New azalea - order of operations

[radhatter]

Looking for some guidance here from the azalea experts!
I’ve acquired a lovely old azalea to my collection and I’m looking for some advice on initial care and tasks.
First off, here is the plant.





I’m told is the “Glamour” variety and over 40 years old.
The top of the root ball is somewhat exposed and it’s sitting in about 6” of nursery soil beneath that visible rootball.
Should I focus on getting it into an Anderson flat or a pot in kanuma?
I think it’s just starting to bud out. Here’s a pic of the new growth.

Any concern on health from the look of the leaves?

I’ve also found a number of branches that have a fuzzy white clump in the branch node. Looks like a fungus maybe? It doesn’t move when I poke it and when I move it a thick red goo comes out. Has anyone seen this? Something that needs to be treated?


I think it needs some pruning as well to be brought in a bit, there are a number of harsh prunes that have taken place in the past that are ugly and need to be remediated. There’s also one medium sized branch that appears to be dead


Would love the opinion on what to tackle first from the experienced azalea lovers here!

Thanks!

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Glamourous! Like the larger basic bonsai vibe already.

These are my thoughts.

Gently pull the azalea out of the pot. Lightly shake off the whatever media comes off. Dump of the loose media and was out the pot thoroughly. Only remove mushy roots. Add/clear drainage holes … drill new ones/wiring holes if needed,

Replace with a mix of 1:1:1 small bark, peat/coir, perlite/pumice for this year either. Put back in pot Raise the level of the media to cover the roots. Assure tree is secure.

Looks like Azalea bark scale on the tree. Spray visible scale hit with alcohol, remove, spray again. Look up suitable safer after care treatment for what one can’t see.

Remove all old, diseased leaves.

Remove all dead wood.

Decide on a design.

Cut back to the inner green growth on branches as desired and seal. Cut flush. Seal with top Jin. For larger than a pencil eraser tip cover top Jin with green topped putty.

Personally would wait on major branch removals until tree is healthy…. Or cut the major branch you wish to shorten 1/2 way through now (two cuts in an acute v on bottom of each branch) and seal. Cut the rest of the way through next spring - Feb and seal.k

Root wash and repot next spring. We use 90/10 kanuma/pumice with a 5% of biochar more in the mix. However it’s your tree, your choice. Please repot in a deep ish pot.

Anyways, that’s a quick rundown. Good Luck!

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[roberthu]

I am not sure what kind of climate you are in. But if your day time high is over 80F, then I'd not repot this year. Fill in more medium and make sure the root ball is covered. Make sure you can water through the core of the root ball. Keep it in a shaded area and use Holly Tone fertilizer and gradually increase the dose through out the growing season until night temperature drops below 40F in the fall. You should see it recover and put our robust growth this year which will be an indicator for safe repotting next year.
Azalea loves moisture and fertilizer.

 

[radhatter]

Thank you both for the advice!
Question on the mix for soil this year @Deep Sea Diver. I don’t have any or know where I would get the small bark, would organic compost be a reasonable alternative?

 

[radhatter]

I haven’t tried holly tone before, what are your thoughts on miracid (which I currently have)? @roberthu

 

[Nera]

You have a real beauty to work with there! Congrats on getting it!

 

[Shibui]

Agree that white clumps on branches that ooze red when poked is a scale. We don't have azalea scale here but I trust @Deep Sea Diver will have the Id correct.
Leaves look like any azalea leaves right after winter so no problems evident at this stage.
I would not have any concern about root pruning and top pruning right away but I don't live in Seattle so will leave you to pick from the more local advice on when and how to repot your azalea.
Concur with covering the roots at least a little. I suspect the previous owner used a jet of water to water the pot and that has slashed a lot of soil out. Roots will do much better when covered, especially if you need to shorten those surface roots at some stage.
Also agree not to go for too shallow pot. Azalea cannot cope with drying out so slightly deeper pot is better.

The trunk and nebari show great character. I think you will be able to get a good azalea bonsai from this tree. Great find.

Plenty of fertiliser this Spring/Summer to build strength for the pruning and repotting to come.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Wouldn’t use compost myself. Looking for something with decent aeration.

Most hardware stores have small bark. McLendon’s for sure.

@Shibui is correct. It’s certainly possible to trim the roots a bit…

Yet having azalea scale in our area is very rare in my experience, Usually happens when there is something off about the azalea’s health.

Actually one indication was the leaves. Practically all our azaleas have recovered from winter by now and have brighter green leaves. So suspecting it’s the media.

Didn’t want to mess with the roots at this time without actually seeing the tree. It’s likely just the media. But keep your eyes peeled for spongy or black roots, it means there is root rot.

If present cut all of it off, remove as much of the media as possible with a hose end sprayer/chopstick. Then spray all the roots with 3% hydrogen peroxide. Wash the pot in a disinfectant solution and plant the azalea in the new media as suggested for two years vs one.

In this case, would concentrate harder on the superstructure next year.

We use either hollytone or Osmocote plus for azaleas in organic media and in the landscape, coupled with miracid 1/2 strength in the spring and fall every 3-4 weeks.

Just my take

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[radhatter]

Didn’t want to mess with the roots at this time without actually seeing the tree. It’s likely just the media. But keep your eyes peeled for spongy or black roots, it means there is root rot.

If present cut all of it off, remove as much of the media as possible with a hose end sprayer/chopstick. Then spray all the roots with 3% hydrogen peroxide. Wash the pot in a disinfectant solution and plant the azalea in the new media as suggested for two years vs one.

So are you saying if I find root rot I should remove any rotting roots and go ahead with a full root wash and hydrogen peroxide this year and then into the bark/peat/pumice soil composition instead of kanuma/pumice/biochar?
@Deep Sea Diver

Also thanks for the guidance everyone! I wanna do right by this awesome azalea

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

That is correct.

Experiments here confirm the literature that azalea growth is better in a peat based media… as long. As the media is viable. Additionally we did an another small test that showed strong recovery from root issues in peat based media.

That said, one must be aware that drainage is not as good as in kanuma based media and watering practice is different. Less overall water, due to retention… avoid drying out of the media.

The upside is superstructure work will be advanced during this time. The downside is one won’t be able to intentionally work the roots and put the tree in Kanuma based mix until late winter ‘27. Not much of a trade off as you are going to have to play somewhat of the long game to sort out the superstructure.

Again, there is a very small chance of root rot.

Looking forward to seeing future progress on this azalea!

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[roberthu]

I haven’t tried holly tone before, what are your thoughts on miracid (which I currently have)? @roberthu

It's a good source of fertilizer if the tree is already healthy. Otherwise, go with organic first.

 

[radhatter]

That is correct.

Experiments here confirm the literature that azalea growth is better in a peat based media… as long. As the media is viable. Additionally we did an another small test that showed strong recovery from root issues in peat based media.

That said, one must be aware that drainage is not as good as in kanuma based media and watering practice is different. Less overall water, due to retention… avoid drying out of the media.

The upside is superstructure work will be advanced during this time. The downside is one won’t be able to intentionally work the roots and put the tree in Kanuma based mix until late winter ‘27. Not much of a trade off as you are going to have to play somewhat of the long game to sort out the superstructure.

Again, there is a very small chance of root rot.

Looking forward to seeing future progress on this azalea!

Cheers
DSD sends

Here’s the state of the roots. I don’t think I’m seeing rot but the soil is pretty dense. Looks like a nursery mix. Didn’t mess with the roots too much other than to get the loose older soil off. Plan is to put it into the small bark/peat/pumice mix and fertilize with osmocote since I have that.

These look ok to you?
@deepseadiver

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Actually looks like a good deal of field soil.

What is visible on the roots looks ok.

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[radhatter]

Got it into a better pot, I hated the flimsy one that it came in. Treated the visible scale with rubbing alcohol. Starting to determine what direction I want to take the styling.
It’s got a lot of possible fronts, haven’t picked one yet but here are some possibilities if y’all have opinions.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Seems the best is image one, angled a tad more to the left.

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[radhatter]

Seems the best is image one, angled a tad more to the left.

Cheers
DSD sends

That’s where I’m leaning too, there’s a little hollow that adds a lot of character

 

[radhatter]

just going through the care instructions here and one of the steps is to remove the old diseased leaves and wanted to confirm these would NOT be considered diseased, right?

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

May or may not like this suggestion. It involves first reduction pruning, then clip and grow.

You are free to ignore it and do whatever.

Spent some time looking at the previous photos. The top hamper of this tree has taken a beating, fungus, possible nutrient deficiency, etc. Here’s the idea..

Cut back now to the blue line. Everything above is in pretty bad shape and no way going to be in any reasonable design. Seal all cuts with Top Jin. Once dry, seal anything larger than pencil thickness with green top cut paste.



Give good care for the next couple years. Done well it should backbud profusely.

Looks to me the actual deign is going to be below the red line… maybe well below. You will have plenty of time to

Once a robust and healthy state is attained, begin moving inward to the base of the design. This will include sawing off and or reducing the remaining sub trunks. Get to a base level that is low enough and uncomplicated enough to highlight the gnarly trunk but with enough room to grow out a nice canopy.

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[radhatter]

I decided to be bold… within reason.
Cut back some of the major branching in the top but stopped short of what I ultimately want to build off of due to concerns about not enough greenery and the overall weakness of the plant. Treated any visible scale with more alcohol and then removed them. With the reduced foliage it’s at least easier to spot them. I think I got all of them in the foliage but I’m curious if I’ll see more. The whole tree has been treated with imidacloprid.
Blue line is where I’m thinking I want the final design to be.

Biggest change of note was the removal of the large branch on the right. Removing this provided access to start removing some of the deadwood in the center. It also exposed some rotting material which was scraped and brushed away. The dead stem in the center was cut back and I began carving away the base of that dead stem with hand tools. That job was miserable so I plan yo use my dremel for future progress. After this everything was cleaned with rubbing alcohol and sealed with top Jin. Once that dries I’ll apply cut putty.

 

[johng]

PEMDAS

I'm sorry the title of this thread brought out the math teacher in me