Cdear of Lebanon Root Work?

[Mac In Oak Ridge]

Got a Cedar of Lebanon that needs to have some root reduction and unwound from being in a nursery pot for years. I read about them being sensitive to root work and will drop their needles with very little provocation. I have removed about 60% of the limbs the remaining 40% is going to make a nice literary style.

Can I go ahead and do the root work now while we have colder weather and supposedly it is dormant, hopefully to lessen the needle dropping? Or must I wait till there is a flush of growth this spring and take my chances then?

 

[Grant Bowie]

We use Cedars a lot in Australia; mostly Himalayan and Atlantica. The Atlantica is, in reality, supposed to be an upright blue version of the Cedar of lebanon and is very close in its likes and dislikes.

The Atlantica is touchy about timing of repotting and you want to be neither too early or too late in spring. I usually wait for some sign of activity (bud swelling) and then repot. You should not repot once the buds have opened and are in active growth in my experience.

As for other times of year we also repot in early fall.

hope that helps.

Grant

 

[Mac In Oak Ridge]

Helps a lot Grant, thanks for the info.

 

[Si Nguyen]

Thanks Grant, I got one big Blue Atlas Cedar I need to do some serious root work on too. I have killed a few nice ones before, So I have been afraid to root chop them ever since.

 

[Grant Bowie]

Here is an Atlantic Cedar that was purchased in 2005 by a consortium of friends apon the death of the artist. He was known for some pretty amazing bending and designs with cedars. Unfortunately a major branch on the right hand side died and so it had to be redesigned.

The pic on the right is from 2007.

Cedars can be slow to grow and thicken so it has taken a while to get the tree back into shape.

It was later donated to the national collection of bonsai in Australia and here is a pic of it as of today. Sorry for the background.



At the collection we repot almost every Conifer bonsai in early autumn; but for creation root pruning and major work I would most likely do it in early spring.

Grant

 

[Grant Bowie]

We had a photo from the other day after all.

Grant