When things, just up and die...........

[Anthony]

I came across an article in a book on Tropical Trees, where the author spoke of trees from
the Sub-Tropics and Temperate zones just growing themselves to death,

example - Pomegranate. Punica g.
Lives well for about 25 years and then dies.

Fortunately, it is a favourite with the folk of the Hindu faith, and lots of cuttings go around.
Another was the Agnus c.
[Now I wonder about the one used in the East Indies - Agnus other ]

The more aggressive example would be the Maple, 4 year lifespan.

Starfox, offered a video from Australia, where the young lady spoke about how fast the local
trees grew and that she had tried the exotics.

Well more and more we are abandoning the foreign stuff, as I had mentioned before.

BUT had never really gone into the ------- growing to death bit ------- now one wonders
if the life span of the J.B.pines will drop to say 100 years or Fukien teas dead at 25 or so.
Fortunately, there is a local pine, and we are finding more and more locals.
Just it takes x years to test them.

So one wonders about all those folk and indoor Bonsai, and if anyone will have them around for
50 years or so, to see who truly grows or just survives.

Weird huh, roughly 50 more years for growing, if I reach 104 years, now do I get to watch
so many trees die ???

This weekend is another local Bonsai of Trinidad meeting, will try to discuss this and prepare
some of the younger ones for the above possibility.
Good Day
Anthony

 

[Starfox]

There is an argument/discussion that I have read a few times that these short lived species can have their life extended(possibly indefinitely) just by using bonsai techniques on them.
Acacias for example in Australia are one of those "short lived" trees you may be lucky to get 20 years from in the ground but from what I have read there still seem to be a few 50+ years ones around from some of the earlier bonsai pioneers in Oz.

I can't say definitively one way or another but there is some interesting reading if you can find it.
I also think you shouldn't let the so called "short lived" thing be a problem if you want to try one of those species, I mean 20 years to spend with a beautiful tree is a good run as it is.

 

[just.wing.it]

I think, generally speaking, if proper bonsai technique is applied to the tree, properly....the tree becomes healthier than it would be in the ground, on its own.

I think most of us agree on that, right?...

Does making a tree healthier make it survive longer?.....or could it have a reverse effect, as if you were speeding up the tree's life.....?

Does that even make any sense as a hypothetical thought?

 

[my nellie]

... ...I also think you shouldn't let the so called "short lived" thing be a problem if you want to try one of those species, I mean 20 years to spend with a beautiful tree is a good run as it is.

This!!!

 

[Anthony]

Not to fuss folks, we from time to time grow an herb ------- Sida acuta

https://herbpathy.com/Uses-and-Benefits-of-Sida-Acuta-Cid4894

Our type is more elm leafed and what the folk do to the roadside plants,
make you want to dig them all up.
The flowers are an odd yellow brown and open for 4 hrs.

Woody and just very beautiful.
In a container so far max ------- 5 years.

Fascinating never looked up this -
https://herbpathy.com/Uses-and-Benefits-of-Sida-Acuta-Cid4894

The large fruited Punica g, is as a shrub, very beautiful.
Thanks to all for taking the time to chat.
Good Day
Anthony

 

[Quince]

Trees, for our purposes, can be placed into one of two categories, let's call them Pioneered and Forest Giants.

Pioneers (birch, cherry, jack pine) devote most of their energy to growth and seed production at the expense of pathogen and predator defense. They also tend to be intolerant of shade.

Forest Giants (linden, maple, redwood) are more conservative. They take longer to reach maturity, but tend to decline only after reaching "maximum" size, or experiencing serious calamity.

Container culture changes all of this. First,their extreme dependence on us for care and feeding makes each year less certain. Second, we protect our trees with profilactic fungicide applications, provide water regularly, maintain vigor through pruning/repotting, and prevent competition from would be successors.

Just as an aspen colony can perpetuate itself indefinitely, and a cultivar can go on living through its cloned daughters, so can our trees exist in a perpetual state of deffured senescence.

I don't consider a species lifespan in the wild to have any predictive value in determining how long it will last in a pot.