Quince repotting

jersanct

Greetings.

I bought a Quince from a local nursery recently and had planned to plant it in a grow box this fall, as I understand that "late fall" is the best time for repotting Quince. It is unclear to me, however, whether by late fall we mean before or after the leaves drop.

Mine has lost its leaves, some time ago, and we currently are having unseasonably warm weather in St. Louis, if that matters. If anyone could please tell me whether I can get this into a grow box now, or if I will have to wait for another year, I would appreciate it.

Thanks very much,

Chris

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RedPine

Hi,

I am assuming you are working with a Japanese type here?, that is what I have worked with and what my advice will be for.

There should be no rush to transplant now, the tree won't be doing any significant growing until spring. Keep your tree in winter storage for now and wait until spring to repot these, only a 2 or 3 month wait for you. In spring when you first see signs of flower and maybe some leaf buds opening is the time to act, right before they really start to flower out. This is when the roots have pushed the energy back up to the trunk and branches and you can chop away or do what work if any you need to do on them. I have worked J. quince roots very hard in spring, they respond well.

Careful if you are doing any early spring branch pruning and you like the flowers, you will be clipping unseen new flowers right off there. They pop from a previous years growth always in spring and the process should last a few months off and on.

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edgey

Chris,
If your wanting to plant straight into a grow box then simply tease out the roots and plant it, no root pruning required. If you wanted to root prune as well though you should wait until the flowers are just opening in late winter/spring as said.
If planting into a grow box though I would be just planting it with no unnecessary root pruning as the tree will settle quicker.
Thats not to say that a tangled mess of roots is acceptable and arranging these roots will give you a better nebari in the future. I suppose it will depend upon the condition of the surface roots and whether you're happy with them. Winter protection is essential though especially for newly potted trees, but come spring, out in the sun. Good Luck with it
Andrew

Kansai

I'm confused. Why would one wait until bud break to prune the roots? It seems like any substantial root prune should be accompanied by an equally substantial top prunning, which would eliminate most of the flower buds anyway. My intuition tells me that late fall, after the foliage has gone dormant but while the soil is still warm enough to promote root development, would be a suitable if not ideal time to work with quince.

DR

Vance Wood

It is my understanding from the literature on Quince that they are repotted in the fall because they are suseptable to a root disease, a fungus of some sort, if repotted in the spring. They will form root galls.

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edgey

The repotting in fall would have to be at the very beginning of it, otherwise I would of thought that the inherent problems with late autumn/winter watering (often overwatering, especially beginners) would of caused more fungal problems than not? If the roots haven't established themselves properly by winter wouldn't this leave the doorway open for any disease or fungus? Obviously the ensuing explosion of growth from the Autumn repot will need to be kept in check if overall design/ shape is to be maintained. That pruning will prune off the flowers for next season! Hard to win. Andrew

BONSAI_OUTLAW

I used some sulfer in my water after I repoted this year and have seen no problems. It has some antifungal properties and plants seem to like a little of it as well.

rockm

"after the foliage has gone dormant but while the soil is still warm enough to promote root development"

You can't think in terms of days or weeks for warm temperatures. Winter is coming, along with deep freezes. Newly sprouted roots are very susceptible to die back especially in the winter, since they will not have four to six weeks of warmer temperatures. If you root prune now, you will have to find a frost-free environment to overwinter the tree.

"Why would one wait until bud break to prune the roots? "

Waiting until bud break ensures the tree has already distributed the nutrient stored in the roots the previous autumn. In spring, the plant has prepared itself for a growth push--removing the roots in the fall could slow it down in the spring, since you are removing stored energy. Buds swell in the spring using that stored energy. When they start swelling, they are drawing from reserves. Pruning before buds swell leaves all those reserves in the roots. That's why we usually wait until just BEFORE buds break before root pruning--to take advantage of the redistributed nutrients. Top growth will push root growth...

RedPine

Another aspect I would like to add is most of us do root prune deciduous trees just before bud break. Awhile back a small group of us had been discussing the topic with Gary Marchal, he advised that he likes to wait until the trees have begun to leaf to let the roots(battery) release it's energy before root pruning, and with bald cypress he lets them go ahead and leaf out all the way. He stated he gets better growing trees waiting like this.


I gave the reply in my first post based on my prior knowledge just like this info shared by Rock and the learned tips stated above. From my point of view fall is long past this year, there seems no reason to wait until next fall to do this repotting. In spring you can bare root, comb the roots out radially and remove any roots you do not want, such as downward growing, crossing, malformed etc.. . Plus the advantage of placing the tree into clean quality soil. Doing this root work or a similar type of thing will get you a better tree compared to just slipping it in a box and waiting a few years before you get in there.

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