Garden Center Azalea Rootwork

[Srt8madness]

Roger that!

 

[roberthu]

Thank you for the advice! I'll wait a few weeks and lop off the bulk of that root mass. Got a gumbo white, and Chinzan Satsukis, and a kurume? Semi dwarf. I don't have the brass to go all in on the roots. Well maybe on one, I do have 6 in nursery pots.

I am not sure how cold or hot Houston is right now. But it's better to repot early so Azalea has some cool time to recover the roots before heat hits. Peter said in Japan, the professionals used to repot after flower, now they all do it early before spring because after flower becomes too hot nowadays possibly due to global warming. The more significant the root reduction you plan to do, the earlier you should repot.

 

[Glaucus]

Get the Chinzan ones for bonsai.

Saw off the bottom 1/2 to 1/3rd of the roots. Bare rooting itself is not harmful, but to actually get all the old soil or kanuma out, you often end up ripping out the fine roots also.
Young plants can be bare rooted by for example washing out all the fine soil.
The harm is done when you repot late spring or summer, even more so in more Mediterranean climates.
But if you repot early spring or autumn, make sure that the roots you do keep still have their fine roots intact, and you balance out roots and foliage by also pruning the top, they should be fine.
Just keep them out of direct sunlight for a while, I would say (even though there is a Japanese bonsai artist online who says he always puts them in full sun after a hard root prune 'because the sun kills the bacteria and the viruses'.

 

[AnutterBonsai]

I am not sure how cold or hot Houston is right now. But it's better to repot early so Azalea has some cool time to recover the roots before heat hits. Peter said in Japan, the professionals used to repot after flower, now they all do it early before spring because after flower becomes too hot nowadays possibly due to global warming. The more significant the root reduction you plan to do, the earlier you should repot.

we're getting a "cold spell" for the next 6 days or so. the start of this week was 90% humidity and high of 80F - our cold spell will see north houston receiving, i think, mid 30s and low 60s F, with south houston a bit warmer than that. after that, meteorologists say we may start to get some heat ramping up.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Different strokes for different folks. Personally I leave the foliage intact, but can see why others might cut back.

My practice is to always leave as much foliage on as possible because the recovery time is quicker. That’s my observation. When roots are damaged the tree shunts growth efforts to the roots at the expense of foliage.

That said @Glaucus is right on about keeping the repotted trees in the dappled sunlight afterwards for about 3-4 weeks, otherwise there is a definite risk of dissecation no matter if you prune or not.

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[Shibui]

All this thread seems to show is that different people have had different experiences. Some of the opinions appear to be second had or based on limited experiences. Please let me know if that's not accurate.....
I had very poor results from azaleas as bonsai but moved 10 km to a new property. Now azaleas grow no problem. I suspect water pH was the cause.
I have now grown and transplanted hundreds of azaleas so maybe I know something about how they respond in my area. Different climate may have some impact on results.
Azaleas have survived collection and radical root reduction at all times of year, even with our hot and dry summers.
Azaleas have survived transplant in full sun or in part shade.
Azaleas have survived after transplant with radical top pruning or left with branches.
Just because 1 or 2 plants have survived one set of circumstances does not make those circumstances imperative.
I'm pretty sure azaleas will cope with whatever you throw at them.

 

[Srt8madness]

Well it was too cold yesterday to do anything, but ill be working on them soon. Summers here are hot as hell, so I prefer to not tempt fate. After killing a dozen collected loblollys as my entrance to this craft, I learned repotting in summer should be avoided if possible (they were just trees growing in an empty lot next door I kept in regular dirt).

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Just a thought.

One might look into the posts of our five year azalea contest and see how well different techniques worked for others that are new to bonsai…. Including how many started and how many are still alive too.

cheers
DSD sends

 

[Glaucus]

All this thread seems to show is that different people have had different experiences. Some of the opinions appear to be second had or based on limited experiences. Please let me know if that's not accurate.....
I had very poor results from azaleas as bonsai but moved 10 km to a new property. Now azaleas grow no problem. I suspect water pH was the cause.
I have now grown and transplanted hundreds of azaleas so maybe I know something about how they respond in my area. Different climate may have some impact on results.
Azaleas have survived collection and radical root reduction at all times of year, even with our hot and dry summers.
Azaleas have survived transplant in full sun or in part shade.
Azaleas have survived after transplant with radical top pruning or left with branches.
Just because 1 or 2 plants have survived one set of circumstances does not make those circumstances imperative.
I'm pretty sure azaleas will cope with whatever you throw at them.

I think one point on the bare rooting was that maybe someone strips an azalea of all fine feeder roots, keeping only the thick root tissue that does not in fact act as a root.

Another point would be that yes, a very healthy azalea can receive an insult and recover fine. But that does not necessarily mean one has to inflict that big of an insult. Just because an azalea can recover from a full hard prune, that doesn't necessarily mean that doing a full hard prune is the best option. Neither does it automatically mean it can never be the best option.

So in that sense, I'd rather not tell a beginner to completely defoliate an azalea say in California or Spain in the middle of summer, even though many bonsai masters do so in Japan.