coffee bonsai?

[eferguson1974]

I live very close to some coffee farms. My friends all say that a big one will die if dug up. Some have great movement and are 6" or more thick. I know the leaves are kinda big, but if I air layer one, does anyone think it will root? How long would it need to be left alone? Id really like to find one with a strangler fig growing on it too. But thats the easy part... I can get a two foot tall, six inch thick coffee easily if it will survive.. So, good idea or not worth it? They get cut way back every year, so they are thick for their size. The seem perfect other than the leaves, but it would be a big bonsai, like two feet tall and more than six inches thick. Probably more like ten inches. Or I could air layer higher for a thinner bonsai. But with thick ones around for free, Id like to know if anyone has done it before and had can give me a couple pointers. They flower and fruit twice a year, so they could be cool. Do the leaves reduce?

 

[Geo]

 

[Geo]

 

[Geo]

Sorry,double post. There is a bit on the net about them.

 

[rockm]

I live very close to some coffee farms. My friends all say that a big one will die if dug up. Some have great movement and are 6" or more thick. I know the leaves are kinda big, but if I air layer one, does anyone think it will root? How long would it need to be left alone? Id really like to find one with a strangler fig growing on it too. But thats the easy part... I can get a two foot tall, six inch thick coffee easily if it will survive.. So, good idea or not worth it? They get cut way back every year, so they are thick for their size. The seem perfect other than the leaves, but it would be a big bonsai, like two feet tall and more than six inches thick. Probably more like ten inches. Or I could air layer higher for a thinner bonsai. But with thick ones around for free, Id like to know if anyone has done it before and had can give me a couple pointers. They flower and fruit twice a year, so they could be cool. Do the leaves reduce?

Why on earth would you want to make it thinner? Sound like excellent material. A two foot tree with a six to ten inch trunk would make a very powerful bonsai. You will probably have to pioneer digging one up. I don't think they're all that common as bonsai, but Geo's pic shows it can be done and probably with substantial root reduction, or it wouldn't be in that tiny pot.

 

[eferguson1974]

Why on earth would you want to make it thinner? Sound like excellent material. A two foot tree with a six to ten inch trunk would make a very powerful bonsai. You will probably have to pioneer digging one up. I don't think they're all that common as bonsai, but Geo's pic shows it can be done and probably with substantial root reduction, or it wouldn't be in that tiny pot.

Good points, thanks guys. The thing is that they get chopped often, so a six inch tree has huge taproot and other huge roots that would be hard to get out in good shape and reuse. And my friends say that they dont dig up well. I have a couple long, skinny natural literati coffee trees, and killed a bunch, to ne honest. I didnt get the roots out enough to survive. Too bad, some had the coolest natural shapes. They grow in my little jungle, so Ill go see them when I see how my native ficus are that I chopped down to the lowest branch like 8 or so months ago. So I can look for cool ones.
But I was wondering if air layering would work, and save a lot of digging. The root "ball" is as thick underground as above and would take machinery to lift. A two foot tall trees has been chopped a bunch of times if its thick, but the roots dont ever get pruned. So one that big has feeder roots too far away to get out. So if air layering isnt going to work, I will pick a few at the nursery when I go again. I was thinking of fat trunks and radial roots, to get started on the nebari. Maybe its too good to be true.... I will take pics of some that were brought home dead because they have or had strangler figs stuck to them. They show the proportions pretty well for examples.

 

[eferguson1974]

Here are some examples. Theyre all dead as far as coffee goes. One still has a native fig stuck to it and alive still. The blond one had a strangler too and I cleaned the coffees wood down to the old dead cambiam. Sadly, the fig didnt make it. There are much thicker ones. Maybe you can see the cool shape the blond one has shooting off from the strait trunk line. I like that shape, and they are common on live trees, and I only want that and a lttle underneath in some cases. So air layering I thought might get me the cool shapes and not 18" or more of trunk with little or no taper...
Sorry for the crappy cel pics.

 

[Cypress187]

I like the second picture

 

[eferguson1974]

Thats the one I peeled the bark off of and sanded some. Too bad, it had a nice strangler and a baby. Idk why they die, but maybe 1/3 of the collected figs die. Probably from loosing roots. Im getting better and keeping them alive. Colanders are the best for me, Ive had the best luck with them for freshly collected trees.
I guess air layering a fat trunk wont work, noone seems to have advice on that. I'll try one and see just so we know..

 

[M. Frary]

Colanders are the best for me, Ive had the best luck with them for freshly collected trees.

Something I discovered a few years ago. Everything I collect,buy or steal goes into a colander or colander type container.

 

[eferguson1974]

Something I discovered a few years ago. Everything I collect,buy or steal goes into a colander or colander type container.

I found some ok looking colanders that are small and not to ugly, and I'm ok with leaving my trees in them. Pots for bonsai dont exist here, just low terracota colored plastic ones were available and I bought them all. They obviously arent the best looking things. So colanders and gravel with some bagged baby orchid and (incredibly bagged "bonsai soil" is available) or bonsai mix tossed in for organics and I think the trees like pieces of wood because the roots like to hug them. I water every other day or even third day and everything is growing. So I know some people say they dont work or whatever. But with my mix more or less figured out and in a collander not one tree has had root rot, and are growing like they should here in the heat, humidity, and 12 hours and change of lights all year. Idk, its only my first year learning about bonsai but I think theyre fine long term in colanders. Bonsai is about the tree to me, not the pot.