Cedrus Lebani repot

[maroun.c]

Had gotten 2 of those last year. Both look like their doing great and buds are pushing so repoted first one today.

Not the smoothest repot but I've had way worse this season. Soil wasn't rotted but the this thick red soil tends to stay very wet.



I bare rebooted around 60 percent as I had to get some thick roots out... I also chopped the top of this one as well. Do u think it's still ok to clean up a few branches( bad ones or down branches) at same time or would it be too much? Come to think of it I'm not sure if I should have chopped and half bare rooted and repoted later same time.

Should I just wait till autumn or maybe next year to clean bad branches and maybe start initial styling? Should I shorten it more? I left it at 12 x trunk thickness as it's not a thick trunk but not.liking the leaning top to the left. Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[sorce]

Soil looks like you should make a pot and have that Potter friend fire it! (In a dish for safety.)

Nice!

Sorce

 

[AlainK]

this thick red soil tends to stay very wet.

I suppose it helps nursery people to reduce watering during the very hot summers you must have in Beirut.

 

[maroun.c]

Believe if in a very sunny area I'm assuming it dries up fast. In my 2 gardens I get only 3-4 hours of sun per day, and one garden has a bit less air flow. Believe this is why I struggled with high soil humidity. This soil.is basically red soil which is very common in nature here and the cheapest to use I guess. They also mix it with some peat at times...
The reduced watering in summer I guess makes a lot of sense.
Any advice on whether I can prune some.of the branches right after the repot and the trunk chop or should I wait till autum or next spring when I wire ?

 

[Captain.Bonsai]

There’s a number of valuable posts here on Bnut that discuss potting and maintenance of true cedars. Some folks with more experience have shared that cedars are finicky and do not respond well to root work. I believe atlas and deodar are close enough to lebani to include them in your research.

I’ve got 2 Lebani that were new to me this winter. They’re both 10 years old from seed.

I chose to reduce roots by about 30% for both of mine and leave the foliage untouched. I repotted in February. One of them didn’t miss a step and the other defoliated about 50% but then recovered.

I won’t give advice, I lack the resume to make recommendations with this species. But I will say if this were mine I would not touch it again until next year.

 

[maroun.c]

Thanks for your input. Indeed tricky to get clear info on specific species like cedrus lebani and podocarpusnjn my case. Good to know they are more like atlas and deodar (deodar is new to me) so will search for info on those and try to replicate.
How do u know if the tree made it past repotting and root work ? Is budding (mine budding well now) a good sign or is it a given even after a bad repot and footwork as the energy is already there? Is no needle loss at 20-30 days a sign that tree is out of risk (only one shedding few old needles) or do j need to see next year springs push and growth to know tree is fine ? Guess as u mention I'll just hold on touching those till next year. Maybe either style next year and complete the remaining bare root a year later or maybe the other way around this way I dont lose time styling if following year rootwork does kill the tree which I hope not.

 

[Captain.Bonsai]

The lebani of mine that defoliated pushed new spring buds while simultaneously defoliating and continued for what may have been 1+ month. It was not an immediate rapid flush of defoliation.

I have followed the generic rule of one large insult to any tree per year and I plan to continue this with the cedars (root prune, chop, etc). Sustained vigorous growth is a marker for success.

Check out this post/thread and look at evergreengardenworks.com for more information from Brent on cedars. He has an article on his website.

Atlantic/Atlas Cedar repot in autumn/fall

Hi everyone, Has anyone out there had experience(good or bad) with repotting a Cedrus atlantica in autumn/fall? Have you ever a had a single branch on a Cedrus atlantica die? Did you explore the root system and what were the results/findings? Grant

www.bonsainut.com

 

[maroun.c]

Thanks for ur input