Imminent death post first nursery stock repot?

[MSU JBoots]

When I repot my spruce (Norway and Colorado Blue Spruce) I always toss in a lot of the old soil as an innoculant, and I mist the foliage regularly until I see strong new growth. This will serve as a great experiment in how well these take repotting with heavy root eduction. I’ll be looking for your updates.

I dumped the removed dirt behind my fence. I could go collect some and add it in.

 

[August44]

Don't know if you realize that you can check what's going on inside the pot by grabbing the subject tree by the truck down low, and then bumping the top of the plastic pot downward in a couple of places and it will just fall off. Be a bit careful when it first comes loose in case it has just been re-potted and you loose a lot of soil if the pot were to come clear off.

 

[sorce]

This one might live cuz you had a good Moon.

You're running out of good moon for that blue. Youghta wait.

KTS!

Sorce

 

[BonjourBonsai]

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I feel better about this one but probably still over worked the roots. I dug down until I hit the main structural root. Then reduced the other parts until I could fit it in the pot. I think my main issue was the pot was too small. I have a very small selection and this was the biggest I had. If I could have stopped at the second picture it likely would have been the most appropriate.

If it's not ready for a bonsai pot or if you don't have the right size one, use the nursery can by cutting it down to size.

Check this out:

Nursery can pot hack

I've cut nursery cans down to make smaller pots but the walls become flimsy because the plastic lacks rigidity. Then it hit me, why not hot glue the rim back onto the top? It works great! The pot is rigid enough to tie the tree in with wire. All it cost was a few cents worth of hot glue.

www.bonsainut.com

 

[MSU JBoots]

I can take pictures later if interested but thought I would drop and update. Both trees are alive and appear to be doing well. The blue spruce in particular pushed some very strong spring growth! We will see how they fair when the real summer heat hits and they need those roots to do some serious work.

 

[sorce]

Trust that moon.

The roots are there working if you keep em wet!

Sorce

 

[MSU JBoots]

Well I’m happy to announce both trees survived the summer! As much as I want to style the Colorado blue spruce I’m sure the best option is to leave all the foliage to help produce roots this fall then style in the spring.

 

[Colorado]

Well I’m happy to announce both trees survived the summer! As much as I want to style the Colorado blue spruce I’m sure the best option is to leave all the foliage to help produce roots this fall then style in the spring.

Glad to hear they’re doing well! Agree with your plan to hold off until spring before removing any foliage.

 

[CaptColin]

What is the top dressing on both of these?

 

[MSU JBoots]

What is the top dressing on both of these?

It’s a 50/50 mix of sphagnum moss and collected moss from my back yard.

 

[MSU JBoots]

Since these trees survived the repot I figured I would try to kill them again. I again got heavy handed with the Alberta spruce. Here’s the before and after pictures.

I realize I shouldn’t do any more pruning but do you think it’s safe to still wire out the top or should I just be hands off?

My blue spruce I wasn’t as aggressive with and I plan to wire it out when I have time.


I switched the from on the blue spruce as it hid a kind of ugly crossing root in the front. It’s slightly strange since the second trunk is now more in the front but overall I like it better.