Callistemon 'little john' repot advice

[Ces]

Hey guys,

so I've done a bit of reading and looked at the wiki and my basic understanding is repot either after flowering or as the buds are expanding. The one I have in question is about to flower but is also producing vegetative growth over the rest of the tree.

my question is can I reduce the root mass by sixty percent or so at this time of the year in eastern sydney.

thanks for the help guys.

ces

[Steve B]

with 60% root mass reduction you'll need to remove a lot of foliage also. That will scupper this years flowering which is a bit of a pity given it's so close?

I've got a couple of Calli's to repot and I'm holding off until after flowering for that reason. I'm in Eastern Sydney too and my Calli's (Captain Cooks) are past bud burst and onto vegetative growth so I'm guessing it might be a bit late and worth waiting for the next bud burst cycle? There's normally at least half a dozen budding cycles a year. Saying that there's a Viminallis (sp?) weeping bottlebrush in the neighbourhood that I've had my eye on and it looks like it's only just coming into bud burst now so maybe you're Little John is late budding as well?

[shibui]

I am finding that there is no relationship between root pruning and vegetative growth stage. I am repotting my native plants any time over the warmer months with no regard to new vegetative growth. you are going to cut most of the new growth off when you repot anyway so it does not matter.
I would enjoy some flowers and repot soon after. One 'Little John' I transplanted from a garden bed had no fine roots, just a huge long vertical root and it did not survive the transplant. Hoping yours has better roots