Fat bottom pondy

wireme

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Here is currently my only ponderosa.

This was a tree that appeared supremely collectible but turned out a bit less so. Easy to crack open the root pocket but only large long deep roots, few feeders. If I had X-ray vision would have left it behind but I had reached the point of no return and happily here it is on year 2 looking fine and healthy.

The obvious style is sumo pondy provided roots can be grown at the base there. My hopefull plan though is a kind of long exposed root slanting semi cascade kind of a thing. Planning on cutting out the bottom of the lower pot next year and letting the roots run into another wider pot at the bottom.
 

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Dan W.

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Cool little pondy. ;)
 

dick benbow

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It has been my experience when collecting ponderosa, if you find a bulbous trunk at ground level, it is the result of roots following along a narrow crease in the rock. My advice is to avoid
attempting to collect, because of the difficulty and if you suceed you still have a tree that is not proportionate. You eye always goes right there and it's unsettling.....
Good luck with yours and thanks for haring...
 

wireme

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It has been my experience when collecting ponderosa, if you find a bulbous trunk at ground level, it is the result of roots following along a narrow crease in the rock. My advice is to avoid
attempting to collect, because of the difficulty and if you suceed you still have a tree that is not proportionate. You eye always goes right there and it's unsettling.....
Good luck with yours and thanks for haring...

I know what you mean, my eye is also always drawn to a big bottom.
 

RKatzin

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Oye! She's got a big butt! If you can bring the roots in it will not look so bulbous with something below it. I've never seen a pondy I don't like, but that's my particular passion. Take good care of this one, I like your idea, thanks for sharing, Rick
 

wireme

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Thanks Rick,

I hope I can turn my vision for this tree into reality, I'll keep you posted.
 

Adair M

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Is it out of the question to do some root grafts using pondy seedlings to create a nebari?
 

wireme

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Probably not but beyond my experience. Possibly it has generated roots there already, we'll see on the next repot, many new roots are poking out the drain holes now. My idea is to cut out the bottom of the lower pot next year and run the roots out into a wider container at the bottom without disturbing the upper pot. It's a gamble because I'm guessing at what's happening in there and with my plan I won't see for a couple more years at least. It may be smarter to open the whole works and have a look but I kind of like the anticipation/gamble factor.
 

wireme

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Looks promising, two years in coarse substrate and already difficult to loosen up the rootball. Lower pot removed, main taproots reduced by about 4" and replanted at the anticipated final angle, lots of room for roots to run and hopefully thicken up the exposed root section that I'm hoping for.
 

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wireme

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........
 

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wireme

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The unveiling! Really been looking forward to cracking open this can of worms. Kind of disappointing but not entirely. Far from ideal right now and may never be but at the worst something I’ll be happy to work on and keep around even if it’s a bit strange, many of us are funny looking and we still like each other right?2E0AD9FA-0C6B-4CC9-A3DA-9FEAE8B2250C.jpeg

The roots seem to have just cruised right on through the coarse stuff and hung out happily circling the bottom of the pot.6BA12044-D214-4492-96B4-44DF49841EE3.jpeg10572C35-2B88-483D-B16C-1EC9D575DB32.jpeg Opened up, looked kind of promising at first then I could see the largest roots were coming straight up from the bottom then turning down. Where did that come from? Didn’t see that during the initial potting! 66FB014F-C5DE-4B76-8ECA-C4B072153463.jpegI thought of keeping them, but decided it was to weird even for me so cut them off and raked down a bit. 4F170D4D-6F29-43F4-800E-4588E54F9C33.jpeg
 

wireme

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Full view., I envision the final soil level as being down near the bottom of the soil and nearly all those roots exposed. 5A5BEBF0-4E19-4C6C-BD56-53B154033161.jpeg
There actually were some wee roots forming from the trunk just below the bulge so covered them up again giving them another chance to grow. It would improve things... sigh.. years from now..sometimes I do wonder if I’m overly optimistic with these types of things. 59A4A9AC-BD58-429A-AEED-930F06E18A66.jpeg

Back in the pot, didn’t even touch that mat of roots on the bottom, they looked quite happy so plopped that right back onto the bottom of the pot with no substrate added. Some sideways layering going on in there now, lots of coarse where it seemed like a good idea, medium up against some roots and a very thin layer of long fibred moss followed by fines where the very small roots are. Coarse all round the outside. No more upper pot, mounded soil and moss wall now. 9A2E5C2E-09F1-4E84-9DF3-BE76417746D0.jpeg69488DDB-AEF5-42A9-B4F7-23B846496E51.jpeg
Anyways can proceed with styling now finally. I’ve been holding off till I saw what happened there, looks good enough to me, stick with the original plan.
 

0soyoung

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Kind of disappointing but not entirely. Far from ideal right now and may never be but at the worst something I’ll be happy to work on and keep around even if it’s a bit strange, many of us are funny looking and we still like each other right?
Now I am interested. :p
Anyways can proceed with styling now finally.
I'm popping the corn now. :cool:
 

Bonsai Nut

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Looking forward to the styling!

I seems like you would have been better served repotting into a shallow and wider pot(?) That is still a very deep pot and you won't get much radial root development if you have those strong roots pushing new growth directly beneath the trunk.
 

wireme

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Looking forward to the styling!

I seems like you would have been better served repotting into a shallow and wider pot(?) That is still a very deep pot and you won't get much radial root development if you have those strong roots pushing new growth directly beneath the trunk.

This is the eventual plan, explains why I kept the deep pot? Maybe just maybe additional roots will help, if not I’ll just have to live with something that looks like a tree growing out of an octopus!1B9F899E-8976-41E1-BE57-EAC866D45D55.jpeg
 
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