I have a co blue spruce nursery tree that needs to be repotted this spring - probably in a few weeks.
It's a nursery tree; I purchased it summer 2017; since it was very healthy I opted to trim it back before repotting. I left it untouched except very minor pruning all last year, so it should be recovered and ready to repot.
My questions are:
1) How much soil can I safely remove? I know spruce can't be fully barerooted, I've read mixed things. Some places say to bareroot half the rootball at a time, other places say this will cause dieback of branches, and it's best just to remove soil evenly. I plan to saw off the bottom few inches of the rootball, rake out loose soil, just not sure how much soil I can remove safely. It's only a cheap nursery tree but I still want to keep it alive and healthy.
2) Can I do any wiring/bending when repotting? I know it's best to only do one major procedure per season on spruce.. but I gather that the main risk from wiring is just from root disturbance (since spruce have such flexible branches). So if the roots are being disturbed anyway, would wiring be harmful to the tree?
It's a nursery tree; I purchased it summer 2017; since it was very healthy I opted to trim it back before repotting. I left it untouched except very minor pruning all last year, so it should be recovered and ready to repot.
My questions are:
1) How much soil can I safely remove? I know spruce can't be fully barerooted, I've read mixed things. Some places say to bareroot half the rootball at a time, other places say this will cause dieback of branches, and it's best just to remove soil evenly. I plan to saw off the bottom few inches of the rootball, rake out loose soil, just not sure how much soil I can remove safely. It's only a cheap nursery tree but I still want to keep it alive and healthy.
2) Can I do any wiring/bending when repotting? I know it's best to only do one major procedure per season on spruce.. but I gather that the main risk from wiring is just from root disturbance (since spruce have such flexible branches). So if the roots are being disturbed anyway, would wiring be harmful to the tree?