Rainbow Eucalyptus

[laurieinphx]

Hoping this question finds Cajunrider or anyone else who has experience with Rainbow Eucalyptus. I am attempting to bonsai Rainbow Eucalyptus and found this thread. Any tips? Repotting, how much to prune roots, what season to do it in? I have been doing research but yours is the only one I have come across. Would appreciate any info you can share. Here is mine. I still need to create taper and decide where to go with it. Thanks in advance!

 

[RJG2]

Hoping this question finds Cajunrider or anyone else who has experience with Rainbow Eucalyptus. I am attempting to bonsai Rainbow Eucalyptus and found this thread. Any tips? Repotting, how much to prune roots, what season to do it in? I have been doing research but yours is the only one I have come across. Would appreciate any info you can share. Here is mine. I still need to create taper and decide where to go with it. Thanks in advance!

You can tag people with the @ to notify them.

@Cajunrider, @LittleDingus has some too.

 

[Cajunrider]

Hoping this question finds Cajunrider or anyone else who has experience with Rainbow Eucalyptus. I am attempting to bonsai Rainbow Eucalyptus and found this thread. Any tips? Repotting, how much to prune roots, what season to do it in? I have been doing research but yours is the only one I have come across. Would appreciate any info you can share. Here is mine. I still need to create taper and decide where to go with it. Thanks in advance!

Rainbow eucalyptus is a tropical tree. Please post your USDA Zone in your profile so we can help you with your repotting schedule.
RE is a little bit sensitive to root prune so do it judiciously. The tree like moderately well drained but moist soil. Water it often but make sure the soil is not swampy. I recommend repotting and chopping in the spring when the soil temperature is well above 40 deg. F. Scarring at the chop is extensive so make sure to not have any side branches at the chop else you surely will have reverse taper.

After a chop, the new apex will grow quickly, resist the temptation to chop again when the top is still in juvenile phase and is all green without bark. If you chop again too early, the tree may sprout a second branch at the original chop and reduce growth at the original branch drastically or drop it all together.

At every junction, the tree will have two side branches, pinch one off early and allow only one. If you alternate the sides, the tree will develop natural bends.

 

[Kievnstavick]

Thank you for the information as I just got one germinated myself (out of probably several hundred seeds terrible germination rate...)

These have been on my list since I saw them in person when I was in Hawaii.

 

[Cajunrider]

Thank you for the information as I just got one germinated myself (out of probably several hundred seeds terrible germination rate...)

These have been on my list since I saw them in person when I was in Hawaii.

The good news is that RE air layer so easily. I myself only got a few germinated out of a packet of seeds that I bought. Since then all my RE came from air layering of just the one healthy one I got. I was successful in air layering branches around 1" or more in diameter.

 

[laurieinphx]

You can tag people with the @ to notify them.

@Cajunrider, @LittleDingus has some too.

Thank you! That helps.

 

[laurieinphx]

Rainbow eucalyptus is a tropical tree. Please post your USDA Zone in your profile so we can help you with your repotting schedule.
RE is a little bit sensitive to root prune so do it judiciously. The tree like moderately well drained but moist soil. Water it often but make sure the soil is not swampy. I recommend repotting and chopping in the spring when the soil temperature is well above 40 deg. F. Scarring at the chop is extensive so make sure to not have any side branches at the chop else you surely will have reverse taper.

After a chop, the new apex will grow quickly, resist the temptation to chop again when the top is still in juvenile phase and is all green without bark. If you chop again too early, the tree may sprout a second branch at the original chop and reduce growth at the original branch drastically or drop it all together.

At every junction, the tree will have two side branches, pinch one off early and allow only one. If you alternate the sides, the tree will develop natural bends.

Rainbow eucalyptus is a tropical tree. Please post your USDA Zone in your profile so we can help you with your repotting schedule.
RE is a little bit sensitive to root prune so do it judiciously. The tree like moderately well drained but moist soil. Water it often but make sure the soil is not swampy. I recommend repotting and chopping in the spring when the soil temperature is well above 40 deg. F. Scarring at the chop is extensive so make sure to not have any side branches at the chop else you surely will have reverse taper.

After a chop, the new apex will grow quickly, resist the temptation to chop again when the top is still in juvenile phase and is all green without bark. If you chop again too early, the tree may sprout a second branch at the original chop and reduce growth at the original branch drastically or drop it all together.

At every junction, the tree will have two side branches, pinch one off early and allow only one. If you alternate the sides, the tree will develop natural bends.

Thank you!

 

[Wulfskaar]

I got RE seeds for Christmas... but the bag was completely empty.

Looking forward to seeing where you can take yours!

 

[laurieinphx]

I got RE seeds for Christmas... but the bag was completely empty.

Looking forward to seeing where you can take yours!

Oh no! Mine is blooming now but haven’t seen any seeds.

 

[LittleDingus]

Thank you for the information as I just got one germinated myself (out of probably several hundred seeds terrible germination rate...)

These have been on my list since I saw them in person when I was in Hawaii.

They germinate very readily. I bought enough seed for an entire country for like $6 about 5 years ago. I've donated a ton of seed to others and I plant a small pinch every year to see if germination falls off. I haven't planted my pinch this year yet, but last season's pinch germinated dozens still!

They are friggin' tiny seeds! And some sources say they need light to germinate...but they are so tiny they are easy to bury deep I sow mine on straight NAPA 8822. Wet the NAPA well, then sprinkle across the top. Tap them off the back of a small spoon or even a flat ended toothpick onto the wet NAPA. Cover so the top of the NAPA doesn't dry out. I usually fine mist mine every 2-3 days to keep the top moist.

I've followed this basic technique with half a dozen different eucalyptus species and it has worked really well on all of them so far.

Did you bury the seeds? Or sow them in a fine substrate where watering may have washed them deep? If so, I worry that your "one" is maybe not a euc but a random volunteer It's possible you got a bad batch but even my older seed stored in a kitchen cabinet germinates very readily after several years of storage. Baby RE are tiny...they can be difficult to see early on...especially if there is algae (I keep the substrate wet enough during germination that algae grows readily here). If they are getting adequate light, new leaves will be reddish near the stem blending to green further out but this may not be easy to see until they are a few weeks old.

 

[LittleDingus]

Hoping this question finds Cajunrider or anyone else who has experience with Rainbow Eucalyptus. I am attempting to bonsai Rainbow Eucalyptus and found this thread. Any tips? Repotting, how much to prune roots, what season to do it in? I have been doing research but yours is the only one I have come across. Would appreciate any info you can share. Here is mine. I still need to create taper and decide where to go with it. Thanks in advance!

I second what @Cajunrider says.

I will add my experience:

What many others say about the species is true...they don't ramify well. Aim for a larger tree. I have to move mine inside for the winter here. They are very susceptible to powdery mildew indoors. But, being under lights indoors has led to another observation. Blue light stunts them and may be a path towards ramification. Where mine have grown up near my blurple light (blue and red LEDs), the stems have tended to elongate less.



The leaves are also dark purple indicating that the light is intense enough it's killing off chlorophyl. Blue and red wavelengths can control leaf size in many species. Higher ratios of red tend to cause larger leaves than normal. Understory leaves on the same oak tree will typically be much larger than canopy leaves in an attempt to collect more energy. Blue wavelengths are higher energy than red wavelengths. My observations backed by a little science...so do with that what you will

On the purely opinion side: My personal opinion after growing a couple out for 5 years is that I feel the primary draw of this species (pretty colored bark) is at odds with bonsai culture. The reason for the different colors is due to oxidation of the bark over time. The bark tends to split and peel as the tree grows. At small trunk sizes, the splits and peels tend to be the entire or near entire trunk at once. This leads to a uniform color across much of the trunk. Very large trunks in nature split and flake more piece-meal and so different patches of trunk oxidize and color at different rates. Also, at small sizes, you need vigorous growth to split and peel the trunk. Mine was coloring up very young because of how vigorous it was growing. But, I wonder how easy it will be to keep the tree growing vigorous enough to peel bark as the tree ages in a tiny pot. I base this off my "backup" tree that I keep alive but don't grow as vigorous so that I have a spare when I eventually take too much risk and kill of my primary tree The spare that doesn't grow as vigorous doesn't peel bark and color up as nicely as the bigger trees.

 

[Kievnstavick]

They germinate very readily. I bought enough seed for an entire country for like $6 about 5 years ago. I've donated a ton of seed to others and I plant a small pinch every year to see if germination falls off. I haven't planted my pinch this year yet, but last season's pinch germinated dozens still!

They are friggin' tiny seeds! And some sources say they need light to germinate...but they are so tiny they are easy to bury deep I sow mine on straight NAPA 8822. Wet the NAPA well, then sprinkle across the top. Tap them off the back of a small spoon or even a flat ended toothpick onto the wet NAPA. Cover so the top of the NAPA doesn't dry out. I usually fine mist mine every 2-3 days to keep the top moist.

I've followed this basic technique with half a dozen different eucalyptus species and it has worked really well on all of them so far.

Did you bury the seeds? Or sow them in a fine substrate where watering may have washed them deep? If so, I worry that your "one" is maybe not a euc but a random volunteer It's possible you got a bad batch but even my older seed stored in a kitchen cabinet germinates very readily after several years of storage. Baby RE are tiny...they can be difficult to see early on...especially if there is algae (I keep the substrate wet enough during germination that algae grows readily here). If they are getting adequate light, new leaves will be reddish near the stem blending to green further out but this may not be easy to see until they are a few weeks old.

I am fairly confident mine is a eucalyptus. Seeds came from Sheffield's.



Germination might depend on original source as my order from of seeds report them to be estimated at 40% (mine is currently much lower) where as yours is estimated to be 80%

 

[karen82]

That's disappointing about the peeling bark not working on bonsai scale. I became interested in rainbow eucalyptus a couple years ago and bought a seedling and some seeds from Sheffield's. I've had the seedling for almost 2 yrs and it seems healthy, but slow-growing, When I got it, it was in potting soil so I repotted it into bonsai soil, I tried to minimize disturbance, but it was still unhappy about that. It probably needs to be repotted again but has me scared to repot it now.
Has anyone noticed a good time of year to repot? The only bonsai Eucalyptus info I can find says to repot midsummer, but that is aimed at Australian eucalyptus.

As for the seedlings, i followed instructions, even to stratify the seeds for 3 weeks (which seems odd for a tropical) and only two germinated. Of those, one died, and the other looks sickly.

 

[Kievnstavick]

That's disappointing about the peeling bark not working on bonsai scale. I became interested in rainbow eucalyptus a couple years ago and bought a seedling and some seeds from Sheffield's. I've had the seedling for almost 2 yrs and it seems healthy, but slow-growing, When I got it, it was in potting soil so I repotted it into bonsai soil, I tried to minimize disturbance, but it was still unhappy about that. It probably needs to be repotted again but has me scared to repot it now.
Has anyone noticed a good time of year to repot? The only bonsai Eucalyptus info I can find says to repot midsummer, but that is aimed at Australian eucalyptus.

As for the seedlings, i followed instructions, even to stratify the seeds for 3 weeks (which seems odd for a tropical) and only two germinated. Of those, one died, and the other looks sickly.

I still haven't gotten one to germinate besides one out of a few thousand seeds. I've been meaning to write to scheffields to inquire about their seed stock. Given what I read online, they should be very easy to germinate.

On the topic of repotting, as a tropical tree it should be best practice to repot when temperatures are consistently high. That can be sometime early/midsummer or when in goes into your overwintering grow tent.

Those with more experience with this species can talk more about how it reacts to root pruning, but I believe this species reacts poorly to such an operation.

 

[Cajunrider]

I still haven't gotten one to germinate besides one out of a few thousand seeds. I've been meaning to write to scheffields to inquire about their seed stock. Given what I read online, they should be very easy to germinate.

On the topic of repotting, as a tropical tree it should be best practice to repot when temperatures are consistently high. That can be sometime early/midsummer or when in goes into your overwintering grow tent.

Those with more experience with this species can talk more about how it reacts to root pruning, but I believe this species reacts poorly to such an operation.

I have killed 3 good size (2.5-3” trunk) trees after total bare root repots, once in spring twice in summer.