It’s been a year since I did much with this tree. I have come to appreciate this one.. There’s a tapering structure to the tree, with a nice array of branches. The biggest flaw is the scarring from my own previous failures in wire management. And it could do with some thicker foliage. I can’t do much about the scars, but I’m having a lot of success in leaf growth with perlite. So let’s try that.
First, the starting point in November 2023, with the inset from 12 months earlier.
The general hypothesis is the prior soil isn’t promoting rich root growth. So the plan is get it out of the pot, clean up the roots, pack it with a new soil mix and some fertilizer, and let it grow. It’s slightly late in spring for this, but…¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Not making the change loses the year.
After a bunch of work cleaning up the roots, I have them fitting to the pot.
In with the soil, in with the fertilizer, not much actual pruning.
As I said, this is a lovely tree with some very nice tapering. I think there’s more opportunity to trim the upper branches to compactify and build the tapering. I might come back to that in autumn. In the meantime, let’s see how it takes to the new soil.