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5-Sep-2003
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#1 |
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bonsaiTALK Craftsman
 
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Anyone Else Growing Pineapple Guava?
I saw a pineapple Guava Specimin on Ernie Kaou's site a while back. Very beautiful. I bought a fruit from the store a little over a year ago and planted some seeds. Tons germinated, but I only kept a few.
I haven't heard of many people using this, but I think this species is VERY well suited to bonsai. It has a very shallow root system with fiberous roots. It has very attractive flowers in the spring (mine hasn't flower yet obviously).I've found the leaves reduce dramatically when it's pruned. It has a kind of thin lanky growth to it, but buds back very readily. The part I like the most is the bark though. My seedling is starting to show very interesting textured bark. The bark peels away in strips similar to serissa, but it grows MUCH faster. Here is a picture of one of mine. I was letting it grow wild just to thicken it up rapidly, and I just cut it back a week or so ago. The thing was about 3 times larger. The trunk is already pencil thick in under a year. |
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Anyone Else Growing Pineapple Guava? |
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6-Sep-2003
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#2 |
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Charles Bevan
 
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I don't know much about this species at all. I would like to see some movement wired into the trunk before it no longer can be wired. If I am wrong about what I say please correct me.
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"Success demands understanding"-Andy Rutledge Charles Bevan Vero Beach, Fl |
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6-Sep-2003
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#3 |
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Tips:5¢ Advice:Free
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Unless you are going for a formal upright, you might change the planting angle: lay the trunk over at about 30 degrees to the left, remove all of the existing apex and let the new apex become the first branch on the right, which now points directly upwards.
You could even wire that new apex to the right a bit and back to the left. Here is a virtual with just the cuts and planting angle change. There is still a lot of growing to do, but you might as well get some movement in the trunk. Regards, Matt
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6-Sep-2003
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#4 |
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bonsaiTALK Craftsman
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No need to correct you Charles. I thank you and Matt for your advice. I am still undecided as where I want to go with this tree. I actually considered something very close to Matt's virtual in the begining. I was also considering broom or formal upright, but haven't really made up my mind for sure. If you look real close in the close up of the trunk, you can see more buds breaking already. That's the real beauty of growing from seed. At this stage in development anything is still possible.
Interesing thing about this species is how insanely flexible it is in the trunk and branches initially. Before I cut it back dramatically I had to stake the trunk up. Even at about pencil thickness, the wind would catch the foilage and bend the trunk right over. It was flexing in about a 60 degree arc at the base. I cut the plant back basically just to keep it from constantly falling over. Now that trunk is stiff as a board. I don't think wireing of relatively new shoots will be much of a problem, and it appears it will set very fast too. The wood is reported to be very dense, hard, and brittle as it ages. At this stage I plan on letting it grow out a bit more to thicken up. I plan on doing a series of chops to get some good taper, but will probably wait to start the chops until next spring to deicde on which style I am going after. I want the trunk a bit thicker before I start the chops. Thanks agian for the virtual and sugestions Matt. Oh.. and as for suitability for bonsai.. I forgot to add in the first post that it roots very easily from cuttings. The picture also shows some of the leaf reduction possible with this species. I've reduced the leaves to about 1/4 inch by 1/2 inch on one of the other seedlings. Normal leaf size is abut 1 1/2 inch by 2 inch. for those of you interested... heres the page that inspired me: http://www.geocities.com/erniekuo@s...l.net/guava.htm and a site with close ups of the flowers: http://www.desert-tropicals.com/Pla...sellowiana.html Last edited by Bonsai-gecko : 6-Sep-2003 at 08:54 AM. |
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