How to repot a Japanese quince in the fall. Help please

[RobertB]

So I purchased a nursery stock jap quince this yr and would really like to get it in a smaller container. Can I take a 5 gal jap quince, cut the root ball in half, then half bare root the remains soil? I want to try and get rid of at least half the remaining nursery soil? Or should I bare root it all? Any comments would be much appreciated.

Robert

 

[Paulpash]

Cut in half comb the edges out. Do the rest next year when you're sure it's recovered. Quince like a good amount of moisture in the mix, especially if you intend to leave on a fruit or two.

 

[JudyB]

I personally like doing root work and repotting on some trees in the fall, the roots grow best at this time of year. Up here it's just an issue of winter protection and not allowing the roots to freeze over winter. Maybe not a problem for you? I usually use water streaming hard on the soil to bare root instead of combing if the soil is the usual loose nursery soil. You can then cut off what you need instead of damaging everything.

 

[River's Edge]

So I purchased a nursery stock jap quince this yr and would really like to get it in a smaller container. Can I take a 5 gal jap quince, cut the root ball in half, then half bare root the remains soil? I want to try and get rid of at least half the remaining nursery soil? Or should I bare root it all? Any comments would be much appreciated.

Robert

I would suggest before you cut ithe entire mass in half, work your way down to the level of the flare, base of nebari. often in nursery replanting the root line is just buried deeper in subsequent repotting. in other words the best root base could be several inches below the current surface. You should be able to explore this aspect without causing too much damage to the root ball. This will prevent accidentally cutting off too much initially.
I also reccomend working slowly with a chopstick and flushing with water as suggested to gently remove unwanted soil and remove the thicker downward growing roots where possible. Always cut back to side roots if possible and seal larger root cuts.

 

[RobertB]

Frank and all, thank for the comments. I am not sold yet on the idea. I reported my first quince in march this yr just after flowering and it struggled a little but gained vigor about mid summer. The flare is pretty much above the soil line already. I do like your idea of uncovering some to see if I can find more. I really need to get in a box that's half the height of the container it's in now. Just worried about roots I can remove in fall. Winter protection is fine. We will probably only have a night or two below 25 anyways. I might just wait till spring. Fishing tomorrow morning so might be able to tackle next weekend. When I repot I want to remove a lot of the stub suckers I've cut back over the year too.

 

[shinmai]

Peter Adams’s 1998 book, “The Art of Flowering Bonsai”, advocates rather unequivocally for repotting quince during late fall.