Baonsai Baobabs

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Stone Jaguar
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Posts: 459
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2016 9:46 am

Baonsai Baobabs

#1

Post by Stone Jaguar »

Who doesn't like baobabs?

Like many here, I have long been fascinated with “fat plants” and have cultivated quite a few of them over the decades. Until 2000 I had not grown much in the way of pachyform tropical trees but was aware that they were interesting, non-traditional subjects for bonsai. A good friend of mine had started a wild Pochote (Ceiba aesculifolia) seedling as a grade school bonsai project and ended up with a splendidly gnarled tabletop specimen with a thorn-studded caudex and miniature leaves that followed him from residence to residence in Guatemala throughout most of his adult life.

About 15 years ago, I chanced upon a C&S nursery in Scottsdale, Arizona that had a ~7’/2.15 m tall, heavily-pruned, potted shaving brush tree (Pseudobombax ellipticum) in their display greenhouse. By that time, I had collected a few of these trees from roadcuts as small bonsai subjects, what struck me about the tree was that it had obviously been trained as a “Big Bonsai” from youth. The tree combined the pachycaul feature of larger trees with a very compact canopy and greatly reduced-size leaves. The trunk had wonderfully marbled bark, with exposed chloroplasts and everything else one would expect to see in an older example of this species grown under xeric conditions. The concept made such an impression on me I decided it try it out myself when the first opportunity arose.

A couple years later, I began to grow baobabs from seed when Kevin Spiers of pachypodium.org began making fresh collections of all of the Malagasy species available to horticulture. Several collector friends from around the world also made seed from other origins available to me. Long story short, I trialed multiple individuals of all nine species, including the newly-described and rather controversial SE African highland one (Adansonia “kilima”) for a number of years as potted trees outside year-round at my home in highland Guatemala City. A couple surprised me with their vigor and only two species were pretty much total failures under conditions there; A. gregorii from western Oz and A. rubrostipa from Malagasy. After selecting a dozen or so individuals from six species to grow on in large pots, I disposed of the rest to various friends who planted them out in their lowland tropical gardens in Guatemala where some are now (late 2017) well over six m/20’ tall and correspondingly wide.
Adansonia sp. compot.JPG
Adansonia sp. compot.JPG (96.96 KiB) Viewed 1125 times
Adansonia suarezensis leaf detail.JPG
Adansonia suarezensis leaf detail.JPG (77.49 KiB) Viewed 1125 times
Adansonia za at La Concha 2014 - Copy.jpg
Adansonia za at La Concha 2014 - Copy.jpg (153.64 KiB) Viewed 1125 times
Some images of the trees after I had topped them at four years of age, growing with their caudexed roots confined to large, beehive terracotta pots on my deck in Guatemala.
Baobabs and Alluaudia.JPG
Baobabs and Alluaudia.JPG (162.09 KiB) Viewed 1125 times
Adansonia suarezensis big bonsai.JPG
Adansonia suarezensis big bonsai.JPG (125.61 KiB) Viewed 1125 times
When I moved a part of my plant collection from Guatemala to the US in 2014, I decided to import two trees I was particularly fond of as bare-root saplings with their trunks cut to USDA regulation-limit 18”/45 cm. These were a very nice example of the widespread Malagasy native A. za and the Tanzanian upland form, A. “kilima”. Some pics below of the process of removing them from their pots, then pruning and cleaning them up so that they would pass muster with the rigorous USDA/DHS inspection at Los Angeles International.
Adansonia za just dug.JPG
Adansonia za just dug.JPG (93.52 KiB) Viewed 1125 times
Adansonia spp cleaned.jpg
Adansonia spp cleaned.jpg (206.77 KiB) Viewed 1125 times
Adansonia za sprouting August 2014.jpg
Adansonia za sprouting August 2014.jpg (74.5 KiB) Viewed 1125 times
Once I got them re-rooted in pumice during that summer, both were greenhoused through the late spring of the following year. Since then, they have inhabited the deck of my apartment for most of the year, spending a couple months indoors when fully dormant during our wet and often cold winter months. This past spring, I trusted my luck a bit too much with the Tanzanian tree and exposed it to the elements too early in the season. Sadly, it lost almost all of its once formidable caudexed root to rot so nothing much left to salvage. The A. za has proven to be an outstanding subject for pot culture, and is beginning to recover from the rather traumatic import and pruning process. For reference, tree is planted in a 14"/35 cm diameter clay bowl, is now exactly five feet tall from the base and four feet wide across the canopy. I would definitely recommend both this species and A. suarezensis to people who are interested in bonsai baobabs.
Adansonia za leaf detail - dwarfed.jpg
Adansonia za leaf detail - dwarfed.jpg (95.43 KiB) Viewed 1125 times
Adanzonia za exposed root detail I.jpg
Adanzonia za exposed root detail I.jpg (182.64 KiB) Viewed 1125 times
Adansonia za exposed root detail II.jpg
Adansonia za exposed root detail II.jpg (190.03 KiB) Viewed 1125 times
One and two year-old baobabs (almost all species) are now readily available at very reasonable prices from the better C&S nurseries in the American southwest and the EU. Growers interested in working with these trees as bonsai are much better situated in relation where we were a decade ago. As can be seen in the photo, with a bit of training, a nice-looking tree can be had in eight years from an established sapling and, based on South African growers' experiences with A. digitata, a fully-developed pachyform bonsai probably 10 years after that.
Adansonia za - canopy Oct 2017.jpg
Adansonia za - canopy Oct 2017.jpg (194.85 KiB) Viewed 1125 times
Good growing,

Jay
Stan
Ready to Bolt
Posts: 5688
Joined: Thu Aug 06, 2015 12:58 pm
Location: Hayward ca/SF bay area
USDA Zone: 10a

Re: Baonsai Baobabs

#2

Post by Stan »

That last needs 50% of the top taken off. I had one Adansonia for a short time. It was 20 years old. It got pests in a greenhouse.

A local going out of business nursery had a few Ceiba speciosa that were in pots for years. At 3' Jay, they were perfect miniatures- with thorns on trunk. I hint at others to try who want a cool potted tree. The Dry Garden seems to have seedlings for sale.

I'm going for the best of both worlds too with my Pesuedobombax. The fat colorful base..without the cutting it's branches back to inches. We will see how that goes over more time. Looks nice now. Actually for years I held down a Ficus palmeri. No more.Doing the bombax for it too.

Then there's the Australian Baobab, A. gregorii. A best bet for the bay area of all is my gut feeling.

I have an old Schefflera arboracola I might donate to the Oakland Bonsai Garden. Yes,its that worthy. 30 years of me guarding it- :cool:
Hayward Ca. 75-80f summers,60f winters.
Stone Jaguar
Ready to Bolt
Posts: 459
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2016 9:46 am

Re: Baonsai Baobabs

#3

Post by Stone Jaguar »

Hi, Stan. Once they've been lifted, you must let potted baobabs develop as large a canopy as possible in order to accelerate thickening of the trunk (not the root mass). While judicious structural canopy pruning is fine, you may have to let them get 10-12' high before the trunk is the desired thickness. Guys I've corresponded with who have them suggest easiest route is square-siding them at some point so all the branches head upright, not out. Obviously, they look fairly hideous at this stage. Once trunk is suficiently fat, tree can be pollarded, thinned and wired.

I grew dozens of Adansonia gregorii saplings from two wild seed collections. Far and away the slowest of all species and needs real dry heat for prolonged periods of time to get going. Also did not enjoy hot, wet tropical conditions, either. If it was a complete bust in Guatemala, I doubt very seriously whether this plant is suitable for our area. Most cold tolerant adansonias will be specific Malagasy ecotypes of A. za and A. rubrostipa occurring at southern end of the island and some ZAfrican A. digitata populations that see regular frosts. Mine despise cold + wet, but can handle mid 30s F handily if dry.
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