Well this morning I finished sifting pumice, permatil (a type of hadite), and organic (composted bark) then set everything up on the tailgate of my truck. I pulled the pine out of its nursery pot and using an old pruning saw cut off the lower 1/3 as planned. After that it did not go as planned. There were roots regularly distributed in the pot but not a real congested mess like I expected. I dug for the center of the root ball hoping to be able to remove the nursery soil, mostly bark and compost, and instead turned up a massive root. After digging around it for a couple minutes I realized that removing the soil from the center was not going to happen without doing major damage to that root.
So next I went ahead and raked the loose stuff off the top and sides and looked for encircling roots. Surprisingly there really weren’t that many. I then decided that the best alternative path was an HBR so I too off the soil from the left side of the root ball. With that done and the remaining roots sticking out the sides and raked out nice and clean, I gave it a test fit in the flat. Because of the big root in the center I was not about to get it into the 5 1/2” deep one but the 7 1/2” deep one worked fine. I placed a drainage layer of large dia pumice on the bottom after running some wire around the slats for tie downs. Then I placd the tree in the flat and started working in the soil mix with my big chopstick. This comprised 50% pumice, 40% permatil, and 10% organic. Three 5 gallon bucketfuls later I had enough in there to cover the roots so I went ahead and tied it down.
I placed it in the flat a little left of center more for balance than because of the roots, it had plaenty of room around the sides. I am sure I could have used a 16” or even 14” flat instead of this 18” one. I also tippd the tree up a bit which allows the apex to work better. In its leaning position it looked like it needed removing. At any rate I gave it a real good watering and then made up a gallon of Rhizotonic to pour on but just about then it started raining so I held off. No need in having it flushd out by the rain. Here are a couple photos. I was too busy to do a step by step progression.
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