Recently, I posted several photgraphs of a black pine I have on the
gallery. Several of you remarked on its relative lack of health and had
several suggestions on how to proceed with improving its health.
Following those recommendations, I repotted it yesterday.
I have the following observations and questions. I was hoping someone
with more experience than I on black pines could speculate on whether what
I observed was root rot or something else?
There was a hard core of old jet black soil compacted under the base of
the tree.
I repotted it yesterday in a heavy gravel mix that I sifted out of
bonsai soil mix. It's 1/4 inch. I worked as much of the old soil out
as I could with a chopstick. There were many fine feeder roots, but
there were few immediately visble white roots, but the majority by far
were black some of which had exposed white sections along their length.
HERE'S THE RUB. The black roots did not fall off despite washing them
at times with a hard stream of water. I broke a few to see if I could
discern if they were rotted. They stretch a little, then snap and leave
a stark white end. If they were rotted, shouldn't they just break off
like dead brittle wood and shouldn't they be grey or some other color
than stark white? They were flexible, elastic in quality. I expected
them to be mush, like rotted wood lying in a forest.
The medium was a jet black potting mix. Is it possible the roots are
discolored because of that or is it root rot? Should have taken a
picture. They didn't stink at all. Smelled like fresh dirt.
In any event, I lightly misted the roots with a copper fungicide, put the
tree in a much larger pot, secured the tree so it can't move, watered
with Shultz's transplanting solution (diluted), put the tree on a
seedling mat and placed it under my 400 W metal halide fixture. There is
a humidifier a few feet from the tree that keeps humidity levels around
60%.
Thoughts?
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