Yew with very wet soil

[Traken]

Hi all,

So, I snagged a yew (taxus x media, iirc) from Home Depot on clearance (yay clearance), as I wanted one to screw around with and try to gain some experience. Unfortunately, with all the rain we've had lately, and with the garbage soil they have it in, it's currently sitting in goopy, sandy mud. Given yews aren't a big fan of soggy roots (at least based on what I've read), would it be wise to do an out of season repot on it to get it into something that actually drains? Normally, I'd not even think about it until spring, but I'm a little concerned the roots might rot with how sloppy it is right now.

Danke.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Where are you going to winter this yew. The answer will determine whether it is safe to repot before winter.

Will it be exposed to the outdoor low temperatures? Yew can take Chicago winters outdoors, is that your plan? If yes, best to not repot. Just leave it alone until spring.

Will it be in a garage or other protected area where it will be kept above 27 or 28 F all winter? If yes you can probably get away with repotting. Don't just ''slip pot'', actually remove most if not all of the offensively bad soil. Move it to the pot you plan to use for training.

 

[Traken]

Where are you going to winter this yew. The answer will determine whether it is safe to repot before winter.

Will it be exposed to the outdoor low temperatures? Yew can take Chicago winters outdoors, is that your plan? If yes, best to not repot. Just leave it alone until spring.

Will it be in a garage or other protected area where it will be kept above 27 or 28 F all winter? If yes you can probably get away with repotting. Don't just ''slip pot'', actually remove most if not all of the offensively bad soil. Move it to the pot you plan to use for training.

I'd been planning to move it (and the other trees) into an unheated attached garage once we start getting consistently cold temps. As far as will it be kept above 27-28, I'm not actually certain. This is my first year doing this stuff, so I haven't tracked the temp in the garage before. It does get cold, but I'm not sure the exact range of temps, unfortunately.

 

[Flounder61]

What did you do w/the yew? How is it doing?

 

[Traken]

I wound up washing off all the bad soil, cut the roots down a bit, and repotted it into some well draining substrate. It seemed to be doing alright going into the winter, but I'll know better in the spring when things fire back up more. Since I wasn't using a great pot, I stupidly didn't secure it, and the poor thing tipped over in the pot at one point. Hopefully it'll be alright, but thankfully, it was a clearance experiment, so losing it wouldn't be a real loss.

 

[Flounder61]

Thx!