Raintrees!!!

@Anthony I'm gonna miss my club meeting this month, which is a bummer. It was poking to be a really good one!

Here's a pic of the thorns. They're mighty sharp!
 

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Read that article just now. I'm a big fan of Adam's blog!

Looks a lot like my slanted one. It's seriously root bound, and ready to get into a new pot. I'm going to have to look for a new one tomorrow. I thought about putting it in the ground, but I think I'm happy with it. I plan on air layering one of the branches, then I'll put that in the ground. I still have a Chinese elm in my growing spot.
 
Hi there,
you could prune the trees (you'll have too anyway, they grow like weed) and remove the thorn, no problem (although I like the thorns).

A question: does your first one has an invert taper or is it the picture?
 
It's the picture. The trunk is pretty sinewy and I'm going to have to search for a proper front taking into account the roots. Eventually I'll sacrifice that lowest branch but I'll hold on to it to thicken the bottom just a touch.

It's not the best tree, but for $20 I'm happy with it!

Going off of Adam's blog, I'll repot these and then defoliate them. Now I just have to find a decent enough pot.
 
I didn't say they weren't nice and I saw the picture you put and I think they could be great like that! :)
The planting of the 2nd one is incredible, it could be great if the canopy could be tilted horizontally, if you see what I mean ;)
I guess you will have to guy wire them because otherwise good luck to bend the old wood (in fact all BRT I saw have guy wires, I'm pretty sure I'll have to do it to mine at one point and will be interested see you go 1st :p)
I really think the thorns are cool but that's right that they sting.:D
My question about the taper was because on the picture of the 1st one, toward the base of the trunk the diameter seems smaller on the lower part to me, starting a little bit above the lowest branch, but it may be an effect of the picture as I said :)
 
@Alain i won't have you attacking my trees! Just kidding!! :D

They're going to need guy wires I'm sure. I'll jump in first and see what I can do.

It was the angle, but the trunk has very little taper, but I'm okay with that. I like miniatures, the literal representation of bonsai, not the inferred representation. I'm not really a fan of the sumo style, but that's just me.

The thorns! Got stabbed last night while I was showing my wife the trees. They're neat, but just too long.

The first thing I've got to do is repot though. The two are root bound!
 
An enjoyable morning, watching the fish jump, drinking my coffee, dethorning my tree. This thing had a ton of thorns on it. I've already noticed some new growth!

Off to get a pot for the two of them, need something wide and shallow!
 
Well, I decided to take one of them and try and grow some trunk into it. So, out came the Chinese Elm and in went the be right there. It's planted on the north side of the house, that's a bummer, but it does get some good morning sun and there's a sprinkler head that sprays fairly close so it'll always get water. I'll just have to watch to make sure it doesn't get too much.

I combed out the roots, trimmed them just a bit and stuck it in the ground. We'll see how it does.
 

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Must be nice to live in Florida!!! That wouldn't work so well here in as @sorce puts it illinoissucks.com! Nice trees!
 
It is nice to live in Florida!

I repotted the second BRT. I hate repotting mainly because I suck at tying the trees down. I mean really suck. This one was tough because of the angle of the roots. And, I may have taken a little too much off the roots. I defoliated some. Hoping this guy survives and thrives.

I'm not happy about the piece of coral at all, but no matter what I did, I had a really tough time trying to get the trunk to stay off the ground. When I repot it in a year or two, I'll fix that.
 

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Left for the weekend to Toronto, came back and my BRT is still looking quite dour. Fully expecting him to rebound from the repotting, but he definitely looks stressed still.
 

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Left for the weekend to Toronto, came back and my BRT is still looking quite dour. Fully expecting him to rebound from the repotting, but he definitely looks stressed still.

What time of day are you taking these pictures - the leaves close up in the evenings and also in the hottest parts of the day as well. That is totally normal - late morning and late afternoons are when it should be fully opened no matter what so make sure you are looking at it at all times of day. Is this tree getting enough water - the soil mix looks SUPER coarse and doesn't look like it can hold much water. This is a tree that would prefer to be on the moist side and that soil mix looks like it can heat up if it dries out. You might consider a tray of water under it during the day so that it stays cooler and wetter and take it out in the evenings to drain and get some air flow.
 
Did you have any one water it? Container growing and vacations don't mix well........:(

One of my main concern with the 10 days of vacations we'll take soon...:(
However normally at this time of the year it should rain pretty regularly in FL no?
 
@choppychoppy i took these pics right before I posted them, so about 1105. Good advice, I may try the water tray. It is pretty humid out, but the soil isn't as coarse as it looks. There's a fair bit of small water retentive inorganic soil mix in there.

I had someone watering while I was gone. I watered on Friday before we left, Saturday it rained, but didn't get a lot of direct water on the tree, Sunday it was watered by my house guests and Monday I watered it when we flew back in.

We do get a good amount of rain, it rained this morning, the soil is still damp.

I think the issue is the amount of root pruning I did, I think I overdid it. I may have to defoliate a bit more maybe? Or, just leave it alone and continue to water and make sure it gets some sun.
 
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