Shohin Tell: Texas Ebony & Dale Pot

Bart Thomas(deceased)

Forgive the pun. The devil made me do it!

This tree was used as an illustration in Jerry Meislick's article on Texas Ebony in Bonsai Today Online. The Photo was shot in October/November.

The Pot is a Bill Valavanis Import That is too large for the tree for two reasons:

1. There was a large "sea serpent" tap root that prevented it from fitting into a smaller pot.

2. I wanted to develop new feeder roots in order to eventually remove the tap root.

Thus, when I potted the tree, I used rooting hormones on the under side of the tap root and the nearby parts of the below-ground trunk.

The tree has been rotated slightly from its eventual front to close the gap between the two most vertical trunks until new growth does that for me.
Here is the photo of the tree after the fall potting.

Attached Images

6bart.jpg (29.0 KB, 222 views)

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Bart Thomas(deceased)

Intrigued by Dale's comment in the Old Chinese Pot thread, about bring a new "custom" pot for me to the MidAtlantic, I took the tree out of its pot today, and found excellent new feeder roots. This enabled me to reduce the above ground portion of the tap root, which I then coated with wound paste.

With a big part of the tap root gone, I was able to move it into this pot of Dale's. I am delighted with the increased lightness of the whole composition. The front shown is the front I intend to use; the final potting angle will be slightly more to the left. (I wanted to give more feeder roots a chance to develop.)

There is still a lot of tap root to be eliminated, but the foliage is all new and beginning to fill in.

Here's the tree this afternoon.

Attached Images

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Dale Cochoy

Well "I" like it Bart!!!
Although I'm kinda biased.
Once filled back in it'll be a nice tree.
Now that it's cut back you can see it pretty good. Next repot I think I'd tilt it a tad more left in pot to get that long arm even a little more horizontal or below horizontal, and let that branch on right side go wild a while to extend/fill-in right side.
Later we'll worry about that middle branch :>)

Was that the "raffle" pot??
Dale

__________________
________________________________
If you want to be Different....
You have to DO something Different!
__________________________________________

Some people NEVER take the time to do a job right the first time....
but, they always seem to make the time to do it over again...
____________________________________________
Dale Cochoy
Wild Things Bonsai Studio
Yakimono no Kokoro Bonsai Pottery
Hartville, Ohio

Bart Thomas(deceased)

Hi, Dale:

I think it's the "throw in" pot from the IBC raffle.

Actually it just visited that pot. When I finished dealing with the tap root (for now), I saw that it would fit into a much smaller pot, so I wired it in to photo it.

After taking the picture, I slipped it back into the first pot to help it grow out a little easier.

I suspect that a slightly larger pot will be just right for it, once it fills out. Specially with the fast-draining soils I use (and which Texas Ebony seem to really love).

The whole process, beginning with Carl Rosner's suggestion as to how to deal with the "sea serpent" tap root, to the discovery of how small a pot it could go into without otherwise disturbing the roots has been quite an education.

It will also be a great help in selecting the ultimate pot for this tree.

For the benefit of others reading this thread, I should mention that I also got the tree from Dale.

Dale Cochoy

think it's the "throw in" pot from the IBC raffle

I thought so...

As a note to possible problems:
In 1985 ( when I was 3 years old!) I brought back a couple pretty good sized TE from a Phoenix nursery. They were ugly collected landscape material and I whacked 'em back seriously before driving them home. When I potted them up one died IMMEDIATELY, the other I still have after 19 years now.
One thing I learned about them quickly, they don't "size-up" very fast at all which is probably a genetic thing for these southwest plants ( which also do great in Florida humidity which is where this one came from ). The other thing I learned is, that even though they are southwest desert plants, they do not like going dry. Their natural protection seems to be to immediately yellow and drop leaves if dried and them immediately replace them again once watering resumes. I run into this less outside in summer where they get watered every day but often in Winter in the house ( always sits in a west window in living room and does better than under lights!!) when I may forget it a while and it dries out. Leaves drop fast and then recover fast.
but,
they are a great indoor bonsai for the winter, better than most ( along with willow-leaf ficus)
Dale

__________________
________________________________
If you want to be Different....
You have to DO something Different!
__________________________________________

Some people NEVER take the time to do a job right the first time....
but, they always seem to make the time to do it over again...
____________________________________________
Dale Cochoy
Wild Things Bonsai Studio
Yakimono no Kokoro Bonsai Pottery
Hartville, Ohio