PennyLanePop

Hi I'm new to the addiction and this coming spring is going to my first repotting. I've been doing a lot of reading over the last year but I would like to voice a few questions just to get an answer from another person instead of an essay.



Last July while moving out of my parents place I adopted my first tree, a little maple seedling that was growing on the side of the house. I potted it in a tiny 3" x 2" pot with a soil mix of miracle grow moisture control soil and sand mixed at a ratio of 1:1. When it was first put in the pot it had only two sets of leaves, by the end of the growing season it had about 8 or so sets and grew two inches. I want to transplant it into a larger pot to give it more room to grow this year. I want to keep this tree small (What's the difference between shohin, mame, and shito?) so it will just go in a pot only an inch wider and a little deeper. Does that sound right, or should I maybe leave this maple in the tiny 3" x 2" pot it's in now? It's a little cold right now so I'm going to wait a few weeks to do this, or can a maple survive being transplanted a little earlier?



When I do this I'll also be transplanting a five year old kingsville boxwood that I received this past holiday. It's in a bonsai pot that's about 7" x 4" x 3", but I'm planning on putting it in a 8" larger/deeper terra cotta house plant kind of pot so that it will hopefully become larger (yes, I know kingsville are slow) and can serve as a mother plant for cuttings down the line. This I want to do ASAP because I'm have trouble telling how dry it's getting in the condition it's potted now. I've read that kingsville boxwoods are pretty much fine with being transplanted year round as long as it doesn't get dry. Is this true from your experiences, or should I wait up a bit for it get warmer and transplant it when I do my maple?



The last thing I want to run by you guys is that soil mix that I'm thinking of using when I perform these transplants. For financial reasons I have to use what I have around. To a ratio of 2:1:1 I'm going to mix miracle grow moisture control, sand, and aquarium rocks. At the bottom of the pots I'm going to put a layer of larger gravel. A lot of places say that miracle grow is horrible but it seems to work fine. The maple likes it. I also have some cactus soil mix, pine bedding



(The bedding is left over from the rabbit that was killed by the boxwood. It's sad, I moved the tree out of the rabbit’s room as soon as I found out about the poison but I guess I was too late and missed a couple leaves with the vacuum. I feel bad, the rabbit was my fiancées' present and the tree was mine. My present killed hers...)



and I will have the old bonsai soil mix from the boxwood. Would you suggest using any of this? I've only heard a little about using bedding. The package doesn't saw anything about any additives or anything, so as far as I know it's just wood.



Well, that's all I have to ask for now. Thank you for any and all advice and info. Sorry if I annoyed any of you for asking the some of the same old questions. I just want to talk to a person.

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