Rock solid Azalea rootball.

Mapleminx

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So my big Azalea has been suuuper slow to leaf out this year and is prob not even close to 50% by now. One thing I do know is that the rootball is like concrete. Super hard, super compacted and a lot of black roots.

Now I know that azalea roots are super fine so I don’t want to be too rough with it but I wondered if anyone had any advice on how to refresh this safely when it comes to repotting (although looking at what it’s doing right now it might warrant an emergency intervention).

thanks
 

Deep Sea Diver

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Firm thick old black or brown roots ok Spongy not. Threadlike firm, fine yellow white young roots ok brown Soggy not. Slow to leaf out…. Classic root rot? Possibly due to non draining soil. Depends on media.

Normally I just go ahead and rootwash the entire shooting match if things are suspicious. I don’t like surprises. I’ve received trees that were not completely rootwashed and nothing good comes of it.

My usual protocol, based upon my experience with lots of azaleas in really tight soil soil balls. If it’s not Kanuma, get all the old soil off, trim the bad roots and repot in a Kanuma media. We use 90/10. 95/5 Kanuma/pumice.

We like to get all root work done by May here, yet I’ve root washed through mid July. We’ve multiple options to provide proper care. Less then 1% mortality as of today.

There is a temporary alternative I’ve used…. , pending later repot. Pull azalea out of pot. Use a long 6mm drill bit. Select multiple sites to drill through core of rootball that are in depressions in nebari. Drill through core. Back fill with small kanuma.

It’s an out of the box idea that allows water into tight packed cores…. Of course this idea came from Peter Warren. Except he used chopsticks. I can get more discrete holes with a drill.

btw Kanuma cores can get like this too. Drilling discretely works well here also.…and I’ve done this as part of a Kanuma based repot also. Works well.

But follow up with a repot in the near future.

cheers
DSD sends
 
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Mapleminx

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I’ll tackle it on the weekend so will get a picture then. But I have no idea HOW I am going to break through that rootball Without loosing most of it, but if it’s bad it’ll have to go anyway. I tried to wash it out last time when I dropped it into some Kanuma but I never managed to even make a dent in the heart of the bulk.
 
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This might be a bad idea but it came to mind: what would happen if you soaked the rootball in water overnight? Would the water soften the hard soil? If the roots are in such bad shape, maybe it is worth a try?
 

Glaucus

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You can cut out wedges. Fill in the wedges with half your preferred media, half the old media. Roots can grow into these wedges. Then next repot, you remove more of the old hard concrete roots.

But if there are a lot of black roots, you have to do more to get rid of the black roots and prevent any more roots turning black.
 

Leo in N E Illinois

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@Mapleminx - you list your growing zone as 8, this should mean deciduous trees should have leafed out over 8 weeks ago. I would think it is too late in the growing season to safely repot your azalea with drastic root work. My suggestion would be to limp it along through this growing season and do the drastic root work and repotting sometime in your LOCAL late winter or early spring. If your azaleas have been pushing new growth for a while, and have begun blooming, it is really too late for major repot and root work. At least for the "ideal'' window for doing this type of work.

You can repot any time of year, your chances of success goes down dramatically and recovery time goes up dramatically as you move away from ideal repotting seasons. Success for off season repotting never drops to zero, but if you repot in late winter or early spring you can keep success near or at 100%. Repotting after growth has begun does pose a risk the azalea will crash, and or shed branches. If it sheds branches, it will always be a branch you need.
 

Deep Sea Diver

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@Leo in N E Illinois has a very good point on timing for you as first time in a situation like this to an important tree. Azaleas were and are regularly repotted after bloom… until the climate changed and summers got hot in various areas around the world. Now de rigeour is springtime.

Yet as @BillV has stated repeatedly, one can pretty much do any kind of work all year given proper after care

So keep things going is an option, go for it. I highly recommend considering the drill technique use to help water penetrate into the core in the interim. We ended up drilling this tree last year and later repotted it in July
image.jpg

A comment on rootwashing wedges. To do this one has to remove half of the existing soil. Based upon my experience one might as well just finish the job. Once half of the soil has been removed the last half is comparatively easy.

Cutting off half of the core as wedges is likely not a good strategy in this situation half of the roots that were having trouble taking up water would be gone, reducing the tree to try to survive with half of its absorptive surfaces.

45 days ago we rootwashed a number of azaleas with media half Kanuma, half native soil. The native soil core was totally impervious to water and very hard.. in fact I used my water wand on full power with a heavy chopstick to get up to the core soil and the it was bone dry. Sounds like your situation. I’ve done a few landscape azaleas and sometimes it’s like this.

Soaking wouldn’t help at all. It was water blast and chopstick, turn the rootball around a bit every couple minutes and attack from different sides. It took me three times as long to completely rootwash compared to any other tree we have. There are a couple images below.

Note this was a former landscape azalea, so crossing roots in the nebari and non functional roots in the core we’re cut back along the way.

At the core. Native soil still needed to come out of all the nooks and crannies in between the root areas. Attack from top and bottom.
B662E150-FDC1-4A2F-86BA-3801B449D21C.jpeg B2C7B4CB-57EA-4210-BBB9-2F57BE715F92.jpeg

Last 10% to do.
98B05AF2-3DF1-4232-9887-BEEA2803748F.jpeg
Today

image.jpg

btw: One of our members, @Shibui is an expert in large azalea work. I believe he does it pretty much all year. I’m positive he could add some helpful ideas from his experience.

cheers
DSD sends
 

Mapleminx

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Ok so it looks like she’ll be limping along until early next spring and then the drilll comes out 😂😂. She has leafed out “some” but there is still a LOT of bald. She’s always been a bit “off the clock”, she flowered in late June last year and didn’t finish blooming until late August 😬.
 

Shibui

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Not sure 'expert' is the correct term but I have had experience out of necessity.
I've dug and transplanted old garden azaleas - around 30 to date and can only remember one death. Transplants have been at all times of the year. Winters are mild here but summers definitely hot with regular daytime temps over 40C and indica azaleas have survived summer dig and transplant.
Although azaleas have a rep as sensitive I've found them far more resilient that I expected. Transplants usually involve massive root reduction and massive top reduction. Neither of those seem to stop azaleas. Others have had large clumps hacked apart into several separate clumps. Still no problem.

We are continually told that repot after flowering is OK. By that time the plants are in full growth and repot then goes against all teaching but if I'm brave enough to try it still works. For azaleas here, 'after flowering' is often early summer so I ask why not just a bit later into summer? Tried that and it seems to work OK too. The only thing I have noted with later repots is possible reduced flowering the following spring.

IMHO if the soil is killing the plant it's time to get it out of that soil. If it is as bad as made out the tree is far more likely to die if left as is but the final choice will have to be yours. Good luck
 

sorce

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The almanac says the 22nd and 23rd are good transplanting days.

Do it.

Sorce
 

penumbra

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Ok so it looks like she’ll be limping along until early next spring and then the drilll comes out 😂😂. She has leafed out “some” but there is still a LOT of bald. She’s always been a bit “off the clock”, she flowered in late June last year and didn’t finish blooming until late August 😬.
One of us is a bit confused I think. The drilling of a rootball is a do it now thing, an emergency stop gap to improve plant health right now. A early next spring repot follows. I have used the drill method quite a bit. I have also used peroxide treatment by itself and in conjunction with drilling.
 

discusmike

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If it’s in a nursery pot I saw the rootball down to half the thickness then take a bonsai pick to poke holes n loosen tight roots, has worked well for me after flowering, then I keep in shade for a bit until I feel they are back on there feet, never had any die from this, and I use Kanu a in bonsai pots, peat perlite mix in nursery cans
 

Deep Sea Diver

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IMHO if the soil is killing the plant it's time to get it out of that soil. If it is as bad as made out the tree is far more likely to die if left as is but the final choice will have to be yours. Good luck
Thanks for this information @Shibui

Wondering if you’ve any images kicking about showing any of these trees during and afterwards?

cheers
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penumbra

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IMHO if the soil is killing the plant it's time to get it out of that soil. If it is as bad as made out the tree is far more likely to die if left as is but the final choice will have to be yours. Good luck
^^^ yes
 

Glaucus

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If the soil is killing the roots, then yes it needs a repot immediately. Time doesn't matter and you just have to protect it from the heat and sun.

However, if you didn't water your azalea in time and it is struggling. And there is not much you can do but wait. Then a repot is not a good idea, imo.
Especially not when it is 40C.

If someone is removing their very old azalea shrubs and it is 40C. Then you have to go for it because they are overhauling their garden at that moment. Not at your ideal repot time.
 

Mapleminx

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So she is free from her prison. Took me over two hours and my hose gave up the ghost half way in so I resorted to drilling, chopsticks, fingers and a tub of water to dunk and swish. It wasn’t pretty and I lacerated my hand somewhere along the way but never noticed until after.
A LOT of the roots were thin black and super rigid/snapped easy. Not much of the rootball actually left which is a bit worrying but here’s her chance to breath and grow new. She’s now back in her pot with some fresh Kanuma topping off the volume that was lost to the “cannonball”. Gave her a good drink and placed her back in the shade so now it’s just “cross ya fingers” time.

I have faith, she’ll make it somehow. The temperature is pretty mild today so at least the heat won’t be an issue.
 
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Clicio

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I resorted to drilling, chopsticks, fingers and a tub of water to dunk and swish. It wasn’t pretty
Sounds very stressing for both of you.
I am no good at root care of azaleas. Either I cut too much, or too little, and some of them died in my hands.
Please, don´t feel bad if it happens, at least you have tried to save it.
And show us the results in a month or so!
 

Deep Sea Diver

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She’s now back in her pot with some fresh Kanuma topping off the volume that was lost to the “cannonball”. Gave her a good drink and placed her back in the shade so now it’s just “cross ya fingers” time.

Gosh, sounds like both you and the azalea have had quite the experience!

I’ve got high hopes for a solid recovery. Love to see it six weeks from now, fully recovered!

Cheer
DSD sends
 
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