Albizia saman (Samanea Saman)

[Kievnstavick]

This is a master thread for all of my Albizia Samans aka monkeypod tree or raintree. The point of this master thread is to have a place for all 14 of my A. samans posted (and links to their induvial threads in the future) as I didn't want to flood the forums with individual posts that are not actually bonsai yet.



This was the first of my raintrees to sprout on the 6th of January, 2022. The next picture shows the growth 1 month later on the 3rd of February, 2022.

I didn't really take any pictures of these trees until the summer.


This image shows one of the pots that had four trees growing in it. I didn't really expect all four of them to germinate. I decided that repotting them now to separate the roots before they got too entangled was for the best.


These images show what the roots looked like for one of the trees and the extent of my root pruning. I reduced the tap root as far as I was comfortable with. The last image shows the way I laid out the roots while putting it in its own pot. This was performed on the 19th of July, 2022.


Next we skip to the 20th of November, 2022. This image shows of my grow tent and how they looked during this time. One of the A. Samans got drier then the rest without my notice. It has since recovered.

 

[Kievnstavick]

This is #1. It was one of few that had its own pot from the beginning and was also what I believe to be dwarfed for whatever reason. Time will tell if it was environmental or genetic.
Dates of the photos are follows: 27-JUL-22, 06-SEP-22 (x3), 27-NOV-22, 29-DEC-22
I let this grow all summer and performed a repot during the winter bonsai shuffle. In November, I pruned the tree a little to clean it up and experimented with cutting the upper leaves to hopefully allow the bottom branches to gain more vigor. The last set of pictures show off all four sides. You can see how much it grew in that one month time span.

 

[Kievnstavick]

This is #2. Another one that started with its own pot. It is also my other dwarfed tree although this one shows signs that it was just environmental dwarfing as its size changed over the months unlike #1.
Dates of the photos are as follows: 27-JUL-22, 18-AUG-22, 06-SEP-22 (x2), 27-NOV-22, 29-DEC-22
This one has pretty much the same story as the last one. I let it grow all summer then performed a repot during the winter bonsai shuffle. In November, I gave it a pruning to clean it up and experimented with controlling vigor.

 

[Kievnstavick]

Here comes #3. Part of my early-summer repotting experiment group.
Dates of the photos are as follows: 27-JUL-22, 06-SEP-22 (x2), 26-NOV-22, 29-DEC-22
I let it grow all summer, then in November I gave it a clean up pruning.

 

[Kievnstavick]

The one and only #4.
Dates of the photos are as follows: 27-JUL-22, 06-SEP-22, 26-NOV-22, 29-DEC-22
I wasn't sure if this one was going to survive its repotting as it did not look healthy after dropping most of its leaves. After the November pruning, I ended up cutting off the top as it grew too close to the grow light.

 

[Kievnstavick]

Curvy #5
Dates of the photos are as follows: 27-JUL-22, 06-SEP-22 (x2), 26-NOV-22, 29-DEC-22
During the repot, I planted this at more of an angle then it was growing at initially. This is a great example of how branches can change their orientation to grow towards the light. In November, I defoliated the top branch in hopes of allowing the bottom to gain more vigor and maybe take over as the leader for the future.

 

[Kievnstavick]

Casual #6.
Dates of the photos are as follows: 27-JUL-22, 06-SEP-22 (x2), 26-NOV-22, 29-DEC-22
One of my trees that heavily favored apex growth over branching out. As a result, It has a trident like effect where the summer apex was. You can also see in the November picture the tree demonstrating its ability to back bud while still favoring apical growth.

 

[Kievnstavick]

Lucky #7?
Dates of the photos are as follows: 27-JUL-22, 06-SEP-22, 26-NOV-22, 29-DEC-22
I honestly don't have much to say on this one. Just letting it do its thing. I am considering cutting the top growth to allow one of the lower branches to take over as the leader.

 

[Kievnstavick]

Spooky #8
Dates of the photos are as follows: 27-JUL-22, 06-SEP-22, 26-NOV-22, 29-DEC-22
Another one that I didn't think would make it through its repot, but it started to recover late august.

 

[Kievnstavick]

The one they call #9.
Dates of the photos are as follows: 27-JUL-22, 06-SEP-22, 26-NOV-22, 29-DEC-22
Another one that I planted at an angle. This one basically corrected itself unlike #5 interestingly enough.

 

[Kievnstavick]

Good ol' #11. (What happened to #10? Well it died)
Dates of the photos are as follows: 27-JUL-22, 06-SEP-22, 26-NOV-22, 29-DEC-22
In November I cut the apex of this tree as it was growing too close to my grow light. As a result, the other to upper branches gained vigor.

 

[Kievnstavick]

This here is #12.
Dates of the photos are as follows: 27-JUL-22, 06-SEP-22, 27-NOV-22, 29-DEC-22
On this one, you can see how big the leaves are even with being a tiny stick that it is. This is also another example of a its ability to back bud. Despite having a strong apical growth, the lower branches are growing fairly well.

 

[Kievnstavick]

Lucky #13!
Dates of the photos are as follows: 21-JUL-22, 27-JUL-22, 06-SEP-22, 27-NOV-22, 29-DEC-22
The only tree I took a picture of on its repotting day. You can see how many leaves it lost from the repot as well as the rebound it had. I defoliated the apex to give the bottom branches more vigor. I ended up cutting off the top as it grew too close to my grow light.

 

[Kievnstavick]

Something Something #14
Dates of the photos are as follows: 27-JUL-22, 06-SEP-22, 26-NOV-22, 29-DEC-22
Although of the ones that I didn't think was going to survive its repot. I defoliated the longest branch in hopes of stimulating backbudding and allowing the other branches to gain vigor. It didn't really work out in this case. Just today, I cut the longest branch back as it was getting too close to my grow light.

 

[Kievnstavick]

Mysterious #15
Dates of the photos are as follows: 27-JUL-22, 06-SEP-22, 26-NOV-22, 29-DEC-22
The one that I let dry out... It has recovered nicely since then. One of my trees that seems to have small leaves. I am hoping that they stay small

 

[ChefB]

Great way to track your progress.

 

[Lorax7]

I started several of these from seed a few years ago. Unfortunately, squirrels found the seedlings to be quite delicious, so I only have one survivor left. They’re remarkably resilient and fast growers. A squirrel chewed halfway through the trunk a couple years ago and I thought the tree was a goner. It had no leaves on it for quite a long time (at least a month). Then, it sprouted new growth and took off pretty much as if nothing had happened. Now, the wound is completely healed and you’d have a hard time trying to figure out where the wound was. It’s only a few years old, but the trunk is already nearly an inch in diameter.

 

[Kievnstavick]

I haven't done anything too drastic to them, but I can say that I agree with their resilience and growth. Some of my saplings were just sticks and in just a month they had recovered significantly. Even in some of my photos, you can see how much they grew in just a single month by looking for the leaves I cut in half.

I am quite excited about their potential future as well as explore this species in terms of bonsai. I would say the only down side is clued into their namesake as a Raintree. For whatever reason, their evolution path made it so that they weep sap from the ends of their stems. Thus minor hand cleaning leads to stick fingers. I guess it might be why they are so resilient, since they are already accustomed to constantly losing their stored sugars.

I also still have about 150 seeds left to expirement with.

 

[Kievnstavick]

Some interesting observations that I have made on some mature specimens.

Posted below is an image comparing two leaf sizes (albeit dried) from two different trees. It seems like for the most part, the trees I have previous collected seeds from tend to have the smaller mature leaves. I am unsure if this is what was meant by "genetically" small leaves from one of my research sources with the larger leaf being an outlier. The other side of the coin would be that there is a high concentration of the genetic minority leaves in my collecting location. It is worth mentioning that these came from in ground trees. My hope is that the leaves can 'naturally' dwarf within a containerized environment to a much higher extent then what we see here.



A few of my research articles I found noted that these trees often break branches during windstorms. Interesting, I have not seen evidence to support this note. I had multiple opportunities to witness these trees blow in 30 mile per hour (Mph) winds with 55-65 Mph gusts for multiple non-consecutive days.

Branches did break off the tree during these events. Upon inspection of the broken branches, they have (almost) always been previously dead wood. Either succumbed to boring bettles or other similar fate before breaking off the tree during a windstorm. This observation leads me to believe the wood to be ductile while alive. This hypothesis will be tested when I get my saplings to a point of wiring young and old wood alive to test their limits as well as their ability to hold their shape.

I'll post some inspiration photos, showcase photos, as well as some more personal observations of this species later on. For now, here is an image of the limbs I collected for whittle practice to keep my creative mind busy.

 

[Kievnstavick]

Now that I have been back home for a little bit, I can confirm the death of 8 of my trees. The wife neglected to water them as often as I had informed her to. Oh well, at least they were only one year old saplings and not a tree in refinement. Good thing I collected 500 some odd seeds thus time

Time to say goodbye to #1, #3, #6, #7, #8, #9, #11, and #14. Enjoy your time in the compost pile. Making nutrients for all the other plants to come after.



Interestingly, while removing the substrate from the trees I found that two of them grew new roots. The one pictured has the most growth and was one that I planted in my cutting pot. I had cut the top off to live tissue. I have my doubts about it living, but we'll see. Stranger things have happened. It has been about half an hour since I took this and I have already forgot which one this was.