AusBonsai

There are many factors to consider when repotting Australian natives and timing can be an issue due to the many growth periods our trees have in a year.
Please share your knowledge and experiences here let others know how you decide when is the right or wrong time to repot your natives.

S.

i have had success with euc's in the height of summer, just before the new growth opens up.
especially if you find a fat little lignotuber for shohin. cut all the roots off, and all the top off.

I am re potting my natives now. I watch for bud movement . Then as I said before I get going.
Before it stops. If you miss you only have to wait till the next time which will be in about 6to 8 eight weeks.
The one thing I have found as opposed to exotics natives benefit if they are wet . Just be more careful with the chop stick as you comb the roots. Pup

so you do it while its growing?

Asus101 wrote:so you do it while its growing?

Young man if its not growing its dead.
At bud swell

It looks like we need a photo tutorial on how to correctly identify the stages of bud swell. Does anyone have good quality picture and the time to put this together?
Thanks,
S.

that would be great. I have a few little natives in nursery pots that have been in growth for weeks now because they sit in a little water.

would this mean now is good time to pot up/cut roots?

im prett sure it's when the leaves aren't open, and the less elongated the new buds are the better...

also here are a couple of the little euc's i got from just the lignotuber.

i think these are E. nicoli...

this ones 4cm
and this one, 12cm

Pup wrote:

Asus101 wrote:so you do it while its growing?

Young man if its not growing its dead.
At bud swell

This had me laughing for a while

I was taught to repot when the native was dormant and don't take off a lot of soil. But many of my trees are not dormant when I want to repot so I trim the new growth back and repot them. When I am doing the first potting of a newly acquired plant I normally do it when I get the plant, regardless of the season. I feel that the tree will have a better chance in my soil than what it is in. If it is growing I just cut the new growth off and get on with it. The trees are bare rooted because the soil I use is vastly different from the soil they come in and I don't mix soils. My losses are neglible tho I have had more losses this year than ever in the past. I put this down to the fact that the deceased trees are from the ancient nursery and have yet another year of neglect and deprivation to cope with and they no longer have the ability to do it. But other than the few losses this year, this method has worked well for me. Any advice herein is tempered by an individual's climatic conditions and bonsai soil. If I feel a native might have a struggle due to its state of health, I will put it in a water tray until it establishes and starts throwing out buds.

After hearing Pup suggesting to repot as the bud swell i have tried 3 trees, All have been successfull! They were from old nuresy stock, so i cut them back hard, which got the plants to start to throw buds, once i saw this i then repoted them, they all lost about 70%-90% of the roots and none have looked back, keep the water up to them.

very interesting i have a blue gum and a red in stock pots it's a great bit ov reading