So.. I made a mistake.. now what?

Jarnish

Being the ambitious newbie that I am, I transplanted a tree about a month ago into a bonsai pot that wasn't ready for it. The tree is about four years old. I didn't realize this was a mistake until just yesterday, when I was reading an article about at what age you want to transplant.

Now, the problem.. what do I do? The tree hasn't responded much at all. It's lost some foliage, which I know is typical from the 2 times the tree has been repotted before.. but other than that, I haven't seen anything at all.

What should I do? Wait a month and repot back to a deeper pot? Or am I looking at a much longer wait than that? Just trying to figure out my options.

Thanks for any advice.

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susieq

There shouldn't be a problem just putting the tree back into a larger growing pot. Just lift it out of the bonsai pot and place it into a prepared growing pot that has some soil already in it, fill around the edges and water it in. You aren't actually disturbing the roots when you do this.....

lehket

Just out of curiosity, why do you feel it was a mistake? I'm guessing because of the size of the trunk, not merely because of age. Trunk size is related to age, of course, when a tree is growing in the ground, but it varies somewhat with species. Some grow faster than others.

If you want to thicken it up, then it should probably go back into the ground rather than merely into a larger pot, although a grow box could probably be used (not something I've ever tried, but I hear they can be very effective). If that's not the issue, however, then I might not worry about it. I'd just let it adapt to its new pot.

In my experience, the length of time it takes for a tree to recover from a repot depends on the species, the time of year when it's repotted, and the degree of root pruning done. With little or no root pruning, a repot at this time of year doesn't seem to set back most trees too much at all. I just repotted a trident maple, removing minimal rootage, and it didn't even blink (so to speak). I collected a privet from my yard a couple of weeks ago, which required rather more root pruning than I had hoped, and it's spent the time since looking like it's on its deathbed.

Usually, I've found recovery times for collected material to be in the 1 to 2 month range. I normally keep collected material in a shaded area until it shows signs of new growth and hold off fertilizing for about a month after that.

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Mcspeed

When were the previous 2 repots for a 4 year old tree??


It's possible depending on the species you cut off too much root, and it won't recover, what kind of tree??

A month is not that long to see recovery especiall if the tree was dormant.

There is no set ages at which you can transplant trees, it can be done as required, with the understanding that only so much should be done to a tree in a yearly growing cycle. If this tree had recently gone thru root pruning and you did it again, it may be a goner.

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Jarnish

I'll try to answer both posts.

First off, it's a Red Sandalwood tree. The first repot was done when I got the tree (3 years ago). It was in a 2" pot, I moved it to a 4", not realizing how fast it was going to grow. The next spring, after it had gotten rather large for its home, I moved it into an 8" pot, where it's been since then (2 years).

A month ago, when I started seeing a wack of new growth on the top of the plant, I moved it into a bonsai pot, thinking the correct time to do this was in the growing season of the tree's fourth or fifth year (I had gotten this information from a bonsai book that I've recently set in the recycle bin). Since then, I've done some more research (mostly due to this site) and found that I'm not ready for the trunk of this tree to stop growing.

The root pruning in all 3 repots was not agressive. I'd say the most that was removed was 20% of the root mass. The root mass looks healthy and strong.. there are a number of thick roots with plenty of stringers, and many of good length and girth (from my perspective, anyway).

Unfortunately, putting this tree in the ground is not an option, though in a couple of weeks, it will start getting outside for at least a few hours a day. Should I be planning on transplanting this tree in a pot where the roots have as much room to roam as they want? Or should it be going back into the 8" pot that I had it in before?

I don't think the tree is a goner. The behaviour that I'm seeing is akin to what I saw the other two times I repotted it.. dropping about 1/5th of its leaves, slowing down for two weeks or so, and then coming back abundantly. I'm more looking for advice on how/when to repot the tree again than I am keeping it alive.. it's getting the same care as it always has gotten, and that's proven successful so far.

Hawthorn

If you want the trunk to get bigger, give the roots room to grow.. This is generally accepted. If you are merely upsizing the pot, it's not really necessary(or advisable as far as I'm concerned) to prune the roots, beyond what's unavoidable during the removal of old soil. If you want to give the tree more room to grow, then you can "slip pot" it into a bigger pot, meaning you simply remove the whole kit from the pot it's in(trying not to disturb the roots at all), place it into another pot that has been partially filled with soil already, fill in the empty space around the root ball/soil mass and water it in. This will get you into a good position to let it gain more mass.