Can you treat field grown Spruce like collected material

[Shogun610]

I got a cheap spruce field grown that I think has some character

but

The root ball is massive and in dup up clay.

Could I treat this as a collected tree... remove a lot of soil and place in pumice .. aggregate mix and let it recover for 1-2 years?
It’s not elongating yet.. although the buds are starting to swell.

there is a Maple in the photo that’s going to be a niwaki tree .. I’m buying first home in July ! (Renting right now)

 

[0soyoung]

I think that muck (field soil) is nothing but trouble. But I would only clean out one side (HBR) now(-ish) and the other half after strong new growth has hardened, which could be around this Aug. If it not so strong then wait until next year.

Also, why not lay back the burlap and look for root growth --> white tips showing?

 

[sorce]

IMO...useful material from B&B clay is so few and far between, that you'd have to buy and Repot like a thousand dollars worth of expensive garbage before you had enough practice for that one good one, so you don't kill it.

Sorce

 

[Shogun610]

I think that muck (field soil) is nothing but trouble. But I would only clean out one side (HBR) now(-ish) and the other half after strong new growth has hardened, which could be around this Aug. If it not so strong then wait until next year.

Also, why not lay back the burlap and look for root growth --> white tips showing?

Yeah I agree... I picked it out last year it seemed more lush.. and since it was only 15 bucks I said what the hell dig it out since they were making room in their field for other stuff. Idk lol I just used a bag of pumice and half bare rooted in total all around and bottom of soil leaving core untouched..I’m not gonna touch it at all for at least a year .It was very heavy due to all the rocks in the roots! Never getting material from that nursery unless for landscaping/ hardscaping..If it dies it dies, kinda like Drago to Rocky. But yeah , I have more substrate and it’s not like I have anything else to repot this year until summer dormancy for Tamarack.

 

[0soyoung]

Yeah I agree... I picked it out last year it seemed more lush.. and since it was only 15 bucks I said what the hell dig it out since they were making room in their field for other stuff. Idk lol I just used a bag of pumice and half bare rooted in total all around and bottom of soil leaving core untouched..I’m not gonna touch it at all for at least a year .It was very heavy due to all the rocks in the roots! Never getting material from that nursery unless for landscaping/ hardscaping..If it dies it dies, kinda like Drago to Rocky. But yeah , I have more substrate and it’s not like I have anything else to repot this year until summer dormancy for Tamarack.

I still cannot understand how these growers grow trees in the muck, but they do It is clear to me, though, that they filed grown/b&b plants) survive in the landscape only because the new root growth is outside that muck and into your landscape's soil (in this case, pumice is your 'landscape soil').

 

[Shogun610]

I still cannot understand how these growers grow trees in the muck, but they do It is clear to me, though, that they filed grown/b&b plants) survive in the landscape only because the new root growth is outside that muck and into your landscape's soil (in this case, pumice is your 'landscape soil').

Yeah Idk either, it was a massive heavy clay rootball .. all the clay soil I took off it wasn’t so heavy anymore.

 

[ShadyStump]

Buying first home in July ! (Renting right now)

Congratulations!
Under contract already, or just the plan?

 

[Shogun610]

Congratulations!
Under contract already, or just the plan?

The plan

 

[ShadyStump]

Well be proactive shopping. The market can turn on a dime now days.