Another Weird Project in the Making

[Jetson1950]

I guess I love the weird and impossible possibilities your brain can imagine. The Texas hill country is mostly mesquite trees, so it wouldn’t be proper not to bring some home and try to bonsai them. With all the hard clay there turned into soft mud, it was easy to dig them up without destroying the roots. These little seedlings already have a 15” tap root. I also got a few larger ones, but will have to see how well they fair. Their roots were much larger and will have to heal.

Also got some old deadwood mesquite pieces. Lots of these available. I’m thinking I will attempt to use the old deadwood stumps as pots for the seedlings. I can drill a hole through the top of a deadwood piece and run the long taproot of the seedling through it to a hidden soil base with a rock and clay mix. Hard clay is their natural soil in that part of Texas. I should be able to hollow out an area in a deadwood piece to make the hidden cavern with the soil mix. It will develop a root ball over time to worry about, but that will be years down the road.

Start of the project will be to bleach out the deadwood a little more and get it ready.

 

[leatherback]

with a rock and clay mix. Hard clay is their natural soil in that part of Texas.

Note that the soil a tree grows in their natural range might not be ideal in pots. It might not even be ideal for the tree in the wild, but the only place where they can outcompete other, faster growing, species. I would consider regular bonsai substrate.

These little seedlings already have a 15” tap root.

I hope you took advantage of having them out of the ground, and you significantly reduced the taproot on [some of] them.

 

[rockm]

I guess I love the weird and impossible possibilities your brain can imagine. The Texas hill country is mostly mesquite trees, so it wouldn’t be proper not to bring some home and try to bonsai them. With all the hard clay there turned into soft mud, it was easy to dig them up without destroying the roots. These little seedlings already have a 15” tap root. I also got a few larger ones, but will have to see how well they fair. Their roots were much larger and will have to heal.

Also got some old deadwood mesquite pieces. Lots of these available. I’m thinking I will attempt to use the old deadwood stumps as pots for the seedlings. I can drill a hole through the top of a deadwood piece and run the long taproot of the seedling through it to a hidden soil base with a rock and clay mix. Hard clay is their natural soil in that part of Texas. I should be able to hollow out an area in a deadwood piece to make the hidden cavern with the soil mix. It will develop a root ball over time to worry about, but that will be years down the road.

Start of the project will be to bleach out the deadwood a little more and get it ready.

View attachment 606580View attachment 606581

You’re hardly the first to try this species. Mixed results as far as success. Given this species is pretty damn common over huge swathes of the U.S. it’s odd to not see some older examples as bonsai. There are only a handful that I’ve seen online. None in person though

You might check the Texas bonsai clubs—Dallas Austin Houston—web sites and resource pages for more info

 

[rockm]

Also. FWIW there are three species of mesquite in Texas. The most common ids the Honey Mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa). The other two velvet mesquite (prosopis velutina) and screened mesquite (prosopis pubescens) have limited ranges but they can overlap Honey Mesquite.

The link below is worth reading. Note the “deep-rooted, water-using “phreatophyte” which avoids drought” part

tag based on what is being viewed. We filter the output of wp_title() a bit - see agriflex_filter_wp_title() in functions.php. --> <title> Mesquite ecology - Texas Natural Resources Server

texnat.tamu.edu

 

[Jetson1950]

Note that the soil a tree grows in their natural range might not be ideal in pots. It might not even be ideal for the tree in the wild, but the only place where they can outcompete other, faster growing, species. I would consider regular bonsai substrate.


I hope you took advantage of having them out of the ground, and you significantly reduced the taproot on [some of] them.

Good read on the mesquites. My Dad was a Texas Aggie and we still have all of his books from college on trees and grasses. Almost word for word to the reference you had. Pretty sure the ones I have are Honey Mesquites.

I’ve worked with mesquite before. They have very few little surface roots, so if you cut off the tap root too soon, you will probably lose the seedling. I’ve kept them alive by putting them in porous soil and very slowly shortening the tap root over time as it developed more fine shallow roots to maintain water absorption.

 

[leatherback]

Almost word for word to the reference you had.

Not sure what you mean. I have no reference here?

I’ve worked with mesquite before. They have very few little surface roots, so if you cut off the tap root too soon, you will probably lose the seedling.

Thing is with seedlings.. They OFTEN respond REALLY well to removal of the taproot. My closest reference is oad trees. Tricky to collect once they are a few years old. But in the first year one can remove the root completely, and be rewarded with 6+ new roots really boosting development of shorter, smaller roots.

 

[Jetson1950]

Not sure what you mean. I have no reference here?


Thing is with seedlings.. They OFTEN respond REALLY well to removal of the taproot. My closest reference is oad trees. Tricky to collect once they are a few years old. But in the first year one can remove the root completely, and be rewarded with 6+ new roots really boosting development of shorter, smaller roots.

I was referring to the Mesquite Ecology article at texnat.tamu.edu. Same information in my Dad’s old text books.

I’ll give cutting the tap root a try on some of them once I feel they have survived the shock of being dug up. I’ll also put them in a bonsai soil mix. One of the seedlings I want to keep the root longer to thread it through the deadwood piece I’m mounting it on.

 

[rockm]

Mesquite is adapted to very dry climates. The tree’s “tap root” is not mostly just an anchor root as it is in more temperate zone species from what I can see. Its tap root is basically a straw meant to punch down to the water table in drier areas. Adapting it to shallow pots and culture might be a challenge.

 

[cishepard]

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[Jetson1950]

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Whatever you posted didn’t come through.

 

[Jetson1950]

Okay, I’ve decided to start my first Mesquite in a bonsai pot. It will be on the piece of deadwood, but will be in a rectangle pot.

I took a small piece of deadwood and bleached it. It came out a lot lighter than I thought it would, but I’m really starting to like the color. I could try to stain it a Mesquite wood color, but I think the very light wood color in the greenish pot with green tree will work fine.

Here is the pot with the deadwood in it. I think for the front, I like option 2 which shows more depth with the overhang part to the right. Photo 3 is the Mesquite I will use for this first effort.

Photo 4 is dorky looking, but the size ratios are about right. The base of the seedling won’t show because I will drill a hole in the deadwood and thread it through with its tap root in the bonsai soil mix. I uses finer grade rocks since the seedling in so small. Wasn’t planning on a Shohin, but that’s what it will be till it grows up. I actually have 3 of these seedlings. I could put the one seedling anywhere along the top of the deadwood or put two with one on each end. With 2 seedlings, it might look crowded down here road, but that would be a few years.

Edit: The pot is 11” x 8” x 1.5”