Advice needed. Just repotted my two dying avocados in Tapla's 5-1-1
Atheen - 7a - in Maryland, USA
3 months ago
last modified: 3 months ago
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Atheen - 7a - in Maryland, USA
3 months agoponcirusguy6b452xx
3 months agoRelated Discussions
28 Days Later 5-1-1
Comments (10)Thanks for the replies. Im not sure what to make of the figs slow progress, by all accounts they love hot weather, and even if they didn’t the last 2 weeks have been fairly mild in comparison to the first two weeks with temperatures sitting between 25-30oC (77-86F), only getting above 30 once, which should be fairly ideal. Fertilising may be an issue, although they have been getting their half strength solution quite regularly, sometimes 2x a week. If it isn’t going to hurt them I can give them a full strength measure at their next watering and see if that kicks them into action. If I could make a guess, I would say it comes down to water, since the plants wilted whilst the soil feels damp to touch (at least in the top few cms) I would say there is possibly patches of dry mix or, as I left some of the original soil mix around the root ball, this may have dried out, or isn’t staying wet. I have been silly and haven’t once checked with a dowel or anything, but believe the soil is probably quite wet now as last week we had a few days solid rain in a row. If this theory is correct then hopefully it should become evident quite quickly as the plants will start putting out growth again (I hope). This morning, despite being watered last on Saturday, all my pots feel wet, almost soaked, right on the top. After work I will stick a skewer in and see if this is the case through the whole mix. My other thoughts were that I had been over fertilising and the plants could not take up water, but I just don’t know that a high enough level of salts could have built up in such a small amount of time, especially since at each watering I let a fair bit of water flow out the pots. @shazaam I am fertilising only with the regular miracle grow for all plants, with some added vinegar and Epson salts for the blueberries. I am not sure what N source is used, but will check and see if it ammonia or nitrate based. I have been searching for a soluble acid loving formula, but although it is on their website I haven’t been able to locate in stores. Perhaps if it is nitrate based I will see if I can find any ammonia based product somewhere. I added some slow release acid loving Osmocote when mixing, which is likely to have an ammonia base, but I am sure someone stocks a soluble somewhere in my city…...See MoreRepotted some plants in 5-1-1
Comments (28)Found this cute little guy at the 99cent store and just had to rescue him. Roots were a big scorched, i washed and trimmed the roots a bit and gave it a new 5-1-1 home. Poor guy, dug it up after a week and a half to repot. Just as I had hoped, fresh new root growth was spotted. This will be its pot for the time being, until it becomes wildly overgrown and in need of another transplant. I find this 5-1-1 concoction fascinating....See MoreFiddle Leaf Fig FLF Droopy after 5-1-1 soil repot - will it make it?
Comments (19)Pictures would help a lot; include the whole plant and one of the pot and soil. What did you do when you put it in the 17 inch pot? Put the existing rootball in the pot and surround it with fresh soil or remove the old soil and replace it? What kind of soil was it in and what kind of fresh soil was it? Was it rootbound? It's possible the new pot is too big, making the soil stay very wet for too long, causing roots to suffocate for lack of air to pull oxygen from. If so, the easiest remedy would be to put it back in the old pot and wait until June to repot in a faster draining highly aerated soil that would be harder to overwater. Meanwhile, check out the posts upthread about watering, using a dowel to check soil moisture, and the kinds of soil and light conditions lyratas do best in, and start to water only when the soil at the bottom is the pot is dry. Lenore...See MoreFicus seems to be dying after root trim and repot in sorta 5-1-1
Comments (10)As far as too-dry roots, should I have just sprayed them more? Or should I have pruned less off the roots in the first place, and maybe kept some of the soil around them? They didn't have all that much mass, and I did wonder about that. My husband kept telling me, don't cut its roots! Even if you use a soil that allows you to use a much larger pot than you could use (effectively) when using a water-retentive medium, a ficus will usually colonize the soil to the degree the root/soil mass can be lifted from the pot intact - so it doesn't fall apart when you pull it from the pot. That's how I judge when a plant would benefit from a repot ..... but I'm using a high quality medium. I said that so I can say, if it's been more than a year in the same pot and the soil wasn't fully colonized by roots, there's something amiss. The plants might be reacting adversely to one or more of your soil's ingredients, or to how it's structured. In container media, that there is nothing phytotoxic (poison to plants) in the soil and how favorably (to the plant) the soil is structured are the most important considerations. It's not the soil's job to provide nutrition, that's your/our job. The soil's job is to provide a ratio of water to air that doesn't prove limiting to the plant, and it's better for the plant if you err on the side of more aeration than needed than more water than needed. The former is only limiting if you can't keep up with the plant's water needs. The later is a limitation any time you water appropriately - to beyond the point of saturation. This is a ficus repot of a F benjamina v "Too Little": After most of the soil has been removed: After all the root work was done. Note I kept only fine roots, the workhorses that do the lion's share of the heavy lifting: Repot completed - 90% of the top (branches and foliage) removed. It's pretty apparent I'm not too bashful about removing huge %s of roots, and the only trees I've ever tented were junipers of one species that I had grafted Shimpaku juniper (a variety of chinensis) branches to. I often tent hard to root cuttings, however. Even though conventional "wisdom" says you shouldn't prune the top of the plant to balance the volume of roots to shoots, those of us who collect trees in leaf from the wild or transplant/repot trees in leaf know it's foolish to think one size fits all. It's very often requisite that a significant fraction of the top be removed if the root system is weak or you judge it insufficient to support the top mass. After a few repots, you'll get better at making that judgment. The kitty litter contains *only* bentonite clay, and NOT clumping, NOT scented. Keeps its form when soaked, frozen, and thawed. OK, good. Was there a lot of dust in it? Fine bentonite forms a slippery, slimey paste that expands when it gets wet. I use it in Kokedama and in the dams that must be built to hold soil on top of tree plantings on flat stone slabs Al, I would feel very good about pruning. I don't see buds, but the tree-lets were in good shape and putting out new leaves before...before I tried to help them. Be patient. You can always take it off (branches) - harder to put it back on. Questions: --Are you talking about topping them above a branch? Just saying that's something you COULD do if you like - not a suggestion, just an observation. I do it all the time on very large plants. Another "story". Imagine how tall this tree was when I chopped it back. Does it look like a bonsai? No? Much better - right? No? this spring after repotting into training pot: Taken last Fri as it comes into leaf: Won't that get me two shoots/trunks at each cut, or a funny joint? No. The top branch becomes the new leader and the branch below it gets restrained. You'll prune it so it's growing horizontally. Changing a branch's position from vertical to horizontal also significantly changes the amount of energy that flows into that branch. The tree will always pay more attention to the branches growing vertically. Would I choose one branch, wire it up straighter, and remove the other? See what I just offered. Will that joint be strong enough? ;-) This is a tree in a put, you're not going to hang a tire swing off the branches or a chainfall so you can use it to hoist cars. It'll be fine. --Cut back a third in height? More? Whatever you like, but wait until the tree recovers. For now, just prune the branches. I can help guide you in that process. --If I take off the slender little twigs and actual branches that now go the wrong direction, will the trunk put out completely new growth from old wood? Yes. There are already dormant buds immediately distal to the point where every leaf that was ever on the tree was attached ...... and if that's not enough, the tree will form adventitious buds at random if it's healthy and really likes it's growing conditions. It seems like it might.... You're right. --Would it be better to repot it (them) into a different soil or is it too late? I don't have a good sense about what kind of job your soil will do. I'm not at all a fan of coir. Every experiment I ever did with it ended up with the plants in coir or CHCs faring nowhere as well as plants in pine bark and/or peat. Even in view of the fact I was using appropriate work-arounds for several of coir's shortcomings. This the soil mix I made today, which I could use tomorrow to repot. I was attempting to come *closer* to 5-1-1 but with some Turface added: There was no image. It would be great if you could come up with something that resembles one of these, or even a combination: [5 parts?] 3 cf Gro-well Soil Conditioner (composted forest product, sure looks like the composted pine fines photos to me...at least closer than coir???) [1 part?] 4 gallons Perlite [1/2 part?] 2 gallons of coir (peat moss substitute? ...feels similar to peat moss in texture...and that isn't very large proportion of it...) [1/2 part?] 2 gallons of MiracleGro Potting Mix (peat moss substitute) 2 C Osmocote 5 small handfuls of gypsum (~1/2 C?) [2 parts?] ~1 cf Turface MVP If you think you have a medium that drains reasonably well and will be adequately aerated if we get rid of the perched water, using ballast can make a very large difference by nearly eliminating all saturated soil with as very simple trick of science. This explains how it works. Al...See MoreAtheen - 7a - in Maryland, USA
3 months agolast modified: 3 months agoAtheen - 7a - in Maryland, USA
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tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)