Baku's consolidated bougainvilleas progression thread

[Baku1875]

Barabara Karst air layer from last year, nice color. Blooming again, that first elbow is healing from the carving a few months ago. I'm going to take it out, clean out the soil and rinse it, rake roots, and repot it in the same container again. It has some entangled roots and I want it to have nice nebari. They are about to go into hyperdrive growth in a few weeks.



Angle



Side

 

[Baku1875]

A late season rescue from last year, it's made a few appearances on the thread.



Back


Once it puts more foliage on in the next few weeks, I'm repotting this again as well. I'm pleased with the nebari results on my 2022 barbara air layer and I repotted/root raked/pruned twice per year, so I'm going to apply the same practices on the rest of my stuff until I make a new technique discovery lol.

 

[Baku1875]

Root pruned and raked that chunky formal upright from last year (purple, but it has lost its color. Any ideas? maybe it needs miracid?) Fine roots and organic ferts had this thing all clogged up.



Close up

 

[Baku1875]

Top layer was all scummy.


After the cleanup

 

[Baku1875]

Other side

 

[Baku1875]

Can have two 'fronts'


Side

 

[Carol 83]

maybe it needs miracid?)

Yep

 

[Baku1875]

Repotting the 2022 red barb k again(repot # 5, 2 in 2022, 2 in 2023, first of 2024 lol), root raking, moss/algae cleanup, moving it to a slightly smaller 10 in pot from its 12in pot.




Top was plenty scummy and green, but healthy roots everywhere. This was a 100% pumice mix, organic matter came from fert sprinklings (for when i got lazy and didnt use teabags, or when teabags biodegraded and i just let the contents get absorbed)

 

[Baku1875]

Reduced it down at least 30%, radial chopsticking of the topsoil and nebari, a little reduction of undesired roots. The pumice performed well.


Took a toothbrush to the rest of the mossy part of that nebari, this one is gonna get some diluted peroxide maybe a light spray of very diluted vinegar/water later on.

 

[Baku1875]

Very happy with this flare. I carefully snipped off some of those dead-ish spaghetti roots that distract from the thicker ones. Soil composition will be- recycled pumice (rinsed, then baked at 300F for 2 hours, then rinsed and sifted again). Keeping lots of that existing pumice in the root ball, made some concave snips around the 'heart' area below the trunk to make room for a small pile of akadama and hyuga pumice to help this along.

 

[Baku1875]

Completed. Some hyuga and akadama around the exposed parts of the roots here and there, and a sprinkle of grated sphagnum. It's sitting in a clay humidity tray for 1-2 weeks while it recovers (in full sun of course!)

 

[Baku1875]

Goal is going to be to get some more strength from the random shoots that it's blasting now, and to get backbudding so I can begin thinking of the future design. There's a little bud halfway up the trunk that I'm hoping comes through.

 

[Baku1875]

Downpotted the smallest of the 5 chunky bougies that I collected in April.

Had a lot of roots in the nursery can, I'm kind of pushing my luck here, but it will be in the shade and misted twice a day. Classic pumice and similarly sized leca balls along with some of the original cocopeat/perlite mix.

Now sitting in 10 inch training pot lol...I'm going after Ryan Neil's philosophy of cramming it into a bonsai pot as soon as the trunk is worthy of it, do or die. My best 'new nebari' is definitely the 2022 red bougie that i repotted recently and it got that way by being in a bonsai pot with 3/8" pumice for 2 years and 5 repottings, so that's going to be the protocol on my bougies for now.

I need to watch this one and mist it/shade because it has a decent chunk of foliar mass and flowers putting a lot of strain on the roots. Might have to take the flowers off if the leaves lose their rigidity in the afternoon despite shade and mist.

 

[Baku1875]

I tried to saw the portions of these cuttings at spots that were as bell shaped as possible back in april. This batch is definitely my best start in terms of trunk scale and quality.

 

[Baku1875]

Bougie update



Twin trunk purple bougie cuttings from 8 weeks ago, formal upright chunky purple, and last year's first chunky purple on the right, going for an informal upright look for now and splaying out the lower branches while keeping the tops tight.



It has been so swampy and humid, I think these are due for hydrogen peroxide treatment this week.

Oh the first pic but reversed. The right one had that 'sling shot' trunk pattern which i chopped to create the zig zag trunk line instead. Maybe some carving of the corners of the zig zag can help smooth it out and make it more elegant.....

 

[Baku1875]

The barbara karst cuttings, middle one is that air layer from last year, I crammed it into that shallow oval pot and it's doing well (it was previously in that 12" clay low bowl)



They are coming along. I'm going to wire some extra movement onto a few branches of the mother tree to air layer more interesting clones next year.