Happy Mother’s Day everyone
Looking for advice on how late I could repot an 80 year old well established yamadori Ponderosa pine, Literati style.. Last touched last spring for a light prune. Showing lots of new buds, even some back budding. It has Just started to warm up here in wisconsin with nighttime temps forty and daytime temps sixty. I have shelter and heat And plan to use. I need to repot because I’m changing the planting angle.It would take place this coming weekend. Thanks in advance
Teri W
It’s kind of hard to tell from the picture, but it looks to me like maybe at least some of the buds are starting to elongate and needles are starting to show. If that is the case I would probably wait until next year. With the angle change you’ll need to be fairly aggressive with the root ball. If I’m misreading the state of the buds and they haven’t started opening yet then it may be safe to proceed. I wouldn’t wait any longer though as this is a bit late for a repot in any case. If in doubt it would be better to wait until next spring and plan on doing the repot earlier in the season.
I prefer to repot my pines in August after the new flush has hardened off. I’ve only had good experiences with that. The advantage is that at this time of the year the roots are growing quite fast and vigorously so until winter the tree has normally recovered from repotting. Of course you’ve got to place the plant in the shade for a few weeks after a summer repot.