Jacaranda Plant

Hi,

I am from India and live in Bangalore. I am still learning on bonsai and have a small collection. I recently purchased a Jacaranda Plant since I was fascinated by the blue flowers. Unfortunately, I could only find a really tall plant - its over 6 ft already and a thin trunk with some foliage right on top. I am wondering how I can shorten the trunk (without killing the plant) and make it into a nice bonsai. Your suggestions will really help.. thank you.

Umavinaykumar.

yes, you should be able to cut back the Jacaranda, and you would probably get better results if you fertilised the tree for a month before cutting it.
Try 1/3 strength of a fertiliser, once a week into moist soil, for 4 weeks.

However, don't expect the plant to look like a mature Jacaranda, as normally [ on our side ] all you get is 3 or 4 branches and some amount of die-back.

Can you locate a Tamarindus indica, the old sour fruit type. I am seeing some problems with the so-called sweet type, it is more prone to the powdery mildew that forms on the leaves.
This tree will within 5 to 10 years give you a beautiful bonsai.
Feel free to ask more questions if you need to.
Best to you.
Khaimraj

* Next time you may wish to post questions in Bonsai Questions.

Khaimraj Seepersad wrote:Umavinaykumar.

yes, you should be able to cut back the Jacaranda, and you would probably get better results if you fertilised the tree for a month before cutting it.
Try 1/3 strength of a fertiliser, once a week into moist soil, for 4 weeks.

However, don't expect the plant to look like a mature Jacaranda, as normally [ on our side ] all you get is 3 or 4 branches and some amount of die-back.

Can you locate a Tamarindus indica, the old sour fruit type. I am seeing some problems with the so-called sweet type, it is more prone to the powdery mildew that forms on the leaves.
This tree will within 5 to 10 years give you a beautiful bonsai.
Feel free to ask more questions if you need to.
Best to you.
Khaimraj

* Next time you may wish to post questions in Bonsai Questions.

Thank you so much Khaimraj. That was very helpful. I was very skeptical to cut back the trunk since I did not want it to die. I will now put the plant into a nursery pot and fertilize it as suggested by you.

Yes I do also have a Tamarindus indica - its about 4 years old. I have just put it into a bonsai pot and I am yet to style it. Will post some pics...

Thank you,

Regards,
Uma

Uma,

what height do you want your Bonsai to be when finished?

[2] What soil mix are you using ?

Your welcome.
Khaimraj

* Love to see your images.

Khaimraj Seepersad wrote:Uma,

what height do you want your Bonsai to be when finished?

[2] What soil mix are you using ?

Your welcome.
Khaimraj

* Love to see your images.

Khaimraj

I do not want it be very tall maybe under 12". But I am not sure if I will be able to achieve a think trunkline considering it is very thin and straight. But the root structure seemed good. Now I have it buried in a nursery pot. I use the following soil mix for my plants:

2 measures - red earth (garden soil)
2 measure - organic manure
1 measure - sand
1/2 measure - brick pieces
1/2 measure - gravel
1/2 measure - coco peat

It seems to be working for me so far. However, I do have a young azalea plant - and I am not sure if this soil mix will work for that. Its flowering currently, I am waiting for the right time to transfer into a training pot. It is currently in a small nursery pot. What soil mix do you use? Will certainly post pics tomorrow.

Regards,
Uma

Uma,

i get good results simply using [ 4.5 or 6mm size ] red brick, builder's gravel and compost. The compost is around 1mm and the particles are unrecognizable. You can do the same with well cured manure and the cocopeat.
Our cocopeat is a compressed block and is soaked, then in a bucket, hand broken down to be sifted [ around 1 or 2 mm]

The idea is freely draining and depending on how dry the climate is to hold water within itself [ the red brick ]

I start at a basic [ by volume 1/3,1/3.1/3 ]

If you are just going to 12" [ 30.5 cm ] then a trunk proportion of 1 to 6 should work well for you.
That is 2.5 cm trunk width to 15 cm height.

If you have the use of a yard, you could have that in one year or less with the tamarind in the ground.
If not use a big pot. Usually wider than deep. Or if you have access to 55 US gal, black barrels, 1/3 of the barrel in coarser soil mix,say inorganic [ brick, gravel [ silica based ] at 10 mm].
You can cut back to the point of the cotyledons or above.The Tamarind will resprout easily, and then move it to a pot about 30.5 cm x 30.5 cm x 30.5 cm at least.

You should easily be able to train the branches and when happy with the proportions go to more of a bonsai pot shape, for the branchlets.

Apologies if you knew all of this before.

I left the measurements in metric, would you prefer feet and inches in future?
Other than North America, most folk use metric ?
Later.
Khaimraj

Uma,

an add on. If you want to try my soil mix, do it on a test plant or plants [ 3 normally.] Nothing precious okay.
Take notes in writing, helps a great deal. Memories will fail with time.
Later.
Khaimraj