Root pruning stopped the growth

[Ziober]

Hi bonsai freaks,

I bought 2 boxwood/Buxus in local nursery, similar size and identical size of the pot. I did a hard pruning on both and one of those, I've repoted and cut about 2/5 of roots. Few days later i've noticed new shoots on both but after another few days the repoted/root pruned one just stopped. Now after 3 months the first one looks so healthy but the other one still looks like 3 months before, it's not growing but still green.

It's look pretty obvious for me that i pruned roots too much, but maybe there is something else i should do to keep tree growing? I repoted it about one month after pruning.

Pruning 2/5 of roots in my opinion shouldn't cause this. What's may be important, when i took out it from the pot after buying i've noticed that roots were very well developed and fills almost whole pot. So removig the soil from roots wasn't easy. I washed out the soil with steam of water and "combed". Did it stress my boxwood too much?

What could i do wrong...

 

[bonsaichile]

Clearly the tree does not share your opinion and you worked its roots too aggressively

 

[sorce]

They can stay stuck while they regrow roots.

Just read about it here.

Sorce

 

[PABonsai]

Maybe you just learned the wrong time to root prune boxwood in your climate perhaps? As long as it isn't declining it's a good sign.

 

[Ziober]

They can stay stuck while they regrow roots.

Just read about it here.

Sorce

Thanks, but I'll be glad if you show me where is "here"

 

[Saddler]

I pruned a couple of my boxwood a couple/three months ago and my most vigorous pushed a few leaves and stopped growing while the other didn’t miss a beat. I should update my post later and we can compare notes. Do you have any before, during and after pics?

 

[sorce]

Thanks, but I'll be glad if you show me where is "here"

bonsainut.com!

Sorce

 

[Ziober]

I pruned a couple of my boxwood a couple/three months ago and my most vigorous pushed a few leaves and stopped growing while the other didn’t miss a beat. I should update my post later and we can compare notes. Do you have any before, during and after pics?

No, I dont have any pics. Do you? Tomorrow i will take some pics and post here.

 

[Ziober]

bonsainut.com!

Sorce

Ok, got it ;-)

 

[Saddler]

Here is the link. https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/a-blue-bill-buxus-built-to-be-a-broom.25523/
If I have time when I get home, I’ll update it.

 

[0soyoung]

Hi bonsai freaks,

I bought 2 boxwood/Buxus in local nursery, similar size and identical size of the pot. I did a hard pruning on both and one of those, I've repoted and cut about 2/5 of roots. Few days later i've noticed new shoots on both but after another few days the repoted/root pruned one just stopped. Now after 3 months the first one looks so healthy but the other one still looks like 3 months before, it's not growing but still green.

It's look pretty obvious for me that i pruned roots too much, but maybe there is something else i should do to keep tree growing? I repoted it about one month after pruning.

Pruning 2/5 of roots in my opinion shouldn't cause this. What's may be important, when i took out it from the pot after buying i've noticed that roots were very well developed and fills almost whole pot. So removig the soil from roots wasn't easy. I washed out the soil with steam of water and "combed". Did it stress my boxwood too much?

What could i do wrong...

I will note to you that most of the water adsorption in roots comes from the extension of single cell walls on the root surface a few millimeters back of the root tip. With extensive work removing old soil, one could effectively remove all of them and thereby severely reduce the water adsorption capacity.

You and most all of us recognize 'growth' as extension of shoots (the fractional changes in thickness tend to escape our attention and become apparent only with precise caliper measurements). Extensive growth happens by the lengthening of individual cells. This happens by osmosis of water into the vacuoles of cells in the 'elongation zone', just back of the shoot tip. Extreme tension in the local water stream can stop this osmotic process and hence stop 'growth' until the ability to adsorb water in the roots is restored.

Because root growth depends upon carbohydrates and auxin from the foliage, restoration of normal growth patterns may take some time. It is a viscious circle that the supply of water and minerals to the foliage is impaired, therefore the stimulus to grow roots is impaired, etc., etc.

I have overworked acer palmatum roots in spring and wasted an entire season in saving or trying to save the tree. Leaves never get full sized, no additional flushes occur, it just weakly limps along for months on end. You may have done something similar.