Jason's African acacia (now senegalia)

[jason biggs]

3 species I have... burkei (black monkey thorn)...galpinii (monkey thorn) and nigrescens (knobthorn)

 

[Mrm45443]

Any advice on encouraging branching? My Acacia Senegal is going on two feet with no signs of developing beyond “stalk” form…

 

[jason biggs]

@Mrm45443 I don't know that specific species but they all tend to behave the same...
new growth comes from where the thorns are and that new growth becomes the branches...
cut it back but make sure you leave space for dieback...
-full sun , lots of water in the growing season.
-post a picture

 

[YukiShiro]

Any advice on encouraging branching? My Acacia Senegal is going on two feet with no signs of developing beyond “stalk” form…

Hi @Mrm45443 ,

ramification is achieved in the same way it is achieved with other alternating leaf pattern trees, if you want a branch to split into two branches, cut back to two nodes.
I would advise to cut back just underneath the third node, if you cut too close to the second node there will result a double bud from that node and cause an ugly swelling at that point

Best regards

 

[jason biggs]

i hope this will grow to be an awesome cascade...

 

[jason biggs]

 

[jason biggs]

 

[jason biggs]

this knobthorn is well on it's way to the classic african flat top style (20 years old)

 

[Shibui]

Love the exotic (to me) look of the flat top savanna style. That's how many of these trees grow naturally so it makes lots of sense to use the shape to style the trees rather than going for a more traditional bonsai green helmet.

 

[MSGhero]

Do your roots get thick/supportive enough to do something interesting like root over rock or neagari? I took a peek at mine’s as I’m planning to repot soon, and they were quite long but not so thick. I’ll get the full story once it comes out.

 

[jason biggs]

Do your roots get thick/supportive enough to do something interesting like root over rock or neagari?

no our acacias do not do well as root over rock... neagari possibly but better suited to having the roots covered...

 

[jason biggs]

 

[eugenev2]

View attachment 524064View attachment 524065

Hey Jason, have you been able to get your black monkey thorn and monkey thorn to reliably ramify? Whenever i try to cut back the tree responds by back budding on the trunk creating a un-wanted "pigeon breast" shape.

 

[jason biggs]

Hey Jason, have you been able to get your black monkey thorn and monkey thorn to reliably ramify? Whenever i try to cut back the tree responds by back budding on the trunk creating a un-wanted "pigeon breast" shape.

hi Eugene not really... i started most of my acacias 21 years ago from seed and none of them look great ?? at least they are getting thicker and mature...they dont ramify reliably and the new branchlets often come out at weird angles...

 

[Makrobulk]

Hi all. I didn’t really know where to get help, and I’m relatively new to bonsai. I recently purchased an acacia Burkei (black monkey thorn) from a nursery and brought it home. (Im also in SA)

Initially it started shooting new branches and buds a few days after bringing it home, and then after about a week or two, all the leaves started to fall off. I am not sure if it was under/over watering or if it was because it was inside, in a hot room. I have since moved it outside hoping that it would shoot some new leaves.

I am not sure how these trees behave. Is it dead? Or is it just dormant? Did the tree get a shock moving from the nursery?

And feedback would be greatly appreciated!

 

[jason biggs]

Hi all. I didn’t really know where to get help, and I’m relatively new to bonsai. I recently purchased an acacia Burkei (black monkey thorn) from a nursery and brought it home. (Im also in SA)

Initially it started shooting new branches and buds a few days after bringing it home, and then after about a week or two, all the leaves started to fall off. I am not sure if it was under/over watering or if it was because it was inside, in a hot room. I have since moved it outside hoping that it would shoot some new leaves.

I am not sure how these trees behave. Is it dead? Or is it just dormant? Did the tree get a shock moving from the nursery?

And feedback would be greatly appreciated! View attachment 533394

your tree will be fine... keep it well watered outside... acacias are not going to survive indoors.
they often drop leaves but are super tough and should bounce back no problem

 

[butlern]

Can you describe your climate with respect to growing versus dormant season? Im in a temperate zone with big swings in temperature (30 to 35C average high temps in summer and -5 to 0C average in winter), so I bring my acacia inside each winter and it struggles to survive each winter. What is your dormancy period like in your location?
Thanks

 

[butlern]

Ah, yeah... scratch that question. I see you're in zone 11a (lows of 5-9C)... Perhaps it was never meant to be (for me) in zone 5b, this acacia...

i was never sure whether these things ever went dormant, and needed to go dormant, to maintain vigor...

 

[Makrobulk]

your tree will be fine... keep it well watered outside... acacias are not going to survive indoors.
they often drop leaves but are super tough and should bounce back no problem

Okay! Thank you for your reply Jason, I really appreciate it. Your trees are awesome. Should I put it in a relatively shady area and lightly water once a day or every second day?

 

[eugenev2]

Can you describe your climate with respect to growing versus dormant season? Im in a temperate zone with big swings in temperature (30 to 35C average high temps in summer and -5 to 0C average in winter), so I bring my acacia inside each winter and it struggles to survive each winter. What is your dormancy period like in your location?
Thanks

So i cannot personally say how low the temperatures can go, but mine have survived perfectly fine with facing 0C/-1C temperatures, they just really don't do well with really icy winds..
Plus they do go dormant and completely drop all their leaves. The big key i found with them is protecting the roots, you'll find that here in SA they are planted in relatively (by international standards) deep pots, this is done for both high and low temperatures protection, as you'll find, they will drop their leaves if temperatures get high enough as well, learned this the hard way...you would think a african tree would survive in the african sun, but as always a tree in a pot has very different requirements to one in the ground