Adansonia digitata #3

[Kievnstavick]

The first identifiable picture of this boabab. Taken on the 14th of March, 2022. This one had kind of a strange start which I attribute to the fact that it was in a bonsai substrate from germination combined with learning how to actually water with bonsai substrate. The seed germinated, pushing out its first set of cotyledons. The plant then just stayed the same size for months.



These pictures show the progression over a month during the summer. The right picture was taken 18th of August, 2022.


Due to the lack of photos of this tree, I included on showing the progress at the end of November. It has been in the grow tent for over a month at this point.

 

[Kievnstavick]

Showing all four sides a few days before the one year mark. This is the youngest looking of my baobabs as it is still pushing juvenile leaves. At its current height, it has grown taller than my growlight.

 

[jason biggs]

wonder why they call it rat tail ?? bigger ones look more like hippo ass

 

[Kievnstavick]

The tall skinny one just before it goes outside for the rest of the grow season. This one received a few cuts to shorten it over the winter. A couple days ago, I thinned the foliage to reduce crowding. After taking this photo, I took a quick look at the roots as it has been repotted as of yet. The roots are almost completely filling the container without the wrap out and the storage root looks like a giant slug on the bottom of the container.

I think I'll leave the roots alone until the end of summer before I go in a remove the storage root since I'll need that during our summer to avoid any root rot issues from a cut root.

 

[jason biggs]

tree 1 + 3 are looking fantastic for 1 year in - well done.
#2 needs some help

 

[Kievnstavick]

Thank you. Yeah, #2 just keeps growing up but not out. I am hoping some direction pruning and actual sunlight will make it more "bushy: this year.

 

[Kievnstavick]

The one that needs help and maybe a repot in the near future. While setting it up for some quick summer pictures, I noticed that it has a huge root growing in the bottom of the pot. (looking over my previous posts, it seems I identified this root just before summer.) My repotting time table has moved up on this tree as I think letting it grow like that much longer could lead to undesired effects. I cleaned up the overlapping leaves and cleaned up some mid-winter pruning scars. I also removed the center of the apical branches. I am hoping it encourages more branching in the remaining two+their shoots. I wired some of the lower branches to hopefully encourage it to grow outwards a bit more rather then up.



The Slug

 

[jason biggs]

looks healthy... leave it another year before repotting - those big roots can really aid growth...

 

[Kievnstavick]

As someone with a lot more experience with this species, I'll take your word on that.

I'm personally a little bit worried about if that root would be causing other issues or the plant relying on the storage root too much. (Along the lines of root distribution and recovery time once removed).

I am mostly comparing it to my other two trees as they have had their storage roots reduced but it could just be a fallacy as I only have the three to currently compare.

 

[Kievnstavick]

Here is an update to this Baobab. These pictures were captured on 31MAY24. During winter, I decided to repot the tree as it became evident that the tap root was pushing the tree out of the pot. I didn't capture that process, but I got it into a pond basket. I defoliated the tree in order to see the shoots more clearly and I pruned it back to lower nodes to help with ramification. This one still looks like a pole, but we will see how it continues to grow over the years.



This is how the tree looked today. It is now outside full time with my mother tropicals to enjoy the rest of summer with actual sunlight. The new shoots are already pushing quite strongly.