JTGJr25

Hi all,

I have been working on a trident maple group for a couple years now and I have yet to get the planting positioned the way I want. I am keeping the group in my garage where they receive almost no light but because of the warmer temps we've been getting the buds are swelling and it seems they could pop any day now. My question is, I want to re-pot them this year but should I do it now before the buds pop or will it be okay until spring hits?

Thanks!

Tom

Dav4

The best time for any re-pot/rootwork is just as the tree is breaking dormancy and the buds start to swell. For me in southern New England, that's usually end of April. Being in southern Jersey, you'll be doing it sooner then me by a week or two, I would think.

Dave

Mattbonsai

Hi Tom, I'm not entirely sure about your climate, but I've been told by people at my local society that re-potting is perfectly fine any time after christmas, as long as the trees are kept sheltered until spring, such as in a shed or garage, here's another thread that may be of help: Repotting Confusion

-Matt-

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Dav4

Winters here in the Northeastern part of North America are very long and cold. Where I live, we get our first frost in early October and can get frost as late as mid May. Granted, Tom lives further south then me and is probably a USDA zone higher, but I'll bet the winter can linger even down there. Trident roots are also particularly susceptible to freeze damage, and I've lost several tridents to the winter cold and root rot. Unless you have a heated greenhouse to store the tree in and get it growing immediately post re-pot, I think the risk of re-potting so soon is too great. Just my opinion.

Dave

JTGJr25

I have to agree with Dave. Even though the weather here has been quite mild for this time of year, the temps still dip below freezing even in early spring. I'm going to try to wait it out as long as possible before I re-pot. I'm hoping that with the lack of light in my garage that the buds wont pop for a little while longer. Once I do re-pot, I'll keep it in my garage for a week or two before bringing it outside.

As for my USDA zone I'm borderline 6 and 7. I think I'm officially 7 though.

Thanks for all the replies!

Tom

Dav4

The lack of light in the garage has no bearing on the timing of bud break...its all soil temperature dependant. Don't forget, deciduous trees don't have leaves until they start to grow after waking from dormancy. Therefore photoperiod is not important. The trick is keeping the temps in the garage as cold as possible as long as possible. I ventilate my garage on sunny, late winter days, sometimes leaving the doors open at night, as well. If I can keep my maples dormant through most of March, I'll take them out of the garage (they've been in there, mulched, since November) and mulch them into my garden. This allows them to wake up more or less when the frost risk is almost past. If they actually leaf out while in storage, then they need to be protected/moved in and out of the garage into May...yuk!

Dave

JTGJr25

Thanks for all the input guys. After today the temps here are dropping so I believe they should be ok for a little while longer. I'll try the ventilation idea but I'm afraid I'll forget to shut the door. Once the buds do pop it will still be ok to repot, correct? I mean as soon as they show signs of opening.

Tom

Dav4

The perfect time to re-pot is just before the leaves open. You've got some leeway here, meaning you can re-pot a little sooner, at the first hint of bud swelling, and any time after that up until just after the leaves have opened. The further along the tree in its spring growth spurt, the greater the risk when messing with the roots. Having said that, tridents are tough, resilient trees...I've transplanted and re-potted tridents in full leaf and they survived, but they were definitely shocked for most of the season.

I don't think you need to worry too much about leaving the doors open, as long as the pots are mulched and the trees are still dormant. The temps in my garage have fallen to 10F this winter. It happens every year...the trees do fine. At this time of year, barring extremely cold weather, I'd leave the doors open all the time if I didn't have neighborhood cats wanting to use the mulch as litter.

Dave

Phil

I leave my trees in the garage also during the winter months. However, I've never had the need to leave the door open as it remains quite cold without doing so. If I were to do such a thing I would more than likely find my lawnmower and snowblower missing the next day! I've already had two snowblowers stolen and this is considered a very good neighborhood. Case in point being...there is no such thing as a good neighborhood!

As far as using any mulch I never found the need to do so. I do however use some on the trees that I have planted in the ground to keep them somewhat protected from the winter winds.

~Phil

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JTGJr25

Well because you guys said that the buds popping has everything to do with soil temp, I took all of my trees that are in the garage off the "shelf" they were sitting on and put them on the concrete floor. I'm hoping this will keep the soil cooler than on the shelf and stop them from breaking dormancy to soon.

Tom