tgooboon wrote: ↑March 14th, 2024, 8:53 am
it seems like you do trimming of your Melaleuca's in the lead up to a repot to stimulate a foilage growth response before repot, do you find this also triggers fresh root growth. Do you have ay special after care as far as watering, shade, etc... Do you have any Melaleuca repotting tips?
Can you explain the logic for autumn repot rather than spring repot for Melaleuca's.
I only trimmed it because the volume of foliage was way over the top. I would describe the trim as "conservative" just to balance with the root reduction somewhat. A lot of leaves and a reduction in roots would throw out the balance, so I reduced the foliage mass to keep equilibrium. I don't really have an issue with encouraging fresh root growth. This will go in a shallow tray and based on previous years I can expect to see roots coming out the drainage holes in a month or so. It goes back in the same spot it was in before. No real special treatment with respect to shade or watering.
In terms of repotting tips, nothing out of the ordinary comes to mind. You can see the kind of reduction I do in the photos from the last repot (2023), it's pretty much the same each time.
The logic behind a late summer/autumn repot is that I get good growth on Melaleucas over autumn ... similar to what occurs during spring so they don't seem particularly put out by having their roots pruned at this time. I have also done it with Casuarina succesfully, and a couple of Leptospermum too. As with anything, whether or not it is a good idea for everyone will depend on climate, environment, after care, tree age possibly etc etc...
The other reason I like to do it now is that by the time I have repotted deciduous, pines and whatever else in winter/spring I'm kind of over the whole repotting gig. At least repotting my natives now breaks it up a bit!
