5yr Native Tree Challenge - Agathis Dammara

Lumaca

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So I wanted to grow some trees that are not only native but also "iconic", and here are a pair of Agathis Dammara. Famous for producing damar (which translates to resin), which is used as varnish on oil painting as well as for the traditional cloth-painting technique of batik.

Agathis.jpgCones.jpgDamar.jpg


The pictures are intentionally bad to make the end products look better.
 

Leo in N E Illinois

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Very interesting. Had to hit Wikipedia to learn something about it. More or less an offshoot of the Araucaria family. Wikipedia mentions it can become quite stunted and dwarfed when growing at high elevation and or in nutrient poor settings. This bodes well for its use as bonsai.

On the down side, Araucaria species, such as the Norfolk Island pine are known to resist bonsai technique. But Agathis is a separate genus, its growth habits will hopefully submit or respond favorably to bonsai technique.

Agathis dammara is a unique choice of species and I heartily encourage you to experiment with it, and document the results.

You are allowed more than one entry into the contest. You are in Indonesia. There are some native species that have proven positive track records as bonsai. Look into the work of Robert Stevens, a number of the species he uses are proven bonsai subjects. Check out the genus Premna, and of course, you have locally native members of Ficus. Your locally native Diospyros (ebony family) might be an interesting choice.
 

Lumaca

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Very interesting. Had to hit Wikipedia to learn something about it. More or less an offshoot of the Araucaria family. Wikipedia mentions it can become quite stunted and dwarfed when growing at high elevation and or in nutrient poor settings. This bodes well for its use as bonsai.

On the down side, Araucaria species, such as the Norfolk Island pine are known to resist bonsai technique. But Agathis is a separate genus, its growth habits will hopefully submit or respond favorably to bonsai technique.

Agathis dammara is a unique choice of species and I heartily encourage you to experiment with it, and document the results.

You are allowed more than one entry into the contest. You are in Indonesia. There are some native species that have proven positive track records as bonsai. Look into the work of Robert Stevens, a number of the species he uses are proven bonsai subjects. Check out the genus Premna, and of course, you have locally native members of Ficus. Your locally native Diospyros (ebony family) might be an interesting choice.
Thank you for the encouraging words! I do have a bunch of other species in the works, although most are bought blindly online due to restrictions. If I manage to go up the mountains to visit some nurseries soon, I might have other more interesting species!

Diospyros Celebica, the Ebony tree which you are thinking of, was considered, but had a couple of strikes against it:
1. It is endemic to only one island which is not mine (although it is my dad's island...)
2. It is a slooow grower
3. It has huge leaves

All in all, I am very interested in growing it just for fun, but thought it would be against the rules (as well as my Eucalyptus deglupta and Pinus merkusii). I have considered Premna, Pemphis, Feroniella, and a bunch others (may revisit after lockdown), but I guess it's a case of choice paralysis hahaha.
 

Lumaca

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20210130_121313.jpg

I found a trio of Agathis Dammara in a single pot growing clump style with very little attention paid to them at my mom's.

So I adopted them, split them into 3 pots, and here's a comparison of what their reduced leaves look like compared to mine. I guess this is the leaf size I'm aiming for.
 

Lumaca

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This dude messing up my nebari wannabe is making me check on the Damars.

20210704_105513.jpg

The original 2 are growing strong with HUGE leaves, I included the comparison with the neglected ones that have much smaller leaves. The smaller leaves are all in coco coir and they get very waterlogged. Does that have any effect on leaf sizes? I wonder...

20210704_134948.jpg
20210704_134938.jpg20210704_134922.jpg20210704_134515.jpg20210704_134503.jpg20210704_134931.jpg

Anyway, I think the big ones need to be repotted soon. The wild ferns are getting WILD, the roots are growing through the takeout container which is also starting to fall apart.

Also, I have no idea what can be done with these, they seem to only want to grow in a trident shape at the apex. Pruning the top doesn't do anything and they just redo their own thing at the cut point.
 
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I think step one would be to wire some curve into their trunks. Other than that, just letting them grow is the way to go.
 
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Also, I have no idea what can be done with these, they seem to only want to grow in a trident shape at the apex. Pruning the top doesn't do anything and they just redo their own thing at the cut point.
I know of a bonsai-ist in Brazil that has successfully made an Araucaria angustifolia bonsai. From what I gather, they have the same problem: extreme apical dominance, no back budding except at the very top. What they did was cut the leader back short, wait for the tree to make new leaders, and then prune all but the weakest one to be the new leader. They also warned never to cut off all of the newly sprouted leaders and try to wire an existing branch as the new leader, else the tree would die.
Not sure if these apply to your species, but maybe worth giving some thought.
 

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Lumaca

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I think step one would be to wire some curve into their trunks. Other than that, just letting them grow is the way to go.
Yes! Unfortunately real life is catching up and I have a lot less time for trees now. So many things in the to do list.

Since I have a bunch of these, I'm very willing to experiment so I will definitely try all the methods.
 
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