Need some advice on a Wisteria Frutescens repot

[cheap_walmart_art]

I have a Wisteria Frutescens in major need of a repot. Had some badly yellowing leaves last year that I thought may have been fungal issues, but now looking at the roots and seeing that water just hangs out on the surface of the soil, my suspicion is that this thing is majorly rootbound and not able to drink enough. I can't even pop it out of the pot to check, I'll have to cut around the outside edges this weekend to get it out. As you can see, there is a major ball of tangled roots that sits above the top of the soil. Can someone give me advice on what sort of goal I should set with this repot? Would it be wise to do major root work this year and try to get that ugly mass sorted out, or would I be looking at just trying to remove 30% or so of root volume and then reducing again next year or the year after? I'd like to do some root work and then get it back into the same pot as I like how it looks.

The Wisteria as it stands:


Ugly root mass:

 

[Bonsai Nut]

I'm not ignoring you... I just don't have any experience with the species.

 

[0soyoung]

Cutting around the perimeter to separate the roots from the pot wall is pretty normal in bonsai. With a deep pot l sometimes use a keyhole saw as the blade is pretty stiff. I've tried hacksaw blades, but the often bend when I try to jam them down the interface. I've also found that smacking the pot with a rubber mallet will loosen the contact enough that it can be popped out of the pot. If it has buds swelling AND you see some new white growth tips, then you are good to go and you can be quite aggressive combing out and pruning the roots. Lacking growing white tips, you're best to just sit it back into the pot until you do see some.

 

[cheap_walmart_art]

I'm not ignoring you... I just don't have any experience with the species.

Haha, no worries.

 

[cheap_walmart_art]

Cutting around the perimeter to separate the roots from the pot wall is pretty normal in bonsai. With a deep pot l sometimes use a keyhole saw as the blade is pretty stiff. I've tried hacksaw blades, but the often bend when I try to jam them down the interface. I've also found that smacking the pot with a rubber mallet will loosen the contact enough that it can be popped out of the pot. If it has buds swelling AND you see some new white growth tips, then you are good to go and you can be quite aggressive combing out and pruning the roots. Lacking growing white tips, you're best to just sit it back into the pot until you do see some.

Any ideas about what to do with that mass on top of the soil? Just try to follow it out and see how much feeder root is on each thick surface root? I'd love to work this down to a prettier root base over time.

 

[0soyoung]

Standard repotting work, straightening out roots. Once you are into it you will be able to see which are the worst offenders - long and wrapping roots. You simply try to unsnarl them and cut the worst offenders back to a point where what remains is pretty much radially directed. Pretty much the same thing as you do with any angiosperm (so-called 'deciduous') tree.

Be forewarned though that this sort of root mess seems to be inherent with wisteria in my experience. I'm not saying that you shouldn't try, just that you shouldn't get discouraged when you find it to be just about as much of a mess in another couple of years, or so. At least this is how mine has behaved.

 

[coachspinks]

Standard repotting work, straightening out roots. Once you are into it you will be able to see which are the worst offenders - long and wrapping roots. You simply try to unsnarl them and cut the worst offenders back to a point where what remains is pretty much radially directed. Pretty much the same thing as you do with any angiosperm (so-called 'deciduous') tree.

Be forewarned though that this sort of root mess seems to be inherent with wisteria in my experience. I'm not saying that you shouldn't try, just that you shouldn't get discouraged when you find it to be just about as much of a mess in another couple of years, or so. At least this is how mine has behaved.

What Osoyoung says and I will add....these are tough and can take abuse. I don't mind getting aggressive with wisteria.

 

[cheap_walmart_art]

I repotted the wisteria today and did some root work removing some of that ugly ball in previous posts. I was happy to find it had a ton of feeder roots, but they were definitely filling up the pot!



I did a lot of root combing using both a rake and a hook. I tried to keep as much feeder root as possible while removing the worst of the thick surface root offenders.




By this point I estimate I've removed 40% of the root ball and the rest of the mass was solid. I left one straight root coming out from the trunk. I am hoping with subsequent repots I can tease out a radial nebari, though that may not happen with this piece of material. If nothing else I definitely improved the drainage and I got rid of most of that surface root mess that I though was ugly.



Now to wait and find out what happens. The buds are swelling for sure and I'm fairly certain I left plenty of rootmass to survive on. I heard a spring repot may affect flower formation so we will see. My main goal here was to get more reliable drainage and water uptake and hopefully will help with the leaf yellowing problem I saw all last summer.

 

[coachspinks]

I think you should be in great shape. Mine was knocked over shortly after repotting last year and the roots baked for several hours. I put back in its pot, added mix and it didn't miss a beat. In a couple of weeks feed it a lot.