Timing (and tips) for chopping a landscape Azalea

Einbrecher

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Title is somewhat self explanatory - I've got an Azalea (variety unknown) collected from my landscaping (nothing super old) that I'm looking to prune down this year. I'm zone 7b, but we've had a really mild winter so far, so I'm not sure if I should be accelerating that schedule or not. I'm also not sure if I should do a hard chop and prune down the roots, or just do one (if so, which) and then the other.

I've lurked and poked around enough that I'm confident I know how to manage the trunk chop, but I've seen a lot of mixed information regarding the roots. I'm a beginner, but I know enough to be dangerous.

So, the history:
- I pulled this Azalea from a garden bed before we moved in 2018. It was planted in general garden soil - shallow at that - on top of a clay substrate. Lucked out because the roots were very horizontal - I don't think the root ball is more than 7-8 inches deep. It is super wide, however.
- Up until then, it was treated/trimmed like a bush. Probably standard in that respect.
- It got transplanted late 2018 into a wooden box I slapped together. I sprayed what soil out of the roots I could with a hose, but otherwise didn't do a whole lot to work the clay (which there's still a fair bit of) out. Otherwise I did zero pruning - top or bottom. I filled in the box with a 50/50 mix of garden soil and perlite, with some soil acidifier mixed in.
- Despite all the abuse, it still put on a fair bit of growth and flowering last summer:

IMG_20190430_120325.jpg IMG_20190422_190442.jpg

Today:
- It's still in the box, which measures about 31 inches square. I haven't checked yet, but I'd say it's a fair bet that the roots have filled out the box.
- I've kept it on the west side of our home, which I'd say is a partial sun to full sun spot (thanks to some trees). Apart from watering it during the heat of summer, I've let mother nature do most of that work for me through the fall/winter (and if that's wrong, please correct me). I've spread a little bit of generic fertilizer (whatever I had on hand) on throughout last summer/fall as well as some more soil acidifier. (Frankly, I've got no idea what I'm doing in this regard. I haven't managed to kill it, so that's something I guess.)
- Since this garden bed is a little more exposed than the last one, I did pile up some mulch around the box/trunk, so there's a bit more to the nebari than in this latest pictures.
- Here's it now:

IMG_20200217_174012.jpg IMG_20200217_174055.jpg

Looks crap thanks to winter (I'm hoping), no sign of budding yet (though that would be super early).

So as above, our winter has been super mild, so I'm not sure how the timing works given how out of season everything else is looking. What kind of signs do I look for that say it's time to whack this down? I've seen that it's better to do this during a growing season rather than during dormancy, but at the same time, I don't want to miss out on budding.

How risky would it be to cut back the roots at the same time? The box is, in short, a real PITA to move around.

What kind of strategy should I take with the roots? As I said, there's still a fair bit of clay in there. I've picked up some chopsticks and the like to knock some of it out, but I've also read that Azalea feeder roots are pretty fragile. Do I stick with the hose again? Should I reduce the radius by only a certain amount (ie, 50%), or to some relation to the height of the plant after the cutback?

I suppose I'll throw this in too - if I'm shopping lowes/home depot/generic garden centers and not bonsai specialty shops, what would you recommend I use to make a soil mix to replant it in? Fertilizer?

Thanks everyone!
 

Shibui

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My climate is way different to yours and I believe we grow a different range of azalea types down here but my experience may have some relevance.
I've transplanted lot of landscape azaleas into pots and converted a number of those into bonsai.

I can prune azalea any time of year and expect good back budding. Prune in spring and summer gives almost immediate budding and growth. Prune in winter and the budding is slower but they do grow when spring arrives.
Our azalea varieties tolerate very severe root reduction. I have transplanted at all times of year and had very few fail. Summer transplant seems to be slightly better as recovery is quicker. I would probably go for a full root reduction straight off but I know I can do that here. Shortening every second root or one side only would take longer but would be safer.
Wash, scrape, poke out as much clay as you can. you ill eventually need to cut the deeper roots so why not at this transplant if that helps get rid of clay. Azalea feeder roots may be fragile but they are very good at regrowing new ones so don't worry too much about damage while you work. Hose jet can do almost as much damage as a stick in my experience.
I've had them survive after sitting bare root in summer sun for a couple of days and survive 90% root reduction after digging from the garden so azaleas are much tougher than we've been led to believe I think.
I have had no problem with pruning the top and roots at the same time.
Many azalea growers tell us that larger cuts must be sealed. I have had occasional dieback around larger unsealed cuts but not always. possibly better to err on the cautious side and apply sealer?
I have seen sunburn on trunks suddenly exposed to sun after hard pruning so consider some better shade until foliage can provide better sun protection to the trunk and branches.

I would recommend a good general potting mix. Select from the premium end of the range usually means a better product. Some of our suppliers have mixes labelled 'tub and terracotta' or similar that seem to have generally larger particles that suit bonsai culture. Not sure what you will have available over there. You may be able to find a specialist mix for azaleas and acid loving plants which should be formulated for these better than general mixes.
We also have fertilizer tailored to Azalea and rhododendrons which should suit these better than general fert.
I've seen posts about your water supplies being more alkaline so you will need to be aware and maybe use one of the acidifiers to counteract the alkaline water. You already seem to be doing well with this one so maybe just keep doing what you are doing instead of looking for trouble. My experience is that azaleas either like your conditions or they don't (and generally die quite quick)
 

BonjourBonsai

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My experience is limited too, but @Shibui's is right on. I would add that branches are difficult to bend after one season. For soil, I've had success with a turface / pine bark / perlite blend. Hope that helps.
 

Leo in N E Illinois

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Given the health of your azalea, your combination of water & the native clay must be low enough in calcium that your azalea is thriving.

You can be VERY aggressive with branch and root pruning. Do both branches and roots all at once. You have a nice fat trunk that quickly tapers to relatively small diameter branches. This is great. You can take off 75 % to 90 % of the branches, and take off about the same for the roots. You can prune it back to just about the fat trunk, a few short branches and a similar or even shorter diameter root mass.

Do you have a pot ready for this. How small is small enough? I would think you could get this tree down to a 12 x 12 x 4 inch container, or even to 8 x 8 x 3 inch container. Smaller is better.

For potting media, I have never found a potting media from Lowes, Home Depot or Menards that I though was good for azaleas. I would serious consider biting the bullet and getting enough Kanuma, mail order if you have no shop near by. Buying Kanuma for an 8 x 8 x 3 inch diameter pot is not as large a burden as doing so for a 31 x 31 x whatever inch box it is currently in.

If you must go local big box, can you find 1/4 to 1/2 inch particle size fir bark or pine bark. I get mine at an orchid supply house, in 3 cubic foot bags for about $25. Menards and Home Despot usually carry small bags of orchid bark, which will work, though the smaller bag size will make it somewhat expensive.

Do you have any Hydroponics Grow Shops, they are geared for indoor marijuana. At these shops you can usually find a coarse grade of perlite - in the 1/4 inch diameter to 1/2 inch diameter range. The fine 1/16th inch particle stuff sold at the big box stores is too fine to ideally use. Perlite is a good substitute for Pumice.

Canadian peat moss - Pick up a bale of this dusty, milled peat. Use a piece of window screen to sift for large particles. Anything large enough to stay on top of window screen (I forget whether this is 1/8th or 1/16th inch mesh. 90% of the peat will sift through, throw the fines into your vegetable garden. Keep only the more coarse particles that stay on top of the screen.

I would then make a media of roughly equal parts of pine bark, perlite, and 1/2 part peat. You could skip the peat, and use just bark & Perlite. I personally would not use Turface, or if you "must", use it as a part of the Perlite portion of the mix. I have had issues in the past with the soil not keeping acidic enough when I had to use my municipal water with the turface.

If you can water with just rain water that you collect all year, you can use Turface in large amounts. If you use well water to supplement rainfall, and your well water is high in calcium, use only bark and perlite, or bark, perlite and peat. The perlite is essentially inert, will not hold calcium salts. The bark decomposes to create various mildly acidic break down products. The peat has a zeolite reaction that helps acidify the soil medium. Your native clay was probably doing this same function, but clay is very likely to plug up air voids in your mix, so I would not add your native clay.

That is what I have used in the past, and currently similar to what I currently use for blueberries. Blueberry mix is equal parts pine bark, peat moss, mix and add a handful of hardwood saw dust to feed the mycorrhiza unique to blueberries.

Do pick up an "Acid Plant Fertilizer". It will make a difference. Look for a brand that includes "minors", or also buy a separate "Iron Fertilizer" which will also be a soil acidifier, and have the minor nutrients.

Look for a line for a trunk in that tangle of branches. Prune all the small diameter branches to just an inch at most. Remove many that are clearly not going to be part of the final design. The largest diameter branches, keep 3 of so as different trunk line possibilities. Prune them to maybe 12 inches. That is it. A couple branches that are a foot or so long, and a few one inch stubs of other branches. Branches you remove entirely, cut smooth or leave a 1/4 inch stub that you will go back and cut flush. To not use a concave cutter that gouges into the bark. Leave a bump/stub that you later go back to and smooth out. If you gouge into the bark, it may never heal.

Have on hand cut paste, or plumbers putty to seal any cut greater than 1/4 inch in diameter.

If you can get all your supplies together before leaves bud out, go ahead and do the repot and drastic prune. If by the time you have your pot, potting mix and cut paste ready, new leaves have started to grow, I would wait until after flowering. This might be May. Then do the repot and prune.
 

Einbrecher

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Oh wow, thanks folks!

Welcome to Crazy!

Thanks! I've been a long time lurker - had hoped to make an earnest start last year, even got a set of tools for my birthday, but we ended up moving and that killed what had other been earmarked as my bonsai budget. Said move is also why I'm anxious to get this thing into a smaller box at the very least.

Hose jet can do almost as much damage as a stick in my experience.
...
Many azalea growers tell us that larger cuts must be sealed. I have had occasional dieback around larger unsealed cuts but not always. possibly better to err on the cautious side and apply sealer?
I have seen sunburn on trunks suddenly exposed to sun after hard pruning so consider some better shade until foliage can provide better sun protection to the trunk and branches.
...
You already seem to be doing well with this one so maybe just keep doing what you are doing instead of looking for trouble. My experience is that azaleas either like your conditions or they don't (and generally die quite quick)

Would keeping the root ball waterlogged for 10-20 minutes prior to poking help much with the clay before I tackle that? Getting as much of that out as possible is definitely a concern.

The sealing thing seems to be a pretty big debate here, but I tend to agree. I haven't seen much in the way that it's necessarily bad, just that it may or may not confer any benefit. Doesn't hurt to try in that case IMO.

That's the bit I'm worried about, lol - this thing has survived despite what I think is fair to call a decent amount of abuse and neglect, and I'm sure there's some bonsai masters rolling in their graves. Up until now, it's very much been a, "Well it's not dead...I'm probably better off just not fiddling with it..." kind of attitude.

My experience is limited too, but @Shibui's is right on. I would add that branches are difficult to bend after one season. For soil, I've had success with a turface / pine bark / perlite blend. Hope that helps.

I'll keep that in mind, thanks!

...
Do you have a pot ready for this. How small is small enough? I would think you could get this tree down to a 12 x 12 x 4 inch container, or even to 8 x 8 x 3 inch container. Smaller is better.
...
For potting media...
...
Look for a line for a trunk in that tangle of branches. Prune all the small diameter branches to just an inch at most. Remove many that are clearly not going to be part of the final design. The largest diameter branches, keep 3 of so as different trunk line possibilities. Prune them to maybe 12 inches. That is it. A couple branches that are a foot or so long, and a few one inch stubs of other branches. Branches you remove entirely, cut smooth or leave a 1/4 inch stub that you will go back and cut flush. To not use a concave cutter that gouges into the bark. Leave a bump/stub that you later go back to and smooth out. If you gouge into the bark, it may never heal.
...
If you can get all your supplies together before leaves bud out, go ahead and do the repot and drastic prune. If by the time you have your pot, potting mix and cut paste ready, new leaves have started to grow, I would wait until after flowering. This might be May. Then do the repot and prune.

No pot ready - I was going to put a smaller grow box together. Most of that stems from being unsure how small it'd be feasible to take the roots down in this first go, and I wanted to retain some flexibility. I also don't have a great spot for keeping trees at the moment, so I wanted something a little more durable.

If going that small is actually doable, I might just go for a more traditional soil mix. Most of the watering is from municipal water, so I'll have to keep that in mind - unless you've got tips for rainwater collection that doesn't involve tapping a gutter system. I had a good experience ordering tools from American Bonsai - do they tend to be more/less expensive than competitors when it comes to potting medium?

Sounds like I should prefer using a saw to make those cuts? Or would a concave flush cutter work as long as I give myself enough of a stub as you mention?

Should I be waiting for frost risks to drop and we get closer to spring, or is that more of a, "If you get them this week, go ahead and do it this weekend" kind of suggestion?
 

ml_work

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If you can water with just rain water that you collect all year, you can use Turface in large amounts. If you use well water to supplement rainfall, and your well water is high in calcium, use only bark and perlite, or bark, perlite and peat. The perlite is essentially inert, will not hold calcium salts
Very interesting ... my well water has what seems to be slight salt taste and has the white chalk look on some pots, maybe it is calcium.
Thanks for the detail information
 

Shibui

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Would keeping the root ball waterlogged for 10-20 minutes prior to poking help much with the clay before I tackle that? Getting as much of that out as possible is definitely a concern.
There are clays and there are clays. I don't know what will work for the stuff in your pot but wetting some types of clay will soften them so worth a try. I've usually just cut the roots back then poked with a stick to remove soil. Sometimes repeat that several times to get where I want to be. At summer transplant the soils are a bit drier and fall away a little easier but I am not usually dealing with hard clay soils.
There is no rush to get the roots done in fast time. It is usually a couple of hours between digging and root pruning for the ones I have taken. Then 30-50 minutes to clean up the roots enough to go into the pots and that's in summer. A couple I got from a builder had been dug on Friday afternoon and then sat on the lawn all weekend before they were delivered to me. Both survived. They don't seem to mind having the roots exposed or a little dry for a while. You may need to do several soaks in a tub of water in between root pruning to get enough soil out of the root ball. Point is that there's no mad rush to get this done in record time and back into the new pot. Take some time and do it properly I reckon.

A saw is a good tool for larger cuts on azalea. Azalea wood is really hard and the concave cutter should only ever cut branches less than 1/2 the size of the jaws. Trying to cut larger azalea branches with concave cutter will bend the jaws and they won't cut after that. I actually broke one large pair of cutters trying to chop a too large branch.
 

shinmai

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A few random tidbits from my experience:
I added a carbon filter to my watering hose, to remove chlorine, etc. It only cost about twenty bucks, and I saw a difference in my azaleas in fairly short order.
I second Leo's suggestion about kanuma. It's all I use. Recently I've heard it recommended to add 10% pumice, but haven't tried that yet.
For pruning smaller branches, I use a Masakuni convex cutter, but they are hard to find and expensive. A hardware store pair of side cutters will work too. The big advantage is being able to cut flush to the trunk or larger branch right away. For larger branches, I've used a regular pair of by-pass pruners from my rose gardening, or a fine-tooth bonsai saw when working in close quarters.
The orange cut paste in a tube is the stuff you want to use on all but the largest cuts, and on those a putty-type paste on top of the orange stuff.
Since I'm using all kanuma, which is somewhat acidic in and of itself, I fertilize with composted, pelletized chicken manure, sold as Coop Poop. About once every couple weeks I supplement with a fish emulsion, and when I mix that with water I take the opportunity to add an iron supplement. So far, so good.
Leo is also correct about the degree of cutting back and the amount of root pruning that can be tolerated. John Geanangel has a number of YouTube videos about taking nursery stock and cutting it back to virtual stumps, very much worth watching.
Lastly, in your zone, when you do go to a bonsai pot, I would suggest going with a pot a little on the deeper side. Azaleas often seem almost bulletproof, but they are vulnerable to their roots getting too hot or too dry. Dark colored pots can heat up amazingly quickly on a bright sunshine kind of day. For the azaleas and rhododenrons I have in shallower pots, I put them atop a couple of pieces of bamboo cut from garden stakes, just for a little more air circulation underneath to keep the temps down.
Best of luck with your project. It looks like you're starting with a lot of potential.
 

Einbrecher

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There is no rush to get the roots done in fast time. It is usually a couple of hours between digging and root pruning for the ones I have taken. Then 30-50 minutes to clean up the roots enough to go into the pots and that's in summer. A couple I got from a builder had been dug on Friday afternoon and then sat on the lawn all weekend before they were delivered to me. Both survived. They don't seem to mind having the roots exposed or a little dry for a while. You may need to do several soaks in a tub of water in between root pruning to get enough soil out of the root ball. Point is that there's no mad rush to get this done in record time and back into the new pot. Take some time and do it properly I reckon.

Gotcha. I'm not really looking to rush through the roots - I'll probably take quite a while since I've never really done it before. I might get some sacrificial azaleas or junipers or something from a garden center beforehand to practice with...

What I was asking was more directed to: how can I loosen the clay up to limit damage to the roots? Would that be easier dry? Wet? Waterlogged?

Leo is also correct about the degree of cutting back and the amount of root pruning that can be tolerated. John Geanangel has a number of YouTube videos about taking nursery stock and cutting it back to virtual stumps, very much worth watching.

I'll give that a look - thanks!

I added a carbon filter to my watering hose, to remove chlorine, etc. It only cost about twenty bucks, and I saw a difference in my azaleas in fairly short order.
I second Leo's suggestion about kanuma. It's all I use. Recently I've heard it recommended to add 10% pumice, but haven't tried that yet.

I've got a bag of Kanuma on the way. I will probably cut it with something, though, given the price.

I noticed on the Herons Bonsai videos that he cuts Kanuma with Spaghnum Moss (2:1 kanuma to moss) for Azaleas. I'll ask here for kicks, but is that live stuff? Dead? Regular peat? Home depot and the local garden center are about as niche as I've ever gotten with shopping for this stuff, so I'm not entirely sure what to look for when X or Y gets suggested and those places don't have a bag labeled "Pure X" or whatever and whether whatever else is included makes a difference.


Lastly, in your zone, when you do go to a bonsai pot, I would suggest going with a pot a little on the deeper side. Azaleas often seem almost bulletproof, but they are vulnerable to their roots getting too hot or too dry. Dark colored pots can heat up amazingly quickly on a bright sunshine kind of day.

I'll keep this in mind, thanks. I'm probably just going to slap together another cedar box this time around, mostly as a contingency in case reducing the root ball is more problematic than anticipated.
 

Deep Sea Diver

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Looks like you have gotten a lot of good advice. If you are going to use kanuma, a 70/30 mix of kanuma/moss would be best in your area. I believe that Peter usually recommends that, but he might of varied the mix on a couple of his videos over time, but that’s all I use on my azaleas based upon watching his videos over the last year and they are bursting with growth this year.
He recommends New Zealand spagnum moss. My wife uses it on her orchids, so I’ve been swiping it over the past year (gotta replace it before her big potting season hits!!) We get the moss on Amazon... however I’m not convinced any spagnum wouldn’t work.
A hint with the mixing of the moss to the kanauna - chop the moss up into about 1” or less pieces. Otherwise the mix gets awkward.
Next, on washing the roots. I’ve lived in Virginia and know red clay after doing lots of landscaping there. So I’d recommend watering the soil really well a couple 4 hours ahead in your grow box. Then rinse the soil off the roots with a medium powered spray . I wouldn’t worry about getting the soil all off as Kanuma is clay anyways. I do this technique and haven’t lost one yet.
Finally, on pruning branches, flowering and pruning roots all in the same year.... well Satsuki purists would never do this, they’d do one a year.... but if Leo and Shibui say it’s ok, that’s good enough for me.
I’d be sure to keep the azalea in partial sun though, at least for the first year if you give it the 3 at once treatment.
Good luck,
DSD sends
 
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Leo in N E Illinois

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@Einbrecher - Sorry, I did not get back into this thread for 3 weeks.

To answer questions, though it might be too late.

A saw is likely to split your branches, or leave jagged rough edges, unless it is very, very sharp. Garden bypass shears or bypass pruners - like the ones the rose people use - will not gouge into your main trunk(s). For branches I would cut, leaving a stub, half inch to one inch, and then go back and prune flush later, I usually clean up about a year later, but that is me. There is a flat faced tool, sometimes sold as a root cutter, or as a branch splitter, either will leave a flush cut. You can get close with the bypass pruner, then touch up later with an Exacto knife. You can use convex pruner if you have them. If you only have a concave pruner, or a diagonal concave cutter, just be careful to cut flush, or a hair above flush. The concave cutters (aka knob cutters) will bite too deeply into the trunk unless you are very careful. Even with a knob cutter and some care, you can cut flush, it just takes some "mindfulness" to avoid gouging into the trunk.

I would use a garden hose and water to flush out 100% of the clay the day you dig from the garden.

Sphagnum - confusing names. Long Fiber New Zealand or Chilean Sphagnum moss is the stringy stuff that was alive when harvested. It is baled, compressed and dried for use in Orchid horticulture, and carnivorous plants. Key is it was alive recently. It has its original structure. New Zealand and Chilean sphagnum are preferred, because they are high in phenolic compounds that act as a fungicide, bactericide and preserve the moss, so the moss will last 2 or 3 years before breaking down in your potting mix. There is a Canadian and Wisconsin sourced long fiber sphagnum, same genus of Moss, but it is much lower in phenolic compounds, and will break down in your potting mix in as little as 9 months. To avoid having to repot more than once every few years, avoid the Wisconsin and Canada sourced long fiber sphagnum. Note: Long Fiber Sphagnum, because it has not undergone decomposition and metamorphosis, is not particularly acidic. It has some acidifying effects, but its zeolite capacity is relatively low.

Peat, (preferred short name is just peat, without the moss added) and Peat moss - this is the remains of sphagnum moss that have spent many decades, often hundreds of years in the bottom layer of a bog, in a slow state of metamorphosis and decomposition. This is the long time dead stuff. This is sphagnum that is somewhere along the spectrum of turning into coal. Once peat layers are deep enough and approach several thousand years old, it becomes something sometimes called brown coal. Canadian peat moss is quarried, more or less strip mined. Unfortunately for the USA market most of the peat is milled to a fine flour. Sift peat for use and only keep particles that stay on top of window screen. For most brands of Canadian peat 90% will go through the screen. The fines should be discarded, add to you vegetable garden but don't use in a bonsai pot. THe decomposition and metamorphosis give peat a strong acidifying effect. Peat functions as a zeolite, capturing and holding calcium and other cations. THis is why it is used for raising carnivorous plants and strong acidophiles like high bush blueberries.

As much as I admire Peter of Heron's Bonsai - I have had trouble when I try to follow his horticulture suggestions. Where he is living, in the UK is just that different from my between Chicago and Milwaukee climate that his horticultural tips often are not appropriate in my neck of the woods. Especially timing. You have to carefully translate everything from "his climate" to your own climate and your own calendar of seasons. So be forewarned.

A hard freeze (below 29 F or below -2 C) will harm new roots trying to form, so best to protect from freezing after you dig. OR BETTER - delay digging until after freeze danger has passed.


Redneck Rain Collection - this works east of the Mississippi, where we actually get regular rain. I just set 4 to 6 open, clean 3 gallon pails around the yard. After it rains, I dump them into a open top 55 gallon plastic barrel that used to hold caramel coloring. Any well washed, clean drum will do. If I start collecting rain in Spring, usually by end of May the 55 gallon drum is full. Then I cover the 55 gallon drum. Usually this is enough rain water that I can cover the 6 week drought we get most years in August. It is simple, redneck solution to collecting rain water. This will not work for California or Arizona, where it only rains a few times a year.

Hope these tips help.
 

Leo in N E Illinois

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Very interesting ... my well water has what seems to be slight salt taste and has the white chalk look on some pots, maybe it is calcium.
Thanks for the detail information

A high school friend of mine who went on to work for the USDA as a cotton geneticist at the Stoneville Research station in Mississippi was explaining the weird problems his well water was causing him. Turns out large parts of Alabama, Mississippi, & Louisiana the potable water aquifer is actually slightly brackish. It is "fossil water" that has a high organic component, from decaying peat in the aquifer, and the water is slightly salty. Okay for human consumption, but the taste really is from salt (sodium chloride) in the water. I bet your water is a pale tea color too, with a slight phenolic odor, well at least as a visitor I noticed the odor, might not be noticeable with acclimation. Water from this aquifer is one of the few areas where Total Dissolved Solids is not a good estimate of Total Alkalinity, because a significant portion of your dissolved solids is sodium chloride, rather than the calcium carbonate that most of us living over limestone experience. So your water if probably fairly soft, even though it is over 100 ppm total dissolved solids. Turns out your water is "pretty good" for azaleas. They don't mind the little bit of salt. Or this is the case in Greenville MS where my buddy used to live. He's retired now, and has gone back North, where the word "holler" is used only as a verb, and not as a noun.

At least this observation is "probably good" for parts of central & coastal Alabama - there is limestone aquifer in northern Alabama, I don't know exactly where you are and I don't know the exact boundaries of the "fossilized estuary water" that my buddy was dealing with in Greenville MS. Check with your county extension service to get the details on your local well water.
 

ml_work

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Thanks Leo
I think my water is Soft, I say that because the soap lathers up very easy. I plan to have the water tested, just got to take the time ...
I killed a couple of Walmart azalea with our well water, I think it was the water or maybe just me .. they were cheap and really for a test ..
where the word "holler" is used only as a verb, and not as a noun
holler is a noun here, that's us ;)
 

Einbrecher

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Update time! Unfortunately I haven't been able to do the chop yet, but things have finally settled down enough to come back to this.

I've since unburied the box I overwintered the Azalea in and thrown some fertilizer on to prep it for cutting. Thanks to all the advice here, I've managed to compile the various supplies that have come recommended (cut pastes/putty, kanuma soil, spaghnum, set of flush-cutting shears).

The photos below were taken today. I didn't mark a specific date for flowering, but they probably dropped off 3-4 weeks ago. The question I'm at now is pretty straightforward - is now an appropriate time to do this trunk chop and root reduction?
 

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Harunobu

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I am in the same hardiness zone, but a different part of the planet. Now is a good time, but better was a month earlier, in my version of zone 7b. I don't know what 'things have finally settled down enough', but I guess that was real life other issues.

With the chop, you should think about what kind of backbudding you want. Do you want it to bud where you cut? Or do you want it to backbud everywhere. If you want the former, then that is relatively easy and you can actually get better result by doing it step by step, branch by branch. The latter is a bit more challening. Depending on many factors, you may not get the backbudding you want. But you also cannot do it step by step, because if you keep too much foliage on the plant, it will only backbud near the cut sites.

For root reduction, you kind of missed the window. Ideal is late winter and then put it in a greenhouse so there's no risk of frost. Otherwise, repot and reduce roots after there is no more frost risk. Right now is kind of the latest moment to do it. If you do it in summer, it may be too hot. You don't want reduced roots during the time of year when roots are most essential. And you don't want to do it in autumn, when roots cannot grow in response to the root reduction.

Many people say you should repot an azalea after flowering. But in Japan in recent years they actually are stopping repotting after flowering because the summers are getting so hot because of climate change. I have heard that the summer of 2019 was actually pretty stressfull for azalea (bonsai), though I don't know the details. So the more continental your version of 7b is, the more risky a summer repot will be. If you are in a temperate version of 7b, then repotting an azalea plant into your garden; very unlikely to be a problem. But if you want to repot your bonsai and significantly reduce roots, this is getting risky. Right now, it is the 31st of May, so not yet officially June yet. May is kind of the latest when you may do a risk-free aggressive root prune repot. But I do not recommend a repot/root reduction at this time of year for an azalea bonsai unless I was in your area and I had tried it many times myself without any problems. There likely won't be a lot of days of new root growth until your azalea has to experience real summer weather.

Besides that, doing a trunk chop while doing a significant root reduction may also not be the ideal thing. If you do a chop, you want the strongest response to that chop possible. Why do it with reduced roots? Yes, it won't need those roots for water. But the roots also contain stored carbohydrate reserves especially for emergency situations like you doing a trunk chop.

Does it need a repot because of the quality of the old soil? If so, you might still want to repot, try to give it some fresh soil/substrate, but not work the roots as aggressive as normal, and put off the full trunk chop. Doing a late (maybe too late) root reduction AND a full trunk chop in the first days of June does not sound ideal to me. Very likely it will survive fine, because judging from the pictures it looks very healthy, but I think you can do better. It keeping the soil/substrate for one more year does not hurt the roots, I'd not repot this year and do a (partial) chop asap.
 
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Harunobu

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Oh, and on sphagnum moss (not decayed peat composed mostly of sphagnum moss). I have used it to sow seeds on. In my experience, it is the best sowing medium for azalea seeds. Yes, it is (partially) alive. It will regrow new moss from some parts. I have also heard mixed story on using it. The con would that that sphagnum moss once it dries up entirely repels moisture. I have found this to be very true. You really need to soak that stuff entirely once all the moisture from it has gone. The solution would be to never let it dry out. I have seen someone claim he worked in Japan on azaleas and say they never use it, exactly for this drying out reason, and he said it was bad to use it. I have heard others say it is used to cover the kanuma. And I have seen others suggest use it in the mix together with kanuma. I think you need to consider mixing in some organic component into your kanuma the dryer your summers are. Japan has some of the wettest summers on the planet. What works perfectly there won't work very well in say Southern California or parts of Spain. I can see how mixing in sphagnum moss or using it as a cover has merit. But I still see the point that if you let it dry out completely, it becomes more of a problem than a solution. You would need to ask those that actually tried it.

If it is actually peat in that it is decomposed sphagnum moss that has been buried in the ground for a really really long time, then it will be black or brown and it will not repel moisture. Peat made from sphagnum moss and (partially) live sphagnum moss do not have the same properties. Not all peat is from sphagnum moss and I think in Europe and NA they have different species of sphagnum moss. And there is someone from Australia so it may be yet different there as well. But I am fuzzy on those details right now.
 

Deep Sea Diver

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You can do both right now, but what is your end goal for this process?

What I recall was that you were aiming to either:

Do a trunk chop, do a root wash, a minor root reduction, and replace soil with kanuma mix, and hope to get a strong healthy growth response...

...or Do a trunk chop, a root wash, a major root reduction and replace soil with kanuma mix, and hope to get a strong healthy growth response...

If it’s the former, it’s seems OK to me. If it’s the latter, I’d be a bit more concerned for similar reasons as @Harunobu.

I think with proper care you could pull off both.

However, looking at the above statements, which do you think will give you the best results for a first time effort?

Cheers
DSD sends
 

Einbrecher

Seedling
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However, looking at the above statements, which do you think will give you the best results for a first time effort?

For sure - I wasn't aiming for anything too drastic for the roots, but things were getting a tad unwieldy.

That being said, while hoping to wait a little deeper into winter, another move forced my hand on this one - was either do a chop + some reduction or leave it behind, and I wasn't going to leave it behind. Ended up reducing the roots by ~30%, transferring it from a box that was ~30" on a side to one that's ~20" from the side...probably about 1", maybe 2" from the new roots to the edge of the box. I was able to get about 85% of the clay out - whatever's left is really close to the center of the tree and I was getting tired and nervous going any further.

Soil is a 2:1 mix of Kanuma and Sphagnum Moss (this stuff: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EJ61SSO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1). Mixed in a handful of azalea fertilizer when I put it in as well.

Pictures below! Given the rush, I left the cuts a bit long and topped them with the orange paste stuff, plan is to go back soon-ish to something much shorter except for a few branches.

We're in southern Ohio now, and our water is super hard (we have a water softener type hard), so I've been using water out of the RO (reverse osmosis) system to water it until we get some rain barrels set up. Weather has been going below freezing at night pretty regularly, so it's been living in our garage for the past few weeks. I've watered it maybe once a week so far, but the soil hasn't dried out, and I'm starting to get that white fuzz on top, so I've started pulling it out during the day so hopefully the sun can dry the surface enough to kill it.

If any folks have tips on caring for a stump and/or I've been comitting any cardinal sins, please let me know! lol

I've narrowed it down to two fronts I like so far. I like the nebari of #1 better, but I think #2 has a better branch layout (and the nebari there is interesting too). I've marked out the main structure I'd like to keep in green, some tentative cuts in red for both (which are mostly the same for both...but that branch coming at you in #1 probably has to go, though I like it for #2, so it'd probably stay in the name of indecisiveness). Not sure what to do with the orange guy. Tips would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you again everyone for all the help, this has been a great experience so far, and I'm happy to be finally getting over the trunk-chop anxiety!
 

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