AusBonsai

Hi all, just wondering with this cool weather over the next week or so would it be alright to slip pot my trident seedling into a styro box? I want it to put on as much growth as it can before winter and it's in a 4 inch nursery put atm

Of course you can. Just don't disturb the roots too much.

You can yes but the pot it is in now may actually give better growth. Show a pic

hey Phoenix
i have a trident maple that was in a 100mm by 100mm tube stock pot and was heavily root bound and the health or the tree was decreasing rapidly, branches were dying back and i slip potted it 2 weeks ago, i very very carefully teased away the mass of roots circling the bottom of the pot placed it in a very large plastic pot gave it a good soak in seasol and added some dynamic lifter a day or 2 after and its growing like crazy now

cheers
matt

Hey Matty do all you said except change pots and see the same result

Bretts wrote:Hey Matty do all you said except change pots and see the same result

but would the same thing end up happening because the roots have no where it go

Nice collection, except you should drink better beer

Hi Phoenix,
Thanks for the pics. I think that pot is the perfect size for the seedling at the moment.
Here is an article for you to read.
http://www.evergreengardenworks.com/overpot.htm
Basicly the issue is that the soil will stay too wet if the pot is too big for the root ball.
If you are still unsure fire away another question.

matty-j wrote:

Bretts wrote:Hey Matty do all you said except change pots and see the same result

but would the same thing end up happening because the roots have no where it go

In the short term, no, especially not in a 2 week period. A tree/plant would never decrease in health rapidly from being root bound. Firstly it does not become root bound rapidly but is a gradual thing. As the tree becomes more root bound your watering will also gradually change. Eventually it will slow down the growth of the tree but as long as you adjust your watering and feeding to accommodate this the tree will stay healthy for a long time. I can not think of any example that would need an emergency repot from being root bound. With the appropriate care it would be much safer to wait for the correct time to repot and just get the tree healthy till then.
But if you want to take a small amount of the root ball of and fill with more soil or even slip pot a root bound tree I can't say that is wrong. Only that you will still need to be very careful in drenching/soaking the root ball when watering and feeding, can add tonics to that list if you like.
The roots will find room, I can maybe dig up a chinese elm that was not repotted for 27 years or something and can be compared with it's brother that was regualry repotted. It is still alive but the root ball looks like the insides of a golf ball.

Bretts wrote:

matty-j wrote:

Bretts wrote:Hey Matty do all you said except change pots and see the same result

but would the same thing end up happening because the roots have no where it go

In the short term, no, especially not in a 2 week period. A tree/plant would never decrease in health rapidly from being root bound. Firstly it does not become root bound rapidly but is a gradual thing. As the tree becomes more root bound your watering will also gradually change. Eventually it will slow down the growth of the tree but as long as you adjust your watering and feeding to accommodate this the tree will stay healthy for a long time. I can not think of any example that would need an emergency repot from being root bound. With the appropriate care it would be much safer to wait for the correct time to repot and just get the tree healthy till then.
But if you want to take a small amount of the root ball of and fill with more soil or even slip pot a root bound tree I can't say that is wrong. Only that you will still need to be very careful in drenching/soaking the root ball when watering and feeding, can add tonics to that list if you like.
The roots will find room, I can maybe dig up a chinese elm that was not repotted for 27 years or something and can be compared with it's brother that was regualry repotted. It is still alive but the root ball looks like the insides of a golf ball.

i agree completely!
what you said makes a lot of sense, i think the problem or my tree becoming more root bound and not adjusting my watering the tree was slowly loosing vigour from lack of water, which would make sense why it kicked on so hard after slip potting and adding dl.
all the new soil is holding much more water and fert

thanks bretts

cheers
matt

Next question for this little fella: Should he be out in full sun? At the moment he gets sun till about 1pm

A trident this size in this pot could take full sun provided you can water it well enough. Moving trees from shade to full sun can result in burnt leaves because the leaves are adapted to shade. Safest to leave it where it is now and give it full sun from the start of spring next year. More sun will not make it grow more but will make any growth more compact. Fertiliser and water will make it grow and with enough of both it won't matter much what pot it is in for the rest of this year. Only a few weeks of growing left for most deciduous trees now anyway.
the real reason for not slip potting now is that you will want to do a proper root prune to set this tree up for great nebari and that should be done this winter/spring so you'd be wasting time and resources slip potting now.

Ok, thanks Shibui, I'll keep all that in mind. It's my first deciduous tree, can't wait to see it drop it leaves and come back from the dead!

I thought I gave a reply yesterday ???
I am slightly different opinion. Yes moving the tree from shade to full sun can burn the leaves but as it is colling of now I reckon it will be fine but still do it with care. Do it in stages and check the weather report, a cooler period will be great but make sure you don't get caught out with a stinker.