Re-potting Question

wendell

Hello all.
I received a few one year old acer palmatum cultivars and a fairly well established Shimpaku Juniper a few weeks ago through the mail. I potted them up with a mix that I had around, but have since gotten my hands on some Turface and now have the mix I wanted to use. The trees are just starting to come out of dormancy and buds are beginning to break. I'm thinking about transplanting them into the new soil. This would make two re-pottings within a month. No root-pruning. Is this a sure-fire way to kill four trees? ....or should I be okay doing this? I'm concerned that I'll be greatly over-sressing the roots.
Thanks so much,
Wendell

__________________

"Last leaf has fallen,
Tree will sleep and I will dream:
Spring is tomorrow"
--J. Naka

Advertisement

Tony

The juniper should be fine. The maples are more sensitive to this kind of thing but I think you can do it if you do it quick. If the buds are just now opening, transpiration should still be low and you've got a few days to repot. These are young trees too and it won't be near as hard on them as it would be on an older tree. Keep them in the shade until they recover.

Tony

Emperor Fish

Tony's right.

If you're not cutting the roots, these trees are so young that they shouldn't care at all.

Regards,

Fish.

__________________
Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill.

HEALTH WARNING: Engage brain fully, before typing into keyboard.


"We are the average gamers and we'll kill you badly. There'll be no finesse. no fancy tricks, no inventive attacks, just 2 whole smg clips and a rain of 'nades."

bcornell

Although I am new to bonsai, having only practiced it during the past five years or so, my experience in urban forestry, large tree transplanting and arboriculture tells me to wait on re-potting the maple until after the leaves are completely out (hardened off).

The root system and the leaf canopy on your maple (or any tree for that matter) work in concert with one another. Simply put, the size of the root system and the amount of foliage on the tree are in equilibrium. The action of repotting the tree may disturb enough of the roots so that those that remain my not be enough to provide adequate nutrients to the tree canopy. This could result in the potential of leaf die-back (turning brown and drying up) and could even go so far as killing braches on the tree.

I'd be afraid that repotting the maple now would result in the death of some of the buds.

FredL

Hi Wendell,

If it were me, it would depend on how how badly I wanted to change the soil. If I was really unhappy with the current soil mix, I'd go ahead, doing my best to minimize damage and keeping the roots wet during the operation. It wouldn't surprize me if the trees "sulked" for a time after the repotting, but I wouldn't expect them to die or lose branches.

The thing that I've noticed is that after a repotting, alot of really tender new roots start to grow and it's really hard not to damage them if you remove most of the soil from the roots. If the trees are in reasonably good shape, they will overcome this but, I don't think it's an experience they enjoy.

Fred

Tony

bcornell, What you say about the roots and top growth being in balance is true but in this case there really isn't any top growth yet because the buds are just know opening. If you wait to repot until the leaves harden off and become full size it will only put more stress on the roots. Full size leaves will require more water than the little buds and the roots probably wouldn't be able to keep up. I'd either do it now or wait til next year and catch it before the buds open.

Tony