First Casuarina - Advice on repotting, styling

[sausmatoe]

Picked up my first Casuarina stock the other day, thought it had some great potential and couldn't resist that nice trunk twist

It's due for a repot as roots are bursting out the bottom and the soil is super hard on top... was just going to put it back into the same pot in a nice new soil mix.

Is it ok to do this time of year or better to hold off until spring?

I was also going to trim the leaders and thin out the foliage to begin initial styling... again ok to do now or better to hold off?

Cheers guys!

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[Grant Bowie]

I would give a styling cut and then leave in existing pot till around October November, then do a repot or into a bonsai pot. I cut them back root wise quite hard.

Is it a C Cunninghamii or Torulosa(smooth bark or Rough)

Grant

[sausmatoe]

Cool sounds like a plan, makes sense to get it into a bonsai pot too as I'm happy with the lower trunk width. I'm pretty sure its a cunninghamiana.

[Grant Bowie]

OK, the Cunninghamii is a water loving native, so don’t let it dry out badly.

Cheers

[shibui]

Timing can depend on local climate. Grant and I are both in cool climate with frosty winters so spring/ summer repotting works better for natives. In warmer areas growers assure me that repotting is possible all year round.

No indication of where you are so it is more difficult to give good advice. Australia is a big place with lots of different weather patterns. The location field in our personal details gives others a chance to give you better advice.

[sausmatoe]

Ah cool, thanks for the tip! I'm in Sydney so a little warmer in general then.

[shibui]

Grant lived in Sydney for many years so may be able to add some first hand timing experience given the location.
I'd be confident that most of Sydney basin would be mild enough for most natives to cope with repotting earlier than our cooler climate but it also won't hurt to wait a bit longer as I find it OK to repot most natives right into the heat of summer.

[Rory]

and the soil is super hard on top...

For Sydney, I wouldn't do anything until about October/November. I wouldn't even cut back any of the branches.
From what you have said, it means it has been growing in that pot for quite a while without a repot, thus the roots will be way overgrown and presumably very pot-bound.
Now is not the time to work something that is probably going to require a very heavy root removal and difficult seperation to get anywhere.

The usual purpose of the repot is to open the roots up and remove the old mix and cut back the roots and replace with a fresh mix.
But this means its going to be quite a shock from your description.
Of course you can repot now, but why would you. Wait until the tree is in its fast growing phase for Oct/Nov to do a very substantial root overhaul.

However, if you are keen as mustard and bored as a schoolboy in lockdown, then go for your life... you might get heavy sulking because of the compact roots and amount of cutting you'll have to do, and we're still in very cold days/nights.
I'm about an hour north of you, and from memory I have only lost a few Casuarina from winter repotting (from about 300), but that was because they'd already had terrible root-rot and serious drainage issues to begin with.

Thats just my 2cents from experience from Casuarinas.
When I was 20, I would have hacked it back immediately, smashed the roots and stuck that sucker into a new pot without a second thought.
But.... thats youth.