:http://bonsai-misadventures.blogspot.com/2016/02/cedar-of-lebanon-cedrus-libani-cutting.html ) to place the plant in. Why am i cutting the tap roots? Tap roots are anchors. They grow long and deep. This is not good for plants living in pots. So, to promote a radial root pattern we remove tap roots. Important: do not let the roots dry out. Try to cut the roots during a cool time of the day. Have some water handy to dunk or spray the roots.

These are Osage orange. These trees were very prolific in the last ice age. The megafauna would eat the fruits and disperse the seeds. I don't know if any animal eats the fruits anymore. No animals munching on the fruit, no animal planting its seeds all over the place. Osage orange was also an important tree for the inhabitants of of the united states precolumbian arrival. The wood is great for making bows.

Enough about non bonsai related topics. All these Osage orange were planted from seed in the same pot. To start we watered the pot. Then we pulled the plants and soil out of the pot. We massaged the soil softly until it all fell off. Then we untangled the roots. You can probably skip the untangling part. I untangled it so I can take a clearer picture. You can just go right ahead and snip the excess root.

To know where you should cut is easy. Cut an inch to two inches under the soil line. That is under where the plant grew out of the soil.

  Now repot the plants and watch them grow. Cutting the roots is going to slow growth for a short time. The plant has to grow enough root to feed any new growth.  

These osage orange were sown in late spring. I don't believe they reached their full potential for last year.  But this year they’ll get sun, some water, and a little blood meal and they should stretch out.

These Acorns I harvested in early October. I planted them a week later. Three weeks after They were popping out of the dirt. They grew all winter here in sunny southern CA. Now in March they have grown about five inches. The procedures are the same as they are for the Osage Orange. Cut an inch to two inches below the acorn.

 Oak tap roots grow straight down and because they didn't have anywhere to go just started to spin around and they all got tangled.

 Here they are after the roots got chopped.

 The soil mix is 50% organic 50% inorganic, sand turface and fine volcanic rock.

 That's it for this batch of Oaks I have 3 more pots to do.

 This was the longest Oak seedling that I found.
 It measured about two feet.

Cheers 

Update 04/07/2016

I have lost a few of the oak trees. I pruned some cork oak right after and they are doing fine. I believe that i waited much to long to prune the Live oak. All the cork oak were much smaller than the live oak. The live oak that were smaller are doing great. 

Rosemary

Rosemary

  One of the great advantages of rosemary is the small leaf size. It also can have a great green color and silvery accents. Some people myself included find the aroma of the essential oil very pleasing. I saw this tree at the local box store. I think i paid around $8.00 U.S. for it. it was tall and had many twisting branches. What I really liked about this tree was its trunk. The trunk looked braided, and it had bark that looked like it was peeling. It had a branch on the side that I was not sure if I was going to keep. I decided to keep it.

Close up

           The look I’m going for is of a gnarly old oak. Here in California we have a lot of live oak. The old trees have huge branches that touch the ground and then come back up. I am going to give it a domed top and have the branches go down then back up.

Planned silhouette

     I potted the rosemary in mostly volcanic rock and Turface. I would say 70 inorganic and 30 organic. Organic materials retain water. Since I didn’t add that much organic material the soil dries out quickly. To compensate for the lack of organic material I added a layer of moss. This will slow evaporation a little bit.

Back or future front?

Bonsai greetings from the south bay

Greetings from Inglewood California. I love bonsai. I read, dream, smell, and sweat bonsai. A year ago a woman at work gave me a small Procumbens nana juniper and I was hooked. My plant collection has exploded. My pot collection has grown I have learned much through looking for information, and even more through making mistakes.
    One thing I have noticed about people in bonsai is that they are passionate. This leads to much argument and controversy. I hope that my blog can remain light hearted and a fun read. I am going to log my misadventures this year. I am applying to school to continue my studies in horticulture as i hope to own a nursery one day.

Ficus Microcarpa

Ficus Microcarpa top view

     This is one of my most developed trees. As you can see it is not very refined. This ficus was growing as an epiphyte in the crotch of a multi trunked Italian pine. I can not guess its age, but it has scar marks from when the grounds keepers hacked it back. I cut the base of the trunk to remove it from the pine. I placed it half way in bark used for orchid soil and watered it when the top was dry. It has many roots now and I am expecting lots of growth this year.