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Tropical Plants

Norfolk pine tree

18 years ago

My little norfolk pine tree is looking really sad. I put it outside in the early summer/late spring and it has done a little better. It was loosing branches from the bottom and looked like a "Charlie Brown tree". It now has lots of new growth on the top and a very bare trunk of 3-5 inches high from the soil up. Can I repot it from the roots to the top of the bare trunk or will that kill it? It needs some kind of help here and I have nop clue what else to do to it. It really like the outdoors better than in the house though....

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Comment (1)

alisonoz_gw
18 years ago
You definitely won't do it any favours by burying the bare trunk. The name says it all, this IS a tree and it has a growth style in nature, which may not be achieved as a houseplant.
If you have a look at a mature species, like the pic at this site
http://www.slivka.com/Trips/NewZealand/pics/img_3885_t.jpg
you will see that, while they do have a quite good symmetrical shape, they don't branch all the way to the ground. And lopping wouldn't work as you would not encourage anything useful to happen lower down and in fact would destroy the plant's shape.
You might ask over in the bonsai forum if anyone has any tips or tricks to make it more vigorous. But I think you have to get used to the fact that this "pine" wants a trunk.
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