New Azalea

[Nellb]

Yesterday I was picking up some materials at a local bonsai store, and I came upon a Satsuki Azalea in the green house, hidden behind a few other plants. The tree perked my interest a bit, and the price was pretty good, so I decided to buy it. It was in a plastic pot about 5-6" wide, and I could tell desperate need of repotting so I picked up a new pot for it and went home to start my work.

When I got home and started repotting it, a couple of problems became apparent. First it was fully root bound with really old soil, and even just working out the outer soil took a very long time. Being pretty new at bonsai I struggled a bit, and found myself knocking off some of the roots, but figured it wasn't the end of the world because there was still much more of the root ball to go. Well apparently I assumed wrong, and found out the the inner "root ball" was a big chunk o' tree from what this Azalea was chopped from.

This picture is after the repot, and the chunk extends about 1/2" to the left, and a solid 3" to the right.



I forgot to take pictures of the weird stump/root ball

My question is, by knocking off about 50% of the roots, without knowing, have I condemed this tree? I have read Azaleas are a bit touchy to root work. Over all it wasn't an expensive purchase, so it'll be a learning experience how ever it works out.

 

[leatherback]

I have done way worse on satsukis in sprintime. I would expect you see a spurt of growth soon. Just keep out of wind/intense sun for a week or two, and I would not expect any trouble.

 

[Eric Group]

They can be a little touchy to root work, no doubt. Azaleas tend to produce mats of tiny fibrous roots that are easily damaged and don't respond the same way to root pruning that a tree like a Maple might... You can whack off MOST of a Maples roots, leave it with a few small ones and with good after care, it will come back stronger than before! Azaleas, when they are super root bound like that... I have always read you just want to cut small V shapes into the exterior of the root ball to give areas for the roots to grow into when you repot. Picking at the mat of roots with a Chop stick or root hook can seriously damage a LOT of roots and lead to stress for the tree. That has been my experience in practice as well. It does depend on the type of azalea too though. Some of the more vigorous growers will take more punishment than smaller Sataukis will. For your tree... Time will tell. If you still had a big root ball left, it will hopefully be fine. Just keep it moist and out of direct afternoon sun for a while, once it starts pushing new growth it should be ok. Might want to consider removing flowers soon after they open this year to losses the stress on the tree some. They will just about bloom themselves to death in an effort to reproduce sometimes when stressed...

 

[Nellb]

When I pulled it out of the pot, the hidden stump took up about 50% of the root ball, by the time I realized I had knocked off more roots then I was planning too. I wasn't using anything other then my fingers and some water to gently remove the dirty, but those roots are very fine.