Jim, since you've not gotten any joy with this, I thought I'd give it a
shot. As you know, podos are a problem. I have several small ones taken
from off-campus as saplings. They are doing ok. I also have a larger one
which came from a salvage dig on campus in mid-fall if memory serves (others
taken at the same time by me and others in our club did not survive the next
summer). After a year's rest, I worked the root base which was typical of
podos, a big thick bulging pad. It had been repotted twice but is still in
the original barrel bottom growing pot.

Since my yard is sunlight challenged, my guess is that for older podos you
should treat them as tropicals in that they should be worked when the soil
temperature is warm. Also, my older one has been in very course soil,
perlite and pine bark. It seems slow to recover after repotting but does
take off after a year or so. I'm in my second year with the latest
repotting and am getting good growth in spite of the high oak shade which is
my yard.

In summary, my guess is warm weather repotting, course soil, shade after
potting up for a long time and patience in working with them since they
don't seem to grow abundant roots. Let me know how yours turn out since we
see a lot of podos here and I'll probably be salvaging more.

By the way, Tom Brantley in Ocala salvaged quite a number from a campus
construction site recently. You might see what he's doing with them and
what his success rate is.

Jay Beckenbach - Melrose, FL - Zone 8b/9a -

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Lewis ]
Sent: Friday, June 18, 2004 10:12 PM
Subject: Podocarpus


Tried to send this when the list was down, posted it on the
Gallery's Discussion and have had no responses. I'll try here.

I will have the opportunity to remove two promising large (3
feet) Podocarpus from a Central Florida yard over the
Christmas-New Year holidays.

I've had poor luck digging large Podocarpus.

I've always blamed it on the story that Podocarps don't like
people fiddling with their roots ("NEVER cut more than 20% of the
roots" is in book after book.) But then there was the article in
BT not too long ago showing very large Podocarps with root
systems literally chopped away when they were dug.

While at the Florida convention last month, I was told that the
secret is to cut "almost all" the foliage away, just leaving a
spot of green on each branch.

I'd like to hear from folks with EXPERIENCE with these trees
who'd like to chime in here. These two plants are very nice
potential bonsai. I'd like to get them safely out.

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