Hi everyone, I am new to this forum but have been reading it for a week now. What a great source of information! I usually purchase smaller maples and haven't had any problems transplanting them so far. Last week I found a beautiful larger specimen of a Crimson Queen for a good price and I broke down and bought it. It is wrapped in burlap with bark layered on top and around the sides. Yesterday I unwrapped it and noticed that of the trunk was buried under the burlap/bark and that the root-ball is in a clay like soil. I want to plant it in a container and have read here that the clay root ball is not desirable and that it should be removed. I am however afraid to remove the clay and break up the soil because I don't want to send the plant into shock and cause it to loose all of its leaves. Do you guys have advice? Should I get brave and remove the clay now? Should I wait until fall when it loses its leaves? Would it be that bad if I just planted it with its root ball undisturbed, leaving the dense clay soil? What if I potted it using heavier soil? Our soil here is heavier than potting mix but is not really clay either. So far the tree seems happy and healthy and of course I want to keep it that way long term. Thanks, Dilly
I have heard conflicting opinions on this I generally remove the burlap or at least open it and leave it in the bottom of the hole (so as not to disturb roots too much) If it is healthy the way it is maybe this would be your best course of action? Why take a chance and disturb roots that are happy?
You can use water to remove or reduce the clay without breaking off chunks of roots. http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/~Linda Chalker-Scott/Horticultural Myths_files/Myths/B&B root ball.pdf If you leave the ball intact you will have the possibility of it becoming too damp in the pot later, or part of it gradually washing down to the bottom of the pot and interfering with drainage. If you are disinclined to remove any of it beforehand then you will probably have to manage it quite carefully after potting because of it being in field soil. However, I could see how you might be concerned about barerooting a thin-leaved item like this at this stage of development in a hot climate. It's a matter of which kind of nursing you want to do, keeping it shaded and moist enough to survive the barerooting now versus getting it to live with field soil inside a pot for all the years afterward. When I have a plant or situation where I am reluctant or too pressed for time to undertake entire above-described procedure I sometimes try splitting the difference by removing part of the soil rootball only, so that the plant at least has exposed roots contacting the new soil environment.
I encountered this same issue last year when I purchased a B&B Shishigashira. It was also a good size and I had to put it in a container. Do remove the burlap completely. It may be OK to leave it if you're planting it in the ground, but not in a container. I would carefully remove at least half of the clay soil, using water. I think I removed about half, if not more, on my JM. I then used a standard potting mix, and my tree has been fine. Best of luck.
Well I did it. I planted the Crimson Queen into a pot after removing the clay soil root ball. The root system was really small for such a developed tree. When I lifted the root ball up half of the clay soil broke off and there didn't seem to be any roots there. The roots were primarily on one side of the tree. There was one large root (tap root?) that had been cut off. I re-planted using a simple regular potting soil, added b1 and used the water from when I soaked the root bal to water the tree. I then re-used the bark that was around the root ball and placed it around the tree. Hopefully all goes well and the tree survives this operation. The tree has a lifetime warranty but I really want it to do well. It is such a pretty little tree. Thanks all for the advice. Dilly
Speaking of Vitamin B-1: http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/~Linda Chalker-Scott/Horticultural Myths_files/Myths/Vitamin B1.pdf
Update on the tree- It is happy and healthy so far. Didn't even seem to react to the transplant. Yay! Dilly
