treebeard55

The decline continued, and spread. The whole tree is dead.

After discussing the situation with Andy Smith and John Kirby, I am satisfied that I now know why. I repotted when the tree was still dormant, and it stayed dormant for over a month after repotting.

Andy told me that in his experience, ponderosas that are collected while still dormant are a lot more likely to die on him. Trees that have already broken dormancy do much better when collected, apparently since the roots can immediately start re-establishing themselves.

I repotted in March,which is when John Kirby repots his ponderosas. But, I missed something in his posts on BT. John overwinters his trees in an unheated poly house, and by March they're already coming out of dormancy, starting to break their spring buds.

Lesson learned. I post this in case the information might help someone else avoid the same sort of loss.

__________________
Treebeard 55
Steve Moore
http://hoosierbonsai.blogspot.com

The most important bonsai tool is your brain.