Madrone Experiment #2

[Arcto]

I picked up an Arizona Madrone at a specialty nursery recently. This species does ok in the PNW. I intended to do another full bareroot like my Pacific Madrone. When I started work, I was very pleased to find a good course soil mix in a special air pruning pot system. A shoutout to Cistus Nursery for doing this well.

The pot system.

This gives me more time to use the original pot system and soil. I did a half bareroot instead of whole. Only instead of a half like a half of a pie slice, I bare rooted the top half of the original soil and replaced with a bonsai mix. I’ve been doing this for a couple of years with trees I don’t plan on progressing to a bonsai container right away. It works very well, with little setback to the trees.

Soil chopsticked in with the original support stake reinserted.

Done. The 3 amigos together. Madrone x ‘Marina’ on the left. Arizona Madrone in the middle. Pacific Madrone to the right. Both ‘Marina’ and the Pacific were full bare root jobs. Both came out of the winter season in good shape.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Nice. I'll be following your experiments. I really wish Manzanita would do better as bonsai than it does.

I checked out Cistus mail order catalog, they have some really "cool & interesting" offerings. I'll have to place a Covid19 isolation relief order. When I place the order, I'll share what I got.

 

[cj16]

Arcto: wondering how the madrone are doing. I obtained 3 in 6in pots to experiment with. Like your idea of pond basket. Also thought I would try one in a grow bag in the ground for development. What soil mix did you use?

 

[Arcto]

Arcto: wondering how the madrone are doing. I obtained 3 in 6in pots to experiment with. Like your idea of pond basket. Also thought I would try one in a grow bag in the ground for development. What soil mix did you use?

All the Madrone are doing fine. I potted up 3 more small ones this early spring. I’ve been using 1-1-1 mixture of acadama, pumice and lava. The same mix I use on my pines.

 

[samr]

Have you added anything special to the soil? I read that they need mycorrhizal fungi in their soil. I collected 5 madrone saplings this past weekend and am starting them out growing in soil collected nearby as that should have the fungi in it.

Also wondering how you have been watering & fertilizing to keep them alive? There is a guy in California who seems to be only watering his once a month in the summer which seems very low. There isn't much info online about these trees so I would appreciate any advice/learnings you have.