Acacia Advice, Please?

[YukiShiro]

Hi Buddy. I hope you are well? Hopefully you are also calming down work wise over December?

Im a software Dev at a financial service provider, usually our Decembers are very busy, I'm working on a project as we speak,
but I ealry booked myself of for next week in october already

cool Beans

 

[fredman]

I use a spitgraaf bra, can work at an angle and have some distance between me and the clinker pieces

Man I would love to see this operation. How much do you break up with the shovel? Do you sift it afterwards?

 

[YukiShiro]

Man I would love to see this operation. How much do you break up with the shovel? Do you sift it afterwards?

i break up as much as I need to, 20liter bucket full of pieces takes me about 2 hours to break down, i do break up for 20 mins, then I sift the broken up pieces to two different sizes, 4-5mm and 6-8mm,
I repeat until the bucket is empty then i sift the fines out, then I wash all the dust out, then I leave it in the sun to dry

that's it, bit of a shoulder workout, but hey...I live in africa, not afraid of a lil manual labor

 

[Tieball]

Nice tree. Listen to advice....also ask around locally for growing advice....local knowledge is valuable, however, sometimes it can be flawed because they're not thinking about a tree in a container. Enjoy developing the tree.

 

[fredman]

that's it, bit of a shoulder workout, but hey...I live in africa, not afraid of a lil manual labor

Yeah that's no shit bra. I remember what that was like...
What exactly is your soil mix you use on Acacia and deciduous in general Herman.

 

[YukiShiro]

What exactly is your soil mix you use on Acacia and deciduous in general Herman.

equal parts Leca, clinker for medium trees and under I use the smaller clinker and leca, bigger trees I use bigger clinker and leca. then it depends on what I have on hand for the organic part of my soil, I always add around 30-40% for deciduous, acacia specifically get 30%. The Organic part of my soil comprises of rough palm fibre(LOVE it!) or sifted milled and composted pine bark, or a mix of them in equal parts

works for me, I water each morning before work and each evening after work in summer(depending on rain), and every second day in winter

lekker

 

[fredman]

That's why i love Africa.... n Boer maak n plan

 

[milehigh_7]

Here is another site that may be of interest to you and other African style lovers.
http://www.pretoriabonsaikai.org/index.php/trees-a-styles/african-styles/74-pierneef-style.html

 

[Omar]

Are Acacias treated as sub-tropical or deciduous when grown as bonsai?

 

[Paradox]

Hi @Angela,

Welcome to BNut.

I have no idea about acacia other than they look alot like Brazilian rain trees to me.

 

[Tieball]

You might wish to check out and get in touch with Terry Erasmus at http://www.bonsaitree.co.za
Excellent website with good information, maybe not Acacia trees though. However, Terry is located in South Africa and may of good help to you. He knows bonsai very well and has years of experience....good advisor with your local climate....especially good as a tree grower.

 

[fredman]

Are Acacias treated as sub-tropical or deciduous when grown as bonsai?

Some Acacias in the wild adapted well to sub tropical areas. The same specie grows in arid and tropical areas, though their growth rates are influenced. One specie (karroo) grows enormous in the sub tropics but rather stunted in arid areas. Soil composition also has a huge influence.
Most Acacias however are found in arid and semi arid areas. All depends on the species....
All in all I would say an Acacia should be treated as deciduous first and foremost.
Very few Acacias can actually be used for bonsai. Basically only some of the hooked thorned ones. I'm in the process of bullshitting myself by growing on some fever trees (Acacia xanthophloea) that I might be using for bonsai in the future. Will see, but somehow I don't think the long thorns will be aesthetically pleasing. To remove the thorns makes less sense to me.
Question for Dorian....That sweethorn you bent the hell out of.... does the long straight thorns reduce much as the roots are refined?

 

[Tieball]

Actually.....Terry, at the bonsaitree.co.za, South Africa, does have a good article on an Acacia tree. Check under the Blog.

 

[Dorian Fourie]

Question for Dorian....That sweethorn you bent the hell out of.... does the long straight thorns reduce much as the roots are refined?

Hey Fredman. Good to hear from you.

The acacia karoo that I bent the hell out of did not quite like what I was doing to it. It is another one of those acacia that can be very temperamental and just die back on you and all of your work gone. So I went from this....


to this in 3 weeks. The whole branch just died back and there was nothing I could do


But to answer your question....

Unfortunately the thorns do not reduce. I would just cut them off

 

[fredman]

there was nothing I could do

Oh no that's bad. Yeah some Acacias will be more difficult to work with. Will be interesting to see how it buds back for you. That's what I meant (Herman) about back budding on old wood. My fever trees does the same. Once their main branches are set, it does not form buds easily lower down. Some Acacias looks like it back buds better than others.
About the cutting of the thorns. I seems wrong to me to remove it. Its what makes an Acacia for me. Yeah rather stick to the hooked thorn ones for bonsai....

 

[Dorian Fourie]

Oh no that's bad. Yeah some Acacias will be more difficult to work with. Will be interesting to see how it buds back for you. That's what I meant (Herman) about back budding on old wood. My fever trees does the same. Once their main branches are set, it does not form buds easily lower down. Some Acacias looks like it back buds better than others.
About the cutting of the thorns. I seems wrong to me to remove it. Its what makes an Acacia for me. Yeah rather stick to the hooked thorn ones for bonsai....

Thanks Fredman.
I agree with you on the cutting of thorns but it was almost impossible to work in the tree and wire it without removing the thorns first. The hook thorns like the black monkey I find are easier to wire because the thorns are smaller. Yeah they still hook and scratch but luckily they do not stab you half to death.

The sweetthorn has actually budded out incredibly well with buds coming out all over the oldest part of the trunk. I have left it to grow uninterrupted to help it recover after the huge dieback. I might give it a trim before the end of the year though. I will post a pic or 2 of it in the morning

 

[fredman]

The sweetthorn has actually budded out incredibly well with buds coming out all over the oldest part of the trunk

Yeah that's good that you have new buds to work with after the chop. Like I said the buds in the upper part of the tree is what interest me. That's what is needed to shape a umbrella. The verticals that splits up to form the finer ramification in the upper canopy. You understand what I mean?
I have a native NZ tree that i'm trying to shape into a umbrella/pierneef. Its difficult when it doesn't bud enough in the upper branches. It buds more on the ends of the branches and that defeats the whole object....

 

[Dorian Fourie]

@fredman

This is what my sweet thorn currently looks like. I am just leaving it to grow this season and recover and worry about it again in the next season.

 

[fredman]

Yes man now I like it. Now its got the starting makings of a savanna Acacia I always felt sorry for the poor thing when it looked like a python wrapped around a little springbokkie.... I admired you for bending and squeezing the living daylights out of it, but had a shy tear in the eye for the poor thing.....
Now you can start building a proper thorn tree from it. You have some nice starting bones there of hoe?

 

[Dorian Fourie]

Well honestly if it dies now it dies. No more sentimental value to it. My friend that left it is now a ex friend after he screwed me out of R100k.

I will continue to try and grow it but not with the passion I had before. I can put that effort into a more deserving tree.

But I do like the way you described it. I learnt a few good lessons strangling that tree.