Reducing B&B material

I have acquired a good bit of B&B plant material recently. Here is my question. How would you start the foliage and root reduction. All plant material was was dug years ago. In the Atlanta area. My primary focus is to reduce the root ball because moving them around is a pain.

Boxwoods
Tea olives
Jap maples

  • fall root prune, leave foliage followed by spring foliage reduction?
  • Spring root and foliage balanced reduction?
  • Spring root reduction, leave foliage for following year?
  • Protect for winter?
  • Heat beds for winter?

B&B?
Please explain?

Balled and burlapped (B&B) is a special process used for transplanting various types of trees, shrubs, or other plants. … The term balled refers to the plant’s root ball that is dug up, and burlapped refers to the material used to wrap the soil, which is customarily burlap or other coarse fabric.
I got these plus tons of other plant material for pennies on the dollar. Mostly neglected nursery stock. it was either Burn pile or Bonsai, which is how I view most material, and if its cheap enough its always Bonsai. My main goal is to get them reduced in size as fast as possible preferably this fall because I can hardly move them.

1 Like

It’s usually best to do the root reduction and repot in the spring and then wait to reduce the foliage after the tree recovers from the repot.

1 Like

I 100% agree heavy root pruning should be carried out in early spring as the tree is coming out of dormancy. I believe that would be the ideal time to carry out the root pruning procedure. However, here is my thoughts on getting it done sooner than later.
I would like to do a root mass reduction right now. I will also leave the foliage in place to help with winter hardiness. I will keep the plant shaded for weeks after preventing to much sun/drought stress on them. As temps begin to fall I will build a heat bed (either using heating mats or tubing and a hot water heater much like a radiant floor heating system). I recall a BSOP stream where Ryan said Randy Night uses heat beds for all his collected stock and it ads in his success rate.
Depending on how this goes and health of the trees in spring, I will the reduce the foliage mass. Once it showed strong growth and a desire to live I will fertilize heavy and leave untouched for the rest of next growing season.
Does anyone believe this course of action is acceptable? We can’t learn unless we try and I’m ok trying in material that was next to free.

Hi @atom,
With the correct after care, it should be possible to report at any time. We normally chose spring because it stakes the chips in our favour. As long as your trees can do what they need to do to get through the winter, then it should work, and if not, at least they weren’t expensive.

I thought he dug the shrubs from a bed & breakfast.

2 Likes

@BillsBayou same. Haha. Maybe someone out there is getting ideas…

Sounds like a job for the

SplashLogo

1 Like