"I think most newbies fail to recognize this scenario however. Most newbies just don't realize that they don't know...how much they don't know! "
I had one person ask me if he could help me repot a big Bald Cypress one year--just for the experience in doing it. Anyone willing to lift heavy stuff and get muddy helping me is more than welcome in the backyard
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He was looking to learn by doing, since he had a big expensive BC he had bought in Fla. He had been timid in root pruning it since it was a Notable Specimen.
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As I went to work hacking off a significant portion of the root mass, he couldn't believe it. He actually gasped and asked if I did THAT alot. I said well, yeah, couldn't get the thing back into the pot if I didn't
. I assured him the tree would be fine. Had been for years with such treatment. He left a little stunned, but the next year, he hacked his BC roots back alot more than he would have without the shock. The tree came back stonger than it had ever been....