keegan
Sapling
Background: I am an intermediate bonsai practitioner. I have a solid knowledge base, take classes locally, and have about 50 trees. I live in Los Angeles (hot climate!).
I picked up this big cypress at a swap meet this weekend--I think due to the look of the bark that it's a Montezuma and not a Bald. I've got a bunch of other Bald cypress, and this one looks different.
Its pot is a SOLID (I mean solid) ball of roots. How best to handle this? My instinct would be to saw the rootball in half and then plant it in another container with some soil around it.
I know at least with Bald Cypress you can really hack the roots back without issues, are Montezuma the same? Any timing issues with this sort of work?
Another person I talked to advised that I should take a 1/4" drill and drill holes all through the roots, but not to trim them now because the tree is already in leaf--best to wait until next early spring to attack the roots. But the drilled holes would allow drainage and oxygen.
For all I know, the pot was sitting in standing water until the morning I got it - how else could you possibly get enough water into this root mass?? Also, there is moss on the base of the trunk, and I don't think that would be there normally in this heat... for all I know the pot was submerged completely.
Also, clearly it was kept near some chickens, as it arrived feathered.
Any help is appreciated!
keegan
I picked up this big cypress at a swap meet this weekend--I think due to the look of the bark that it's a Montezuma and not a Bald. I've got a bunch of other Bald cypress, and this one looks different.
Its pot is a SOLID (I mean solid) ball of roots. How best to handle this? My instinct would be to saw the rootball in half and then plant it in another container with some soil around it.
I know at least with Bald Cypress you can really hack the roots back without issues, are Montezuma the same? Any timing issues with this sort of work?
Another person I talked to advised that I should take a 1/4" drill and drill holes all through the roots, but not to trim them now because the tree is already in leaf--best to wait until next early spring to attack the roots. But the drilled holes would allow drainage and oxygen.
For all I know, the pot was sitting in standing water until the morning I got it - how else could you possibly get enough water into this root mass?? Also, there is moss on the base of the trunk, and I don't think that would be there normally in this heat... for all I know the pot was submerged completely.
Also, clearly it was kept near some chickens, as it arrived feathered.
Any help is appreciated!
keegan