An idea for making cascades

Aberael

For a while I've been thinking of ways that cascades could be grown without wiring. One way I thought was to grow them out of the bottom of a pot somehow, but the details of that venture never seemed to crystalize and I was left with a vague grand idea.
That was until I found this article on Instructables:
http://www.instructables.com/id/How...verted-Planter/

Since this project is cheap and easy to make, it might be an idea to adapt it to growing trees. Any thoughts on growing trees upside down for most of their lives?

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TimD

I think the blood rushing to my head would make me quit.

kingkong

Look up the word 'geotropism' mate.

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peterh

Don't we already grow them upside down.


Peter

nsmar4211

You could just weight the branches instead of wiring them, fishing weights work well for this.

Portlualcaria are pretty easy to do as cascades once a branch gets long enough, the sheer weight of the foliage will pull a branch down! Fun part is keeping them on the bench, they get side heavy and often have to be tied down. Semi cascades much safer

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Aberael

I looked up geotropism on wiki and all I heard was the wooshing sound as it went right over my head XD. I got the basic idea but the science behind it, hah!

nsmar4211

Geotropism.......roots grow down branches grow up due to responses of chemicals within the cells

A side note.......even though a cascade has branches that hang over the side of the pot, the growth is still up. A tree would look pretty silly with all the branches pointing down, so growing it upside down permanently wouldn't work. You can wrap the pot so the soil doesn't fall out, invert it (either in another pot or between blocks) and let it grow to get the trunk going downward. But, for final tweaking, you'll have to turn it over (say, for a show) to allow the little branches to orient themselves properly. Notice that even on a weeping willow, the leaves are still pointing up even though the branches are dropping.

Or......to keep the growth looking natural you can use good ole wire and weighing . Much easier to weigh a plant to get it going as a cascade then it is to balance it upside down... trust me...

However, I do know people that keep their established cascades upside down most of the time, righting them only to water. Too much work for me!

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