Repotting question

[LemonBonsai]

I just repotted my grapefruit tree. Unfortunatley had to cut alot of roots off, I dont have pictured but there was alot of roots that needed to be removed. My question is should I cut any flowers off the tree to conserve energy to regrow more roots? And how many leaves should I expect to fall off through recovery.

 

[leatherback]

It is disuted how much effect clipping the flowers really has. That being said, I would.

How many leaves to fall.. For a normal repot, none.

Why did you have to cut a lot fo roots off? Better spread the work over 2 repottings than risk the tree.

 

[HorseloverFat]

Where YOU live?... zone 5a(just guessing)...I’d think you’d want to conserve resources.. until the 50-55s come “out-to-play”.

As a fellow cold-dweller I’d DEFINITELY “whack” any flowers off....

It’ll get stressed out, and possibly “misbehave” anyways.. dropping the flowers AFTER expending valuable “life water”...

I could be totally wrong.. but this is what I would do to my citrus.. which i also grow in a cold climate.

 

[HorseloverFat]

I went at my mandarin’s roots REAL
damn hard around Christmas... it gave me the plant equivalent of “flipping me off” for about a week and then continued on... but I bagged it.

 

[HorseloverFat]

I dont have pictured

I’ll find it.

 

[LemonBonsai]

It is disuted how much effect clipping the flowers really has. That being said, I would.

How many leaves to fall.. For a normal repot, none.

Why did you have to cut a lot fo roots off? Better spread the work over 2 repottings than risk the tree.

The reason for the root prune is because this was a nursery tree. And I bought this very early on in my bonsai journey so far so I didnt dig down a bit to see any warning signs. The main tap root went straight down, turned at a 90 degree angle and then went straight up, then turned 180 and went down again, kind of made a weird S shape, then most of the roots growing tips were at the end of that root. It was a woody root to so I had to cut near the 90 angle. There were other roots on the other end so those I kept and didnt touch, but I figured that the tree is so so young in its bonsai road that I thought might as well risk it, it was only 8$.

 

[LemonBonsai]

I went at my mandarin’s roots REAL
damn hard around Christmas... it gave me the plant equivalent of “flipping me off” for about a week and then continued on... but I bagged it.

What did your tree do?

 

[HorseloverFat]

Dropped a few leaves...drank erratically (but this is common)... I pruned off where this year’s 2 flower buds (young tree) were when I gave it it’s prune

 

[Forsoothe!]

How about a photo and some dimensions?

 

[LemonBonsai]

How about a photo and some dimensions?

A photo of the tree right now?
Sure


Dimensions I guess would be like 7 by 13 inches?

 

[Forsoothe!]

let it flower, but trim off any fruit that set and let it grow healthy. It may want to flower a couple more times this summer and fall. Do the same thing then, too. Make a judgement thereafter on when you think it is big enough to bear fruit which is a big deal, like a 100 lb. woman having twins, so don't stress it to death.

 

[penumbra]

drank erratically (but this is common)

For many bonsai nuts too...........

 

[LittleDingus]

My experience with my citrus trees...especially my key lime...is that plucking flowers just leads to more flower buds. I read once...and it seems mine mostly act this way...that cool nights lead to flowers over foliage while warm nights lead to foliage over flowers.

Mine certainly behave that way...my key line is starting to flower again now with no new foliage in sight.

I'd let it flower. If it's inside now, it likely won't set much fruit anyway: No pollinators and no wind. What it does set can be easily picked off.

 

[Carol 83]

My experience with my citrus trees...especially my key lime...is that plucking flowers just leads to more flower buds. I read once...and it seems mine mostly act this way...that cool nights lead to flowers over foliage while warm nights lead to foliage over flowers.

Mine certainly behave that way...my key line is starting to flower again now with no new foliage in sight.

I'd let it flower. If it's inside now, it likely won't set much fruit anyway: No pollinators and no wind. What it does set can be easily picked off.

My navel orange is also flowering.

 

[HorseloverFat]

My experience with my citrus trees...especially my key lime...is that plucking flowers just leads to more flower buds. I read once...and it seems mine mostly act this way...that cool nights lead to flowers over foliage while warm nights lead to foliage over flowers.

Mine certainly behave that way...my key line is starting to flower again now with no new foliage in sight.

I'd let it flower. If it's inside now, it likely won't set much fruit anyway: No pollinators and no wind. What it does set can be easily picked off.

This makes sense.

 

[Mycin]

my Meyer lemon tree gradually yellowed and dropped every leaf over the course of the past five months, only to bud out again everywhere? Very strange to me.

Hoping it hangs on for a few more weeks until i can put it outside

 

[Carol 83]

my Meyer lemon tree gradually yellowed and dropped every leaf over the course of the past five months, only to bud out again everywhere? Very strange to me.

Hoping it hangs on for a few more weeks until i can put it outside

It will, mine did the same thing.

 

[LittleDingus]

my Meyer lemon tree gradually yellowed and dropped every leaf over the course of the past five months, only to bud out again everywhere? Very strange to me.

Hoping it hangs on for a few more weeks until i can put it outside

My flying dragons lose all their leaves...of course they're supposed to But I was reminded...yet again...at how easily plants can burn when moved from inside to outside.



Without leaves for protection, branches accustomed to low indoor light burn readily...and branches are a little harder than leaves to grow back!

That tree was moved outside on a warm day a couple of weeks ago. The sun was even lower then than it is now...which is still pretty low compared to a month from now. It was only outside for a few hours on one day. All that yellow used to be a nice green

It looks like it's growing buds now...maybe even a few on the burned branches. I'm hoping I only lose a branch or two and not the entire tree.

When you do move it outside, shade the branches for a while. You have been warned

 

[Forsoothe!]

Flying Dragon is very hardy. I have kept them both ways and they do better if outdoors. I have the mother tree in my landscape for ~12 years, including the two back-to-back winters from Hell.

 

[LittleDingus]

Flying Dragon is very hardy. I have kept them both ways and they do better if outdoors. I have the mother tree in my landscape for ~12 years, including the two back-to-back winters from Hell.

Funny story: it was outdoors but tucked behind some landscaping until early February when we had several days that stayed 0F and lower. I moved it and most my trees into the garage to avoid the extremes. I forgot to move it back out right away but about a week later we nearly touched 80F so then it moved back outside.

So it spent most of the winter outside though shaded, came inside for just shy of two weeks, then back outside. Then about 5 hours of direct sunlight bleached most of it. The sudden temp swings didn't help, I'm sure.

But my warning still stands. My saguaro still has burn marks from being moved into the full sun too fast...a cactus that thrives on full sun...sunburnt. It doesn't matter what type of plant you have...it can burn if you're not careful.