Live Oak Repotting

bonsainotwar

This may seem like a dumb question,but I want to move a very rootbound live oak,from its current home in a ten-gallon nursery container,where I have been working on it close to a year,to a bonsai pot.This is the first evergreen oak I have owned.This will involve bare rooting it,and undoing the roots.The leaves on my deciduous oaks have all turned,and have almost all dropped by now. Does this mean it is safe to repot it,or should I wait like I would for a pyracantha or holly ?

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irene_b

I would not do it.
They are some fussy trees when ya mess with their roots!
Best do a bunch of reading up on them first.
Irene

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rockm

Cut to the chase: I would wait until the spring to do any root work

Long way around: Live oaks (Quercus Virginiana, anyway) aren't really all that fussy about having their roots messed with--as long as it's the proper time. I suspect it's much the same with other western US "live oak" species. You don't say what species you're working with.

I've had a large collected Texas live oak bonsai (Quercus Virginiana "Fusiformis" an upland subspecies native to hotter drier areas) for almost 8 years now. I have repotted it twice during that time, which involved untangling and trimming a 75 lb root mass. I've removed almost 50% of it at one repotting with no ill effects.

However, I've done this just before the new leaves break in the spring, just as I do with other broad leaved deciduous trees. Live oaks are deciduous. They just drop their leaves in the spring just as new growth is to begin, instead of in the fall. There really is no difference in caring for them and caring for more typical deciduous species.