Update On Repotting Woes

thejimmyrigger

Alright, I woke up this morning to find my elm hanging off my third story porch upside down by its root ball! The wind blew it out of its pot and three feet across the porch! Ironically enough the junk soil it was growing in was solid enough to support (and save)the poor thing. So I'm not so mad at the soil anymore. It was still happy though and the soil was nicely dry.

Which brings me in to the repotting, everything went excellent. The elm is now a semi-cascade (more irony) and looks better than I visualized! The soil wasn't as much trouble as I thought, the tap root was already cutoff, which I didn't expect, and the root system is very nice looking. The bad soil didn't cripple it as much as it looked. Its now in a larger container (the old one may be miles from here by now) and is in NEBonsai soil.
The Schefflera was more of a hassle and the soil was worse that it looked. Imagine brown baking soda. It also had these specks of crystal looking stuff in there. Much like salt but shiny. Ever seen it before? On the tips of the roots where blue green balls, about 1/8 an inch across, are these growth tips or something like a tuber? The root system was all over the place, doubling back on itself, looping up and down and around the container, spiraling allover itself, and comprising of THE ENTIRE SURFACE OF THE SOIL! Every last bit of it was root, no more than two teaspoons of soil on the top 1\2 inch of pot. That is why i thought the soil was a solid cake. I did get all the field soil out though. Most of it fell out of the lower middle area when I poked it, the rest was lashed in by meandering roots. All in all a success.
I didn't cut any roots (on purpose) 'cuz I know it would be out of season.
The ficus has pushed alot of new growth, so I'm considering digging back into that mess.
Your advice has been a life saver,
one pleased jim

(this is in my old thread, but as I was the guy who posted before this, I'm assuming noone noticed my update. Matt, if this not cool please delete it, I just wanted you guys to know you helped alot.)
Thanks for the advice again

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