Internet Bonsai Club
Would you like to react to this message? Create an account in a few clicks or log in to continue.

The unique, "resistant" nature of Loropetalums towards rootwork/re-pots.....anyone shed some light for a guy who's killed a dozen Loro's?

Go down

The unique, "resistant" nature of Loropetalums towards rootwork/re-pots.....anyone shed some light for a guy who's killed a dozen Loro's? Empty The unique, "resistant" nature of Loropetalums towards rootwork/re-pots.....anyone shed some light for a guy who's killed a dozen Loro's?

Post  Bougies!!1!1!!! :) Sat Oct 03, 2020 2:13 pm

I can see this forum is all but defunct, very little activity, however I've found plenty of old pivotal threads here in the past so am gonna post here anyway (have a long-running thread on b.nut actually it's >2yr old on this subject, sadly)

So......Why can't I get Loropetalums to conform to a "bonsai rootplate"? I started with a hedgerow collecting mature ones, failing one after another and not sure what the problem was, I got to the last one of the hedgerow - the nicest one (left for last) - and instead of collecting it I "2-stepped" it, meaning I trunk-chopped it and cut its roots while in-ground and left it for well over a year to recover, I collected it in spring of this year - things seemed great til the 3rd flush - then it wimped-out and died.

I subsequently began buying $11 nursery-plant Loropetalums, trying to get one even-if it meant starting from nursery-stock, and have gotten maybe 10 so far, I can get them to a 3rd flush but never beyond that and I've tried everything from hardly touching roots/shoots to moderate prunings (of roots and/or shoots), I've done varied aftercare regimens, I don't know WTH to do especially when I've had a few that've gone to that 3rd flush and they're looking great but then die (to be clear, I don't start fertilizing/pruning/moving-to-sun when it hits flush-#2 or anything, these are always kept in an area that gets some filtered sun but mostly indirect sun, have tried even shadier setups as well including my screen patio, for light they seem to like the 'middle' level but again I can't get past 3 flushes before they sputter-out :/

Anyone shed some light on this? Please don't bother replying w/ advice on trees-in-general, I'm experienced and this is a loropetalum specific issue I'm hoping to resolve that b.nut couldn't help with (though there are people there that'd like "the answer" to this....) Right now I've got 2 more of the nursery ones, gonna go do a re-pot of one right now, but my plan is that at least one of them is gonna get the GENTLEST "slip-potting" into a root-maker pot so I can grow a crazy-dense rootplate as I suspect that fine rooting right-beneath the trunk-base is the issue with them, I suspect that once grown for 1-2yr in a colander/rootmaker that these will tolerate some root-pruning so will be experimenting with these last two (home depot seems to be getting-rid of their last specimen am actually stoked to have found my thickest $11 Loro there the other day, nearly 2x the girth of all the other loro's I've bought from them this summer!!)

Thanks a ton for any advice, if a Loro-head can comment/shed insight on why they're so resistant to rootwork/collection/transplants, they remind me of the Southern Live Oaks that are ubiquitous in my area, all over and resilient and tolerate heavy trunk-chops, will back-bud like crazy, but try collecting one - even 2-step collections - and it's a fail (I've got a whole army of seedlings growing, you can collect those, although they grow surprisingly slow I mean I collected scores early in the summer so I'd have stock-to-share in years but, half a year later, they're mostly all still <6" and not lengthening or ramifying at all just stunted/hibernating, alive but no vegetative growth, real annoying....can say "Well they want huge taproots" but that wouldn't apply to Loro's!) Will most certainly come update this thread, for posterity, if(WHEN!) I crack the code on transplanting Loro's as I can tell I'm not gonna stop trying til I've got one to conform for bonsai!!!
Bougies!!1!1!!! :)
Bougies!!1!1!!! :)
Member


Back to top Go down

Back to top

- Similar topics

 
Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum