bougainvillea transplant shock

hello all!~ I just recently repotted a bougainvillea that i was going to bonsai due to damp-wet muck soil with clay in it...it seems the gardeners at the nursery didnt know that bougies hate muck..well when I went to pick out some root they came right off and the roots were rotting in the bottom of the pot...it kind of scared me because I know bougainvilleas hate their roots being disturbed.Well alot of roots were rotted and huge chunks of clay in the soil were removed and left me with a decent size root ball... i soaked it in superthrive and have it in my tropical room which is not hot or cold its around 76 degrees now....the leaves have started to fold on some branches and Im afraid I will loose those branches or the tree the apex and some lower side branches seem to be ok and the wilt is not very heavy.... ive repotted a small bougie once and this has happened and then it perked back up.... but this bougie is abit bigger and nice and I dont want to loose it...is there anything I can do to not make it work so hard?(no removing branches). Is some shock with bougies normal? thanks~~~ jie

hi there..in our country the bongavilla are tought blants,defoliate it so it wont stress the plant further,if its dry spray a bit fungicide,but if you have powder root hormones it normally has fungicide with it already,once you plant it fpray it once every two or three days,just to keep it moist,NOT TO WET.hope it'll help,
regards,
ogie

When you cut off the bad roots did you reduce the foliage at all? If not it's probably reacting to the reduced root mass, not enough to support the foliage. I have one that I took from 1 gallon nursery pot and pruned the roots, while chopping it from 24" to 6" and it's been outdoors at 50-70F for two months since, jut brought it in yesterday and it shows no signs of stress.

Reduce the foliage as others have indicated. Then just leave it alone. What else can you do?

This is not the best time of year to be pulling off this type of procedure, but that's point is moot now. Just give it time to recover.

Oh, and don't be surprised of not much happens all fall/winter. I was convinced my bougie was dead for most of a year until it suddenly sprouted a new branch in spring.

Good luck,
Ed

Howzit Jie,

I wouldn't worry about it to much. Bougies are really tuff and will survive. Just to give you an idea when I collected this bougie I had pruned back hard the roots and branches planted it in volcanic cinder and akadama for good drainage and in three weeks new growth started to come out. Now living in Hawaii everything pretty much grow because the weather is the same all year round. Having a tropical room at 76 degrees is good but if you can somehow bring up the humidity even better. Good luck let us know how it goes.

A Hui Hou,
-Tim

ogie wrote:hi there..in our country the bongavilla are tought blants,defoliate it so it wont stress the plant further,if its dry spray a bit fungicide,but if you have powder root hormones it normally has fungicide with it already,once you plant it fpray it once every two or three days,just to keep it moist,NOT TO WET.hope it'll help,
regards,
ogie

thanks so much for this advice!~ should i completely defoliate it?or partially?....it seems like its alittle happier today and I just partially defoliated it.

bisjoe wrote:When you cut off the bad roots did you reduce the foliage at all? If not it's probably reacting to the reduced root mass, not enough to support the foliage. I have one that I took from 1 gallon nursery pot and pruned the roots, while chopping it from 24" to 6" and it's been outdoors at 50-70F for two months since, jut brought it in yesterday and it shows no signs of stress.

I was going to reduce some foliage last night but i was alittle weary of that at first so i figured i would wait it out and see if it perks up a bit....yup i think it was reacting to the reduced root mass.It scared me at first but to honest the tree doesnt even look too stressed now today I partially defoliated the tree and left some leaves on...

EdMerc wrote:Reduce the foliage as others have indicated. Then just leave it alone. What else can you do?

This is not the best time of year to be pulling off this type of procedure, but that's point is moot now. Just give it time to recover.

Oh, and don't be surprised of not much happens all fall/winter. I was convinced my bougie was dead for most of a year until it suddenly sprouted a new branch in spring.

Good luck,
Ed

Yup ive reduced some foliage and im keeping it in cool shade in my tropical room....it seems like its still healthy and with being defoliated it seems happier^^ thanks

Hawaiian77 wrote:Howzit Jie,

I wouldn't worry about it to much. Bougies are really tuff and will survive. Just to give you an idea when I collected this bougie I had pruned back hard the roots and branches planted it in volcanic cinder and akadama for good drainage and in three weeks new growth started to come out. Now living in Hawaii everything pretty much grow because the weather is the same all year round. Having a tropical room at 76 degrees is good but if you can somehow bring up the humidity even better. Good luck let us know how it goes.

A Hui Hou,
-Tim

With all of this wonderful helpful advice Im not worried as I was before Yeh bougies are real tough if their conditions are right^^ My little bougie i made a year or two ago was very stressed and did not have good root system or branching...but later on it recovered and grew a little bud that now is the apex^^ some branches died back but then later they grew back out and it looks stronger.... This bougie with the problem now is a variegated species so I was really getting nervous when i saw the bad soil and roots...but today it seems happier and I partially defoliated it^^ by the way= your bougie in this pic has great taper! and branching wow I cant wait to see it when the branches mature.hehe

Howzit Jie,

I want to show you a bougie that I had completely defoliated to reduce the size of the leaves.

A Hui Hou,
-Tim

everything looks good on my bougie!~ hehe should i put it in filtered morning sun to pop the buds open?or keep it in shade a week or two longer? the cambium is still green and the small young bottom branch has not lost a single leaf!~ hehe........im trying to upload some pics but my camera is out of batteries thanks so much for the advice!

jie

杰遨-jie wrote:everything looks good on my bougie!~ hehe should i put it in filtered morning sun to pop the buds open?or keep it in shade a week or two longer? the cambium is still green and the small young bottom branch has not lost a single leaf!~ hehe........im trying to upload some pics but my camera is out of batteries thanks so much for the advice!

jie

Give it as much sun as you can..... they love it. If possible, post a picture of it.

A Hui Hou,
-Tim