You should be fine either way. I usually use a peat/perlite mix for germination and pot up into 5-1-1 when growing tomatoes and peppers from seed. Sometimes, if there are several seedlings in one cell, I have to bare root. On other occasions I keep the soil ball intact. Haven't noticed a great deal of difference either way.

While it is certainly suggested to bare root or clean out as much old soil as possible when repotting into one of the fast draining mixes, I can only say that by my own experience, I have not found it to be critical to plant development OR more encouraging to root rots if you do not. And my experience is pretty extensive. I have been growing in containers for more than 25 years. Mostly trees, dwarf conifers and other woody plants. Several of my trees have been around for that entire time. And I also grow an extensive collection of houseplants, as well as seasonal crops and mixed annual and perennial plantings. And I will say again............by NOT bare rooting I have never lost a plant to root rot nor do my plants appear to be suffering in any way. They flourish and grow and produce well and when repotting, always have a very healthy and well-developed root system. The same considerations for bare rooting when working with container plants exists when planting in the ground. There will always a be a discrepancy between the texture and structure of the soil a plant was grown in, whether it be container grown or B&B, and the soil texture and structure of where it is to be planted And similar cases have been made that these should also be bare rooted before planting. You will find convincing arguments both for and against but very few accept and adopt the practice wholeheartedly. There are simply too many risks involved for the average gardener. Typically, just properly loosening the rootball and avoiding amending the backfill (using only indigenous soil) is enough of an adjustment to allow for proper root development and the adequate percolation of water through the soil profile(s). And making sure the rootball is well hydrated before planting. In addition to my many years of successful container growing without bare rooting, one of the factors that has convinced me this practice is not absolutely necessary is the fact that most quality wholesale growers of containerized plants - the trees and shrubs that I favor to collect - have long realized the benefits of growing in bark based mixes, for much the same reasons we hobby gardeners do. The textural quality resists collapse or compaction, they are fast draining and they allow for healthy root development. In short, the nursery container mixes are very similar in content and structure as to the 5-1-1 mix, negating any overwhelming need to remove a hugely disparate soil mix by bare rooting. I won't tell anyone not to bare root - that is their choice, as is the soil mix they use or their method of fertilization. All I can I do is relate my experience based on my many years of gardening, both in containers and in the ground. Understanding the plant and its needs and understanding the soils you are working with are paramount. If you have these factors well under your belt, then you can make whatever adjustments you might deem necessary.

So I went and fully bare-rooted and re-potted my new Fukushu this Saturday. The event took place immediately after I tried to make some holes in the mix to help with the water flowing and observed that the mix is so compacted that the wood stick could not pass through the mix. How can I water this tree properly with such a dense medium? Denise, I'm in Belgium, and a lot of the citrus trees available on the markets are mainly from Italy. Vladimir, I soaked the root ball for more than 1 hour and it was still very very hard to make the clay go away...it help a lot to loosen the outside layer of mix while the middle part remained hard as rock. So I removed all the fruits, the mix was ready (already at room temperatures), prepared the new pot (from 5L to 11L). The rest is in the pictures: to be continued...

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