RMJ collected - after care

chansen

Shohin
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I had the opportunity to collect a couple RMJ over Memorial Day weekend. I tried my hand last year with exceptionally poor results. This year I was much more prepared.

Once home, I potted them in the smallest containers I could fit them in. The smaller tree is potted in a traditional inorganic bonsai mix. The larger is in 100% lava (it's what I had). Since collection, both have been in the greenhouse getting very frequent, brief misting (3 seconds every half hour). I live in a very dry climate, so I'm trying to keep the humidity up.

With the unusually cool spring/early summer we've had, temps. in the greenhouse have been reasonable, but we're starting to see warmer outside temps which can bring the greenhouse up to/over 100 degrees. Too hot? I put some shade cloth over the greenhouse to cool it down, but it also cuts out some light. How long should they stay in the ICU, and when can I move them out? What should I look for to indicate I should start watering the roots (they get some from the misting system, but not a lot. I give the roots some water about once a week).

The larger of the two looks to be doing ok, there's been some foliage die back, but not a ton (I didn't remove much at collection). I could move it outside and keep it shaded, but then it would be out of the humidity and get watered in the morning everyday with my other trees.

I'm wide open to the thoughts and experiences of others.

Thanks,
 

biglou13

Mame
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imho

100 degrees, while it may reach those temps in nature its prolly too hot for stressed trees.

misting is good. the few california junipers i was able to keep alive were due to proper soil mix and proper misting. I misted in am and pm to mimic the desert cycles.

i'd open up 2 sides for air circulation for cooling of green house and continue misting.
or put trees in semi shady area and continue misting.


im questioning 1x a week watering, depending on soil mix. also are they in air pots or standard nursery pots, anderson flats? the lava mix could prolly use 2x a week since it drains so well.
how much root ball? did you bare root? what is natural soil like?

also end of May, may not be best time to collect depending on season, weather, altitude.

you have to balance icu climate with stressed tree, and natural climate.

i'd also try an occasional misting with dilute fertilizer.
 

chansen

Shohin
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Thanks for the reply. I was thinking that I should up the watering at this point. The tree was mostly bare-rooted, more due to the soil conditions than anything (most just fell off). There was some native soil left, but not a lot. I have opened the greenhouse door to keep the temps. down, and threw some shade cloth back over to help tpp. The tree is in a made-to-fit grow box; I only made it as big as needed to fit the root ball in. The tree was collected at about 7000 ft., it snowed the night before I dug it and while I was digging. Mostly just spring snow, no real accumulation on the ground.

Again, thanks for the response.
 
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