Dwarf Alberta Spruce Help

[AstroDevil95]

Hi All!

Trimmed this Dwarf Alberta this past fall and let it hang out in its nursery pot container all winter. I repotted a few weeks ago and removed wire. I live in NJ and wanted to do this before the growing season fully started.

After a few weeks the needles of the tree began turning brittle and yellowing. I know repotting brings significant stress on a tree but this guy isn't starting to look good.

Any tips for a newbie? Just planning on riding it out and hopefully the tree will recover nicely. Thanks!!

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

The soil particles are a bit too coarse for the container it's in. DAS like water a lot and I think you overdid it doing all these things after one another.
Even if you ride it out, because of their slow growing nature, you're looking at a 6-10 year recovery.
Which to me, considering the retail price of a new one, is absolutely not worth the effort.

That doesn't mean you did a bad job! You did a lesson, and the next one will turn out better than this one. If you want, you can see how it behaves, how it declines and how it'll struggle to bounce back. But that's just for your own reference.

Next time:
Remove less at once, center it in the pot and cover all the roots with soil and chopstick that soil into the rootball, go with a smaller soil particle and leave the wire on until it starts biting in; DAS bounce back easily and they're slow, so it's unlikely to become problematic if there isn't strong growth happening.

 

[AstroDevil95]

The soil particles are a bit too coarse for the container it's in. DAS like water a lot and I think you overdid it doing all these things after one another.
Even if you ride it out, because of their slow growing nature, you're looking at a 6-10 year recovery.
Which to me, considering the retail price of a new one, is absolutely not worth the effort.

That doesn't mean you did a bad job! You did a lesson, and the next one will turn out better than this one. If you want, you can see how it behaves, how it declines and how it'll struggle to bounce back. But that's just for your own reference.

Next time:
Remove less at once, center it in the pot and cover all the roots with soil and chopstick that soil into the rootball, go with a smaller soil particle and leave the wire on until it starts biting in; DAS bounce back easily and they're slow, so it's unlikely to become problematic if there isn't strong growth happening.

Thanks for the reply brother! It actually looked real green and healthy post first styling and wiring. When I repotted I kept most of the original substate and just covered the top with the course rocks. It started to decline after repotting her - but I would like to ride it out and see what happen.

I have read the WAS's difficult for beginners - and starting to see why.

Any easier species to work with you'd recommend? I have this other juniper growing - I liked the trunk movement on it. I usually just grab what I can from the garden center and chop away.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I'm a big fan of pines, so I'd recommend getting a scots pine or a mugo pine. They are fast growers compared to DAS. I made a care sheet on the resources page that should get you started, mugo and other single flush pines can be treated the same way.
The juniper is looking good, I think you set it up for success.