G.M - The Malpighia Topic - weeping cherry

[Tambrand]

Okay G.M,

here is my sad effort. Please educate on how to grow.
Baba K

[Neli]

What I have experienced with malpighia so far is.
-roots are the most fragile I have seen. You just touch them and they break...Never seen a tree like that.
-branches are very flexible for a long long time...hard to set...especially that the plant is so slow growing. It can be used to make that funky style that Mr Ming has a bougie from in his book.
-likes full sun, but it grows in light shade too.
-very slow to heal wounds, as it is very slow to fatten or grow...especially in small pot it does not move at all.. Maybe 1-2 cm extension of branches in a year though I fertilize it every week.
-roots grow mostly down...not much tendency to form lateral roots and I think it needs deeper pot.
-cuttings root very easy...and almost 100%
-I have not seen any pests on it.
Here are my 3 malpighias.
I am thinking to plant maybe one of them in the ground but wonder how it will be dug out, if the roots are so brittle.

[Andrew Legg]

Neli, for trees with delicate root systems, I remove soil using a tub of water. Unless the roots are very matted, I find simple dunking the root system in and out of the water repeatedly is enough to remove soil. You can also very gently coax soil out underwater with your fingers. Works fairly well.

[Neli]

Andrew...this one is terrible...You just touch it and the roots are broken...I used a tiny pin to try and remove the akadama grain by grain and failed. You can not imagine how fragile the roots are.

[Tambrand]

G.M,

first, I form a core with any tree, then I only remove between 1.25 cm to 2.5 cm of soil around and underneath. It is very rare that I would have to wash or totally remove all of the soil with any plant.

In fact the only time I completely remove the soil of any tree/shrub, is when I purchase something with the standard Trinidadian, soil mix at Agri-centres of sand/mud and some manure.

Now with trees of over 30 years, I am beginning to explore the pie cut technique and as seen on other sites, removal of half of the soil, spaced out over two years.
Let you know how it goes.

As to this Malpighia punicifolia - it is supposed to be native to the W.I [ West Indies / Caribbean ] and come from rocky, possibly limestone /coral uplifted zones.
Suffers from nematodes, to which you counter for by adding crabshells to the soil. The organisms that eat the shells also eat nematodes.
Now trying the above.

I suspect, that if I change the soil to builder's gravel or maybe even limestone plus compost / with shells, I may get much better results, probably a 10% by volume compost to 90% inorganic.

A long time ago, I accidentally got the mother plant to produce many branchlets, so now I will deliberately try to do so.
Until.
Baba K.

* I am not sure where this idea about washing soil off of established plants came from, I see it all over the Internet,Andrew, the books from the 60's / 70's/ 80's don't mention it.

Looking for an image of that Mother plant, G,M,

[Neli]

Baba K,
I bare root most of my trees at least ones or twice their life...the rest of the time during repot, I comb the roots near the edge and poke the root ball around the center...The roots will fuse and water will not penetrate if that is not done.