Adansonia digitata #2

[Kievnstavick]

A thread dedicated to the progression of one of my A. digitata trees (aka Boabab, Upside-down, Rat-tail). This was planted on the 1st of January, 2022.


Pictured above is the plant's progress during the winter and early spring.

 

[Kievnstavick]

Sometime between March of 2022 and July 27th, I repotted the tree. It looked like the healthy of it was in decline and I was curious to see if it was the fabled root rot. This tree did end up having some rotted tips that I ended up cutting. As this was an experiment at this point, I did not seal the root tips that I cut. I was rather exited for this tree as it was looking like a palm tree before it lost its leaves. On the 6th of September, I cut the shrunk portion as I did not think it would "revive" itself above that point.

 

[Kievnstavick]

As the weather turned cold, I brought the tree inside and placed it inside of a grow tent. I performed a repot on it as I was getting annoyed at all of the smaller substrate fall out through the holes in the pond basket. I tried drywall tape this time over cheese cloth as the cheese cloth did not last the season. During the repot (on the 13th of October, 2022) I was surprised to see there were growing root tips underneath the dormant trunk. You can see that this boabab has few roots compared to my #1. 12 days later, I was surprised to see expanding buds on the trunk. I took another picture a month later to show the leaf growth. The brown dried leaf got too close to the grow light as it is on my smaller shelf (intended for germinating seeds).

 

[Kievnstavick]

Showing off the one year of growth. I wired the stems/branches with two objectives in mind. Reduce the overall height of the tree to maximize the photosynthetic ability in a cramped growing area and to see how the tree responds to wiring over time. I don't plan on repotting this tree in the next winter bonsai shuffle, but I will reasses that during the summer.

 

[Kievnstavick]

While inspecting my tropicals today, I noticed that the wire was really biting in. The wire was only on for a little less then a month. I'm honestly surprised on how quickly the biting got away from me.

Either way, a valuable lesson learned about wiring a baobab. The wire bites in quick, but the shapes appear to hold. Hopefully they don't slowly reset their positioning. This will also be a test case of how the wire scars heal now.

 

[jason biggs]

hi Kievn the branches always reset i have branches on 30 year old trees that don't hold their position at all....
wire bite is only that quick on the new dominant branches - ridiculously quick...

 

[Kievnstavick]

Thank you for the heads up. Do you happen to know how long it takes to reset the branches?

I guess this will turn more into a clip and grow sort of tree

 

[Kievnstavick]

Here is how my short stack is stacked before it finally gets to enjoy some of that great fireball in the sky. My nightly tempatures are finally staying above 55F degrees.

It is interesting to see how the apical branch repositioned itself verses the lower ones maintaining their bends (for now). This one received a minor haircut to reduce crowding a couple days ago.

 

[Kievnstavick]

The short-stack is slowly working its way to not being the shortest kid in class. This one did not get hurt as much from our cold start of spring for whatever reason. I only now noticed that this tree has slowly leaned to the side compared to what it looked like back in the beginning of winter 2022. I would like to keep this one on the smaller side, but that would strongly depend on how much I can reduce the leaves through ramification. If anything, it could be a winter display tree.

 

[hemmy]

As this was an experiment at this point, I did not seal the root tips that I cut.

I wouldn’t seal the cuts under the soil. I think it could trap water and rot. I have dusted large cuts with sulfur powder and let them dry in the sun for few days before repotting. This was prior to any bud push.

 

[Kievnstavick]

This picture was taken on 01OCT23. I don't recall when I gave the tree a hard prune, but this was captured to show the tree beginning to bud out while in the grow tent. I left two of the lower branches with leaves in a bid to help the lower branches thicken before the top took over again.



On 09DEC23, I went ahead with a repot on this guy as I wanted to correct the unintended slight lean of the trunk and to clean up the roots that attempted to escape while it was outside during the summer. In the bare root picture, you can see that one side of the roots slightly more aggressive then the other side, contributing to the lean. I cleaned up the tap root as it was beginning to wrap around the bottom of the basket.




This is what the tree looked like on 31MAY24. couple of weeks before I finally took it outside for the rest of the summer. As the tree ended up having very long extension from an experiment with giberbaltic acid, I decided to start fresh especially as the tree dropped its lower leaves in favor of pushing the top growth. I gave the tree a hard chop on all branches.



Here is the tree today. Fresh with a lot of new growth and enjoy its time outside in the summer heat.

 

[jason biggs]

you seem to get very healthy growth in a short space of time - looking good

 

[gooeytek]

Nice results, seems they are pretty good at bouncing back.

 

[Dabbler]

Cool progression

 

[defra]

nice found this looking up info on baobab trees.
scored a little one today never seen them around my area in garden centers its a odd species of trees wich always peek my interest mine looks like different variety tough
now i need to figure out how to propper care for it

 

[Kievnstavick]

Being from New Zealand, I can imagine the one you got might be an Austalian species if it is not digitata.

So far in my 3 years experience, this species is pretty easy to take care of provided you take some precautions. They are a succulent and should be treated as such. Water often when it is actively growing and seldom to none when it is dormant. I haven't let mine go dormant due to temperature so far. I haven't noticed a slow down or decline in health (I don't expect to), but since they have a drought/"winter" dormancy period there might be some benefit to letting them go dormant.

 

[defra]

Ah thnx for the response!
mine is an adenium obesum or arabica so not the same as yours dont know if treatment is allot different tough

 

[Kievnstavick]

Ah a desert rose. I don't have any personal experience with that species but I do know they are a drought type succulent. Might be more of a water it every once in a while type plant rather then the Baobab's freely water during the growing season.