Yamadori (yardori in this case)
CA, zone 10b
I have a Bougainville (broadleaf evergreen) and a Chinese date tree (deciduous)
What would be the best time of the year to get these 2 in a training pot (wood box). Should I use straight pumice?
If someone can explain or recommend a video that explain why or how the roots recover…
Thank you in advance
Hi Bruno, welcome to the community. I apologise on behalf of the membership for the lack of response to your question. Perhaps they missed your post.
I would now wait until spring before repotting / transplanting. I don’t think your winters are too cold but with the bougainvillea being a warm weather tree it would be best to wait.
As for the planting medium it has to be free draining such as 40-50% organic material and 50-60% hard material such as pumice, granulated granite or course sand. Especially as it’s going into a wooden box.
For the Chinese date tree you could use pumice as they like extra free draining soil but you will have to watch the watering during your hot summers. Hope this helps.
I would probably not use any organic, but instead use mostly pumice with some akadama to hold nutrients. My finding is that is warm weather the organic components tend to lead to root rot. I only get a couple of months where that is an issue outside of Spokane, WA, but in LA I imagine there would be several months.
I agree with waiting to dig them until late winter (late January in LA). That will give them a nice long growing season to get established. A key point is to make the box fairly small to just contain the roots.
However, with both of those comments I have two counter examples. I repotted a dwarf bougie yesterday into my standard deciduous mix of 3 akadama, 1 pumice, and 1 lava since I tend to like to tropicals and semi-tropicals lots of heat to establish new roots. The soil was very compact and I lots a lot of roots in the report so it was like the first potting of a new tree. It is back under the wisteria where it gets lots of shade. I also dug a garden weigelia in early June and put it into pure pumice - it is growing like mad and will get moved from the nursery pot to a grow box and the deciduous mix in the spring.