Just finished transplanting it this morning. I started doing it yesterday afternoon! Very long mission, isn't it?
At first, I prepared the soil. I used pine mini barks with fir ground for organic part in 1:1 ratio. For inorganic part, I used pumice: lava cinder: akadama in 1:1:1 ratio. The inorganic: organic is 2:1 ratio. While mixing these materials, I was sprinkling active charcoal and humic acid granules.
Then I removed all of brown tips as much as I could and cut off any short dead small branches. Then I moved Hoyer lift into the hydraulic cart lift which carried the pot.
I used the old T shirt to protect the area which was wrapped by the cotton rope around.
Then tied the rope into the head of the Hoyer lift
Then, I had to remove the tree out of its pot. It was very difficult to get the tree out. It was extremely root-bound. I had to use the electrical reciprocal saw to cut into the soil in parallel lines with the pot sides.
It took me almost one hour to get the tree out of its place! Unbelievable! When I was able to move the tree in its pot, I just low down the hydraulic cart. At that time, the tree is dangling in the air
I had to use a plastic sheet to cover its soil while I was working on the pot
Then I came back to root-bound care. I used the saw to cut 1/3 soil in the bottom. Then used a root hook to hollow out the old soil as much as I could. I also used root hook to comb out the sides of the root ball enough to expose the root.
For the soil surface, it was impossible for me to put the chopstick through. It was so impacted there. Instead doing more work on the soil surface, I decided to place the tree back
to its original pot but with new soil. As usual, I used the twine to immobilize the tree in the pot. You can clearly recognize the undisturbed old soil surface.
The 1st phase was one at 4:20 pm yesterday. It is too dark for me to do more work on it.
I moved the tree to the "recovery room" and watered it there. As my expectation, the water was drained very slow at the undisturbed old soil.
This morning, I started the 2nd phase.
I used the root hook to remove the old soil surface with the guide of chopstick. Why do I say that? I used the chopstick to find out if the area was still impacted with root or not. If the chopstick could get through the area relatively easy, I know I can finish working in this area.
Bonhe
