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lotstoplant

Inherited Umbrella Tree with new home

Lotstoplant
9 years ago

Hello to all!
I inherited this plant/tree with our new home and though I am in no way an expert, I can be sure it needs repotting. I can almost be sure it could use some pruning too. Any suggestions? I am open to any suggestions you may have.
Thank you, Lotstoplant

Comments (9)

  • lauraeli_
    9 years ago

    Wow. Great tree...

    Repotting? First i am going to suggest you enlist the help of 5 or more strong, burly men. Good luck (y)

  • christine1950
    9 years ago

    Ditto to what Laura said, it truly needs a bigger pot with new soil, I'm sure Al & others will be along with great advice for you. I'd have a pizza & beer party and invite all the guys you know, beer after the tree is re-potted LOL, show us the after pics !!!
    Christine

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    9 years ago

    I almost didn't look at this, but so glad I did - what a tree! It's amazing! And what a house! The info here should be helpful.

  • Lotstoplant
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thank you so much for the responses and I found lots of great information in the link that Purpleinopp left for me. For Christine1950...well, we only had my husband and I to accomplish this great task but we did have a beer afterwards. LOL. We really tried to do a total repot but the soil in the pot was rock hard even after soaking the entire base of the plant/root ball in water for over 1 hour. We did however soak a bunch of the old stuff off and used a tree blend potting soil I bought at a nursery in Taos, NM. Some history on this tree is that it was given to the Mother of the previous owner of this house >20 years ago and has been given just basic watering for about the last 12 years after she gave it to her daughter. Yes this was a very difficult and time consuming task to repot it but I feel it was worth it and I am guessing that I will probably have to do this again sooner than later to try to be rid of the old clay-like soil binding the root system. They also left us a beautiful jade tree that we followed suit with the repotting . Wow...when will I resume unpacking? Thank you again all of you. How nice to have finally found an on-line community so responsive.

  • Lotstoplant
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    This is the jade tree after repotting. Again...a plant that I know nothing about but will learn. I love house plants but I am still quite an amateur at the nitty gritty of it unfortunately. I hope to learn what it takes to be a conscientious plant owner and hopefully contributor to this community. Thanks again All!

  • christine1950
    9 years ago

    Lotstoplant, it looks 100% better, you & hubby did a great job re-potting it and the jade, your off to a great start. I cant imagine my life without my plants, its good for the soul & mind....Now you can start looking for plants that catch your eye :>)
    Christine

  • Joe1980
    9 years ago

    Your jade appears to have been receiving too little light, and would stand to benefit being acclimated slowly to more direct sun. I won't go too deep into it, but if you'd like to trim it up, and have it thrive, I'd recommend creating a thread on it over in the cacti & succulent forum. The big thing though, is that they are not fond of wet soil and/or overwatering, and they enjoy lots of light.

    Joe

  • Lotstoplant
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thank you Christine, your words are encouraging.
    Joe, I will take your advice and with that.........I will repot with the recommended soil I read about under "Jade dropping leaves". You guys are awesome and I will keep returning to the drawing board until I get it right! This could be a great new hobby, lots to learn. Thanks again.

  • tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
    9 years ago

    You don't need to be particularly careful about the roots. You can cut off the bottom 1/3-1/2 of the roots, then prune of any large offending roots - those would be roots growing back toward the interior of the root mass, crossing/encircling/girdling roots, j-hooked roots, roots growing straight up or straight down. The main thing is keeping all the root mass constantly wet as you work. The main hit roots take during a repot is the fine roots being killed because they dry out.

    You would be quite surprised at how much of the plants genetic vigor is able to manifest itself when the limitations imposed by root congestion are removed.

    Another thread on maintaining woody material in containers over the long term. Follow the link.

    Al

    Here is a link that might be useful: Click me and I'll take you there!

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