Very pleased to see "Summer leaves at their best now" open by ROEBUK ; reading it probably put in my mind this tread. Some of my Acer palmatum foliage as katsura and palmatum type are not of great interest in summer but weighing pots before watering and looking at them every day, waiting automnal wetting ... As i am also used to inspect two or tree time a year roots of my pots and containers, bare idea of it , (that is my way of thinking); i took two pictures of katsura roots, a little bit dry (but no scorching) good roots at their best in july... and came this luminous thought "why not ?". So i propose a roots show . A varied sélection of pics of roots is desirable ; please don't risk, no question to endanger. Give us a splendid roots show, i am convinced it would be interesting. PS: sorry for my scolar english.
Great idea, but what's about those JMs are in the ground?. I was wondered how their roots are doing esp. we are having a bit of heat wave here in the East but I am not quite sure the best way to see them without too much roots disturbance. Any suggestion!
Well, I'm afraid we can only tell about the ones in the ground by how well the tops are doing! Otherwise best to leave them. Still I love the idea of this thread, opusoculi you are a true plantsman! :) I do most of my transplanting up to larger pots in July, so it's a good time to look, and when things are going well it's a real pleasure. Actually I think I have less to do than usual this year, but... Here's an 'Orangeola' from the DVDM grafting day. (The not-so-great graft is because I did it). Arrived last year bare root from Boskoop, not in great shape honestly, but after a year needs to move on from a 2.5l pot which it has filled up. Not terrific looking but OK. The very fat roots are what I see now that I use mycorrhizae, which you see as the gray clay bits near the bottom of the pot.
Atapi, underground we are blind, no wonder; but for little pots it's easy and instructive, tittle is a serious whim. Very kind of you emery, thanks. I apreciate your voice. On occasion, may i visit your arboretum ? -About katsura : had been re-poted in march 2014, in the same time i added mycorrhizae for Maples; it works well in petracom substract LP502. This time i have to repot it. Some more: -Pic 1. aconitifolium re-poted this year in march; don't show much new roots but they develop inside the substract. -Pic 2&3. amoneum (sélected from seeds), good grower in a too little pot , numerus new roots had been recently affected by very hot and dry conditions of july. It needs a uper size pot. -Pics 4&5. koto-hime, i have a little desappointement with, wilt is in it for 3 years or more. No re-poted this year. In april , i removed entirely two branches (clear black inside symptoms of vicious Verticillium alboatrum). With a parcimoniously apropriate 1/2 liter watering every 3 days in shade, it paradoxaly grows but very few new génération roots and dying 1 month later, and so on.... in retirement koto-hime is in observation ...
Great idea! I always think about the roots and root growth in all my maples, especially those growing in container. I often thought about posting root pictures, but I thought I was one of a few who care and my hands are always too dirty to handle the camera. But now I will start snapping pictures of my root growth accomplishments that I am so proud of. Thanks for sharing your pictures and having the confidence to start such a great thread!
@opusoculi, of course I'd be delighted if you would visit the garden! Here are "today's" roots, it's really too nice out to do much repotting but I felt the desire to do something low key, so... 1 - A. davidii going from 1 to 3 liter pots. I had ~ 40 of these over the winter that were eaten by mice, and 4 that weren't. These are 2 of the 4, and I managed to salvage about another 15 where there was a bud left uneaten. 2 - The top of A. flabellatum var yunnanense. It is fast growing and will be planted next early spring, though I acquired it less than a year ago. 3 - roots of A. flabellatum var yunnanense (or A. campbelli ssp flabellatum var yunnanense if you prefer), going from 7.5 l to 12 l. Usually at 12 l I hope to get the plant in the ground. 4 - top of A. japonicum 'Emmet's Pumkin'. A strong growing plant but has had too much sun this year. I've had it since fall '13, it is going in ground this fall. 5 - roots of 'Emmet's Pumking', from 7.5 to 12 l for a few months. 6 - top of A. morifolium, a rooted cutting. 7 - roots of morifolium, going from 7.5 to 12 l, and will be planted out in spring. Sorry it looks like you'll have to orientate the pictures locally... :/
This is fascinating. I almost never get to see my maples' roots, since 95% of them are in the ground, so this is really fun to see! Thanks opusoculi for the idea and the thread.
I forgot to mention some important information: the time to fill the previous pot. A. davidiis, 12 months. A. flabellatum var yunnanense. 11 months AJ 'Emmet's Pumkin', 10 months A. morifolium, 11 months (and was late for transplant) -E
Dear me Emery,that's rather quick...does that mean you've got to do it all again this year? I can't show any of my roots as they're all in my awful gritty mix.Lifting them will mean they'll end up bare-rooted.It'll be intersting to see if they've developed a finer root system when I re-pot them all this autumn back into a more traditional mix.
Hi Houzi, it has occurred that I have to repot twice in a season, but not usually. Since it's nearly August, these will have to wait for next year in any case. I try not to repot once the maples have gone dormant, or when they're putting on a lot of top growth actively. But I've had to repot in June and again in September... not ideal, but good if they're putting on a lot of roots. Was thinking about your substrate issues, seems like water retention is a problem more than drainage, in which case peat or coco is not so great. If I were you I might experiment with something like 50% composted pine bark, 30% perlite, 20% rotted horse manure (or seaweed, we have something here called Or Brun that's pretty good). Finally getting a bit of rain, going to go into the shed and attack more davidii replanting! :)
Yes you're right,turns out my cat litter suffers exactly the same as yours after all...a vast reservoir of water held within.It appears excellent drainage and air are sometimes not enough.I can only assume the process of osmosis is unstoppable until the water runs out or the plant can't take any more and often dies.It's a shame as to my eyes and hands it seems perfect.Thanks for thinking of my problems Emery.I'm probably gonna follow Roebuks advice as we're in the same climate(infact his is probably wetter than mine) and have the same stuff available and his have obviously thrived.If they still fail then it's obviously me ha ha. I don't envy you having to re-pot again...I'll have to but it's my own fault,in your case the plants decided for you but it's obviously good to see such healthy roots...good luck :)
Just lifted a medium sized Viridis today due to the fact we have had a reasonable week re- the weather no rain but forecasted for Saturday, so a lovely dry day to dig up and as you can see from pics a very good healthy strong root system , just riddled a minimum amount of the loose growing medium away, then a short root prune but left the two main anchor roots which appear to go to the side of the tree well alone. A very low lying tree which was starting to put on exceptional side growth all round plus was trailing on the ground somewhat, so now it's well off the ground in it's new pot and can flow down nicely now. Had to re-think the size of container to allow for these large side roots to go in nicely without the need to cut them, so it had to go into a 140ltr container was going in a 90ltr , needless to say i won't be re doing this one for quite a few years!! Bought this many years ago when i first started as a little two ltr plant, amazed at the rate of growth over the years.
Last year in march i used micorrhizae (seeds or so) placed on the roots of all my maples. Their spreading out this year had been very important from august to october. They are developped at the bottom of the pot but also on the surface of the top covered with a coco-carpet. For eyes it seems points of 2 millimeters only but in fact it is more important. To day i took a macro-photography of white points developped on roots particularly in relation with bits of dry peat. The picture represents only 30 mm = 3cm = 2 fingers of substract. I presume it is micorrhizae developpment... would you confirm ? experimented advise appreciated. Thanks.
This is something that i have read about quite alot recently in various books and on recent threads on this site, so have decided to order some micorrhizae and have a little try on a few for next season and see what happens,would be very interested to see if i have a marked change in plant/root growth on some of my trees.
Here are some more big root pictures of another Viridis which i have been meaning to lift for the past two years, and finally got around to it today, break in the wet and foggy weather which we have had all week now, first day in the garden all week. First pic is the tree when planted out in 2008 from a small 7.5ltr pot, and today it's just gone into it's new 170ltr container, had more trouble in lifting the last one than one this, very straight forward more of the large trunk to help with lifting so much easier to get a better grip and ease of lift. From start to finish just over 80 minutes, a good 10 mins of this was spent trying find and to cut the last remaining anchor root which was really hard to locate. Once this was up a quick removal of any excess mud/dirt and a trim of the fibrus shallow roots,then a clip of any larger side roots for ease of fitting into the new container, and now it has far more room and height for the side growth of the branches which were really starting to trail on the garden floor and was begining to look unslightly. A few more years and this should look very nice, plus it's more easier to get into now for trimming and any die back removals because i can crawl underneath to get under the canopy now. The removal of this tree also allows for three other trees to take it's place, it really took quite alot of room on the garden and it needed moving before it became to large to do anything with. All the Viridis are now in containers and they produce far better colours in the fall i have found than when they were planted in the ground ?? plus they also get more attenton from me which is better for them. All my large tree lifting is done now for the season, just a few more lifts of smaller trees which need re-positioning re the light/shade for next year, then we can start all over again. :)
What i tend to do with large dissectums which have just been lifted is leave any major cutting or pruning re the branches etc until the spring time when i can see that the 'tree and it's branches' have survived the stress of being lifted and i know that i can then safely remove any unsightly/crossing branches knowing that re budding is going to take place. The only branches i removed from this tree were the annual 'diebacks' from this season a total of 4/5 small 60/70cm deep inwardly centred branches. I only tend to remove branches off the larger palmated leaved trees when lifting, because i know from past experience that these 'types' trees are far more resilient to heavy pruning and will always 'bounce back' the following season, plus if i had to lose a tree :( which is never a nice option it would have to be something rather less showy than a nice mature dissectum, if that makes any sense? Actually posted some pics of a Vitifolium which i pruned back before lifting just before the site crashed, posted some pics of said tree note the small rootball for the size of the tree that supprised me !! Don't think i will be doing anything in the garden next week, the weather is terrible at the moment it's not stopped raining for two days now and the garden is just waterlogged at present. The traditional annual 'Bonfire' night in the UK Nov 5th was an abosolute washout this year, hundreds of parties and events in our region were cancelled owing to the adverse weather conditions.
Meantime my wife had fractured her arm (at home!). It gave me a nasty turn. She is right now , so i am back. I do not have a rather good ground to cultivate many Maples. I have 10 of them which is established since not bad years, therefore I do not move them. They are planted in the shade and must put up with the competition of the roots of large trees. Thus I do not change them place. You are under other conditions of climate and ground. Seeing how you make is intersting ; it is as if I gardened by delegation... as regards gardening I never weary myself. The majority as of my Maples of Japan are in pots and containers. I make repottings the first week of March. It is at this time that I prune them; for oldest one's I reduce a little the roots every two years.
Bonsoir, That's the best thing to do: if you prune maples in late winter/early spring without pruning the roots, they "bleed" and then are more sensitive to late frosts. When the roots are pruned at the same time, they don't (bonsai enthusiasts' trick)
