Morning all!
It's now just over a year since I started a number of the small Eucs which are seen earlier in this article. I thought it might be a good time to take a look at how the roots were developing, and didn't really expect to do any root-pruning at this stage (see "
Root-Pruning and Repotting" above,
post #2). Growth on this River Red had slowed quite considerably, and I assumed that this was due to a mid-Winter lull - but I have been wrong before... It turns out that roots had circled the pot, and that a repot was in order. My thinking here was that a mid-Winter repot should allow the tree to recover sufficiently to take full advantage of the Spring/Summer growth spurt.
Previous pics of this tree can be seen below:
June 2004
January 2005
The 1st pic here shows the River Red as it appeared yesterday morning. It has been tip-pruned once since the previous pic was taken. The trunk - especially the base - has thickened considerably since last year, and the lower bark is beginning to take on the thick, cracked appearance that is characteristic of the species. (The trunk is now about 30mm at the widest point, and I'd guess it was about 20mm this time last year.) The yellow mark indicates the point where I will make the trunk chop.
Pic 2 gives some indication of Eucs' propensity for growing tap roots - despite having severed the main tap root(s) during the initial repot, this root mass is due to new roots growing straight down to the bottom of the pot. All of this root mass was removed (as well as the shade cloth which was placed in the bottom of the nursery pot to prevent soil loss). During root-pruning, I removed about 60% of the roots, leaving a 100mm x 40mm pad of fine feeder roots and the 'nebari' intact.
Pic 3 shows the River Red repotted, pruned and wired. Not very impressive I know, but look at the amount of growth I have achieved within one year from nursery stock! I repotted into my standard soil (see
post #7) along with a generous handful of Dynamic Lifter (pellets of composted chook manure). The tree stands at about 250mm tall, and I expect that its finished height might be around 400mm.
The next update on this tree should appear within 6 months. Thanks for your time.
Fly.