DISASTER: Wind storm knocked over all my very young trees

[Wulfskaar]

It is super windy today and I had the plastic hood over my seedling rack. I've never had issues with this in prior wind storms because it was so heavy.

I just used the last of my soil for repotting several trees, so I had to sweep up several types of soil all together and use that mixed soil (bonsai soil + potting soil + coco coir + perlite + leaves and sticks and dirt) to put all my trees back in pots.

QUESTION: Will multiple repottings within a couple of weeks kill my trees? Will having JBP, for example, in 50% potting soil for 3-4 days kill them? I'm certain many are going to die, but I have some hope that some might make it.

 

[19Mateo83]

Damn brother…. That hurts me to see. Honestly, if you had to repot them all into a mix of soil plan on leaving them this year and watch your watering. JBP will and does thrive in many different soil types. I think it will do more harm than good to repot them again just to get them back into bonsai soil. Water carefully and you should be able to make it through this year until next years repotting window.

 

[pandacular]

The fact that these are all very young trees should play in your favor. I don't have any direct experience in anything quite like this, but I think those trees that don't have significant top damage should be okay if they were not dessicated while out of the pots. Young trees seem to care a lot less about the pecularities of the soil; personally, I would bias towards getting them potted in something workable now, and then not fiddling with them a second time for more ideal soil. Less root disruption > more ideal soil, in my book. I think the key will be to follow-up with good watering, as they may not all drain the same.

I'm so sorry this happened, disaster is absolutely the right choice of words. But like with all disasters, what matters is how we respond to it.

 

[NateDyk47]

I would think it would be possible for them to survive repotting again in a couple weeks, but this was clearly a stressful event for those trees. I wouldn't stress them again so soon unless absolutely necessary.

 

[LuZiKui]

Sorry for the disaster... We had the same winds ripping through this morning. It looks like it killed off the new growth on my oak seedlings that hadn't hardened off yet.

I'm another vote for just leaving as-is for now and being a little bit more careful about watering. Hopefully they didn't sit out too long in the wind and get completely dried out.

 

[Wulfskaar]

Ok, I was afraid of that response.

Unfortunately, I had to quickly throw them into pots at random as I was on my lunch break, all willy-nilly.

Many of them will probably require taking the risk, but I will definitely try hard to not disturb any anymore than necessary.

On the bright side, I'll have more room for some new trees.

 

[leatherback]

there is no reason for them to die of the repotting. The main question is whether the roots were out of substrate and in sun and wind very long. That would have a bigger impact on your plants. But just swapping into a new pot with substrate is a non-issue.

 

[Wulfskaar]

there is no reason for them to die of the repotting. The main question is whether the roots were out of substrate and in sun and wind very long. That would have a bigger impact on your plants. But just swapping into a new pot with substrate is a non-issue.

I think it was about 30 minutes, +/- 15 minutes. Luckily, I had watered them a couple hours prior. Also, some of them were buried and most were under the plastic at least.

I can live with most of the 1-2 year old trees dying, but a couple of my (almost) 4 year old JBP's are what I really care most about. I really want to keep those alive.

 

[n8]

Ah, dang. Sorry to see this and best of luck.

A reminder for all Californians:

 

[dbonsaiw]

Sorry to hear. I’ll admit that sometimes I truly dislike this hobby because of stuff like this. I had something similar last year and the vast majority of deciduous were fine. Roots weren’t exposed for more than a few minutes though before I repotted.

 

[Ruddigger]

Dang, sorry dude. The winds are brutal today.

 

[Bonsai Forest]

How awful. I’m sorry this happened. I hope that many of them still survive.

 

[Weta]

Gutting...
Hope they recover.
Please people go and load bottom weights to these types of shelves or set them in concrete, don't roll the dice.

 

[hardtimes]

hate these dry desert winds. this truly would be a mecca of gardens if it weren't for that (and droughts as well). im lucky enough to have my nursery surrounded by 8ft brick walls, nothing was blown over. i must have misted my planted about 5 times today.

 

[RobGA]

I remember the Santa Ana’s in the fall when I lived in Southern Cal but they came in September. Don’t remember strong desert winds in March. We need new tools to deal with these extreme shifts in temperature producing severe weather. Good luck in getting everything back to square .

 

[Shibui]

QUESTION: Will multiple repottings within a couple of weeks kill my trees? Will having JBP, for example, in 50% potting soil for 3-4 days kill them? I'm certain many are going to die, but I have some hope that some might make it.

Totally agree with @leatherback
No reason any of those trees would die just from a second or third repotting. Many trees will even survive having roots out of soil for hours. It's surprising how resilient trees can be.

 

[JRBonsai]

That's a real pain to witness. I am also contemplating getting a small greenhouse and this is definitely one of my main worries.
Hope some of them recover!

 

[Wulfskaar]

Gutting...
Hope they recover.
Please people go and load bottom weights to these types of shelves or set them in concrete, don't roll the dice.

Yeah, I've had the shelves for a couple years now and always kept the bottom loaded up with heavy rocks and bricks. I never had a problem even through the Santa Ana wind events, so I got complacent.

Where I screwed up was:
1. I removed a few of the rocks from the bottom shelf.
2. I left the plastic "sail" open during a wind storm. Closing or removing it probably would have helped.
3. I didn't check the weather to see a wind storm coming.
4. I had the top shelf overloaded I think, making it top heavy.
5. It wasn't secured to anything. The shelves right next to this one are tied to the house.

 

[RobGA]

You also have the occasional earthquake. I was in the Northridge quake. Fortunately we had everything secured to walls so didn’t get any furniture or appliances turning over and used that sticky clay stuff to secure vases and other things that might fall over. We lost a few things but it was very terrifying.

 

[Cajunrider]

I am sorry my man.